Rationale: A man named Randle Mc Murphy is confined to a mental hospital for committing minor crimes. The ward is under the strict rule of the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is so obsessed with maintaining perfect order of the hospital that she will do anything, even torture and kill a patient if he seems to be highly disruptive. However, Mc Murphy starts revolting against the nurse by constantly making her lose her temper, and by promoting gambling to the other patients, and encouraging them to stand up for themselves. Truthfully, Mc Murphy genuinely cares about his fellow patients and the patients respect him for doing so. In this diary entry however, Nurse Ratched believes that the patients are being threatened by Mc Murphy, and …show more content…
During the first few days of his arrival, I assumed that he was a mere gambling fool who happened to stumble across this hospital. Even with his past arrests for assault, battery and gambling, he didn’t strike me as a serious danger. However, he proved to be a major threat to the ward after the first few weeks. Not only did he display unacceptable behavior towards myself and the staff, he has taken the habit of manipulating and abusing other patients. I have directed my full attention on Mc Murphy, and have constantly reminded him to behave himself. After yesterday’s events at the group meeting however, I believe that a more drastic measure must be taken towards containing patient Mc Murphy.
As can be seen from yesterday’s group meeting, Mc Murphy has threatened and intimidated the other patients to take his side. When Mc Murphy started a vote on being allowed to watch TV in the afternoon so that he could see what he wanted to, nearly half the patients simultaneously raised their hands in favor of the change, as if they were puppets being controlled. When I didn’t pass the vote because it violated the other patients’ rights, Mc Murphy and the patients who voted gathered in front of the blank TV and blocked it so that no one else could enjoy it. Such selfishness is not tolerated inside this ward.
I will tame Mc Murphy into becoming disciplined, no matter how long it
McMurphy has a gambling problem and the authorities at the ward insist he stop gambling. With McMurphy’s child-like behavior, he must get what he wants before he will listen. He continues to complain about the noise around him, “That damned radio. Boy. It’s been going ever since I come in this morning.
This sense of justice causes McMurphy to put his own self-preservation at the bottom of his list of importance, as Kesey writes, “—light arcs across, stiffens him, bridges him up off the table till nothing is down but his wrists and ankles and out around that crimped black rubber hose a sound like hooeee! And he’s frosted over completely with sparks” (Pg. 245). McMurphy stood up for the wellbeing of George and his fellow patients, and ultimately paid the price of numerous electro-shock therapy sessions. McMurphy put his well-being behind that of those in the facility because he knew that without him, the patients would not have stood up for themselves. McMurphy’s influence through his search for justice prompted an overall positive change for the
All of the patients on the ward presume that Mcmurphy
And you want to take that away from them. We like to hear suggestions and requests whenever we can, but I should think you might at least give some thought to others before you make your requests” (Kesey 106). This interaction shows how Nurse Ratched can easily manipulate a conversation into a respect battle. She uses every fault a patient has against them, and makes them believe it is all because of what they were admitted for. This further supports how Ratched abuses her power as she then turns to more physical terms of manipulation over the patients.
McMurphy was able to defy authority and break down the ward’s structure. He knew that standing up to Nurse Ratched would help all of the patients. “She must be conquered before the men can evolve into psychologically healthy individuals. McMurphy, as the embodiment of the Hero, accomplishes that task for them, leading to the liberation of Chief Broom, Harding, and the other men who gain strength from his sacrifice and flee on the trail that McMurphy blazes for them. In his conquest of the Shadow, he has provided the men a rite of passage into personal power and individuation that they obviously skipped in the normal course of development.
Nurse Ratched was very controlling and wanted complete power. This caused many of the patients to rebel and break loose from her control. McMurphy lead the ward in this uprising. From brushing his teeth too early to sneaking prostitutes into the ward, he shows Nurse Ratched that she cannot rule him. This story reminded me of Malala Yousafzai and her retaliation against the Taliban.
This shows how little significance they show the ward members. Instead of focusing on their recovery to become apart of society; there is a deeper concern for gaining power and exploiting the ill to become untouchable. The process of manipulating the mentally ill will cause inhibition towards recuperation instead of rehabilitation. McMurphy causes change within men on the ward because of his goal to allow the inmates to pursue happiness. The men don’t change under nurse Ratched’s control because her primary goal is to use manipulation to exert dominance for
In the drama film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, Patrick McMurphy was moved from a prison farm to a mental institution to get evaluated for his erratic behavior. Upon being transported to the institution, all his assumptions about his new home were completely wrong. The head nurse, Nurse Ratched, has the whole hospital under her control with little to no freedom for the patients. All the inmates at the institution go through rigorous training to become obedient to Nurse Ratched and her strict schedule and rules. The institution was a very controlled environment with the patients having no control over their own life’s while there.
Throughout the beginning of the novel it is evident that some characters over use their powers, one of these characters being Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched uses her position in the ward to take advantage of the patients and make sure that they adhere to everyone of her daunting commands. Nurse Ratched “tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine” (Kesey 28) because she has been on the ward for so long that when something doesn 't go according to her plan, she starts to get mad and will often try to use her power to come down on the patient 's. Nurse Ratched is in control of the whole ward and when someone does something that isn 't in her manuscript she gets irritated. The ward will be run her way and only her way, “ under her rule the ward inside is almost completely adjusted to surroundings” (Kesey 28).
The patients dont question his violence with Nurse Ratched because no one has ever standed up to her. Nurse ratched is the reason they dont have confidence in themselves. As McMurphy stays longer, the other patients become more aware as to what is happening. Before McMurphy came in the ward the men believed everything that was done to them was for their own good Nurse Ratched was able to manipulate the men and had full power to boss them around. After McMurphy came he was able to show them that Nurse Ratched uses their weakness against them and was just a manipulator.
(Kesey, 216). In this quote, it shows that McMurphy shows no sign of fear when he is confronting Sam. Additionally, Sam is clearly caught off guard when McMurphy confronts him, therefore suggesting to the readers that he is more scared of McMurphy than he is of other patients. Furthermore, due to the fact that McMurphy was brave enough to confront the aide, it shows that he has enough power to be able to stand up against him without getting punished for doing so. In short, McMurphy demonstrates his power clearly by confronting the aide of Nurse Ratched, someone that is
The way he doesn’t take things seriously shows that he most likely believes that he is better than everyone else on the ward, although he is one of the only ones committed. When the patients get to visit the pool, McMurphy meets a patient from the Disturbed ward who he can relate to because he is also committed. The patient was picked up for something trivial, but has been there for “eight years and eight months” (171). After realizing that being committed meant that how long he stays is up to the head nurse and doctor, McMurphy’s entire demeanor changes from rebellious to submissive. He finished two months on the work farm and only had four more months until he would be released.
By weakening McMurphy’s power in the ward, she creates an environment where can continue to thrive in her power through the systems she has set in place. However, Nurse Ratched’s plan does not succeed and McMurphy is allowed to proceed with his fishing trip. He continues to undermine the nurse’s authority to the point where he physically assults her after she blames Billy’s death on him. His actions give Nurse Ratched an opportunity to give him the ultimate punishment, a
His rebellious and free mind makes the patients open their eyes and see how the have been suppressed. His appearance is a breath of fresh air and a look into the outside world for the patients. This clearly weakens Nurse Ratched’s powers, and she sees him as a large threat. One way or another, McMurphy tends to instigate changes of scenery. He manages to move everyone away from her music and watchful eye into the old tube room.
At the end, the protagonist is surgically operated to make him mentally deranged. The nurse and the department were certain that McMurphy was faking insanity, but they agreed that he was dangerous. The nurse, in spite of discharging him, kept him on the premises to undo the wave of excitement he brought to the asylum