One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Mcmurphy Transformation

McMurphy had been close to breaking down, evident in Chief’s description, “He looked sick and terribly tired,” and Harding’s description, “It was us that has been making him go on for weeks, keeping him standing long after his feet and legs have given out, weeks of making him wink and grin and laugh” (318). McMurphy breaking down would have destroyed what he had worked so hard for, so before he broke, his golden image, his ideas had to be preserved through his death. Chief also says that what happened would have happened and that McMurphy, “Would have had to come back” (310), and that, “he could no more have sat around outside the hospital, playing poker in Carson City or Reno or someplace, and let the Big Nurse have the last move and get the last play, than he could have let her get by it rough under her nose. It was like he’d signed on for the whole game and there wasn’t any way of him breaking his contract.” The fact that McMurphy would have come back no matter what shows that his sacrifice was meant to happen, something that was unavoidable.

Chief is a metal unstable patient, who in the beginning of the story is on a lot of medication. Chief on the other hand is not being himself. By not talking or responding to any nores around him, he made everyone believe he was deaf and mute. “….I know now there is no real help against her or her Combine. McMurphy can’t help any more

Chief rushes to McMurphy’s bed to tell him he’s ready to

It was clear from the beginning of the novel, Chief suffers from hallucinations and most likely has some sort of mental issue. It was also indicated that the main authority figure in the psychiatric ward was Nurse

Ken Kesey’s comic novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, takes place in an all-male psychiatric ward. The head of the ward, Big Nurse Ratched, is female. Kesey explores the power-struggle that takes place when the characters challenge gender dynamics in this environment. One newly-arrived patient, McMurphy, leads the men against the Big Nurse. The story is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a patient who learns from McMurphy and fights for his freedom.

The Beat Generation of the 1950’s and early 1960’s encouraged a new lifestyle for young Americans striving for individualism and freedom, which included rock and roll music, long hair, relaxed style attire, vegetarianism, and experimenting with drugs (“Beat Movement”). Many young Americans of this era wanted to experiment with new social and cultural concepts, rebelling against “normal” American life. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, portrays the gruesomeness of conformity through the lives of patients in one of the asylum’s wards. The novel shows how the patients are confined to strict rules and limited freedom because of Nurse Ratched’s power.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb.

He is a normal being of society and is not insane. Just as Chief finished his dose of Electroshock Therapy ,or EST, he says “And when the fog was finally swept from my head it seemed like I’d just come after a long, deep dive, breaking the surface after being under water a hundred years”(289). Here Kesey conveys that even though living under the comfort of the fog does seem applicable to many, it is in fact a rather dreadful living situation. Chief is now “cured” and can at last see the reality of life. Being under water represents how Chief was under the influence of authority over his own ideas.

The main characters of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest have very distinct and different traits that in return make the novel the classic that it is today. One of the main characters is Chief Bromden. He is basically narrator of the book. Chief Bromden is the son of the chief of the Columbia Indians and his wife is a white woman. He has suffered from paranoia and hallucinations, has endured many electroshock treatments, and has been in the hospital for ten years, the longest patient to ever be in the hospital.

Social Conformity in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest “He Who Marches Out Of Step Hears Another Drum” (Kesey 154). In this modern world, to come to terms with society is to conform to its standards. When a person does not fit the standard mold of a society, they are scrutinized for their divergence.

Ken Kesey uses his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to describe the lives of patients in a mental institution, and their struggle to overcome the oppressive authority under which they are living. Told from the point of view of a supposedly mute schizophrenic, the novel also shines a light on the many disorders present in the patients, as well as how their illnesses affect their lives during a time when little known about these disorders, and when patients living with these illnesses were seen as an extreme threat. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the novel, has many mental illnesses, but he learns to accept himself and embrace his differences. Through the heroism introduced through Randle McMurphy, Chief becomes confident in himself, and is ultimately able to escape from the toxic environment Nurse Ratched has created on the ward. Chief has many disorders including schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, in addition to these illnesses, he pretends to be deaf and dumb.

“Drag us out of the fog” is Kesey quite literally stating how McMurphey is the rule-breaker, the bull in the china shop, the one that is going to free the others from the grip of the Big Nurse’s iron

In the novel, Kesey employs many characters, each with unique features. For example, Dale Harding, one of the protagonists in the story, was described as, “... a flat, nervous man ...” (Kesey 20) and in one of the group discussion lead by Nurse Ratched, he was reported of saying

Everyone Agree? Perfect. "Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak" (Charles de Gaulle). This idea is reflected in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, where it is shown how authority becomes more powerful by abusing the silence of the people.

He also takes all of the patients out on a fishing trip, and one night he turns her whole ward into a party room. These changes of setting help the patients of the ward escape some of Nurse Ratched’s domination. In the end, thanks to McMurphy, Chief is able to instigate a change of scenery for himself, and he escapes the ward