Essay on The Chief in One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

Hospitals are meant to help some people heal physically and others mentally. In the novel One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey published in 1962, readers are introduced to a mental hospital that has goals that do not align with helping people. Within the hospital, characters with varied personalities and opinions are intermixed with three main characters playing specific roles with supporting characters close by. With the characters’ motivations, themes develop such as the emasculation of the men in the hospital by an oppressive nurse. Symbols, such as laughter and the “combine”, are also pertinent to themes as the readers watch the men transitioning from being oppressed to being able to stand up for themselves causing change in hospital policy.

The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is about the power structure of a mental ward from the perspective of a patient, Bromden. The story takes place during the 1950's in Oregon. Many of the patients on the ward are not necessarily insane however do not fit in with pre established societal norms and have chosen a life away from these norms. The men who are voluntary have given in to the staff and follow them like sheep, however, the men who are committed need controlling according to society so they were sent to the ward. The head nurse, Nurse Rached, of the ward keeps control using her staff that has been picked out over years of meticulous selection. The staff under Rached's orders keep control of the patients

Second in a discussion of power are the women associated with the patients. The supervisor at the hospital is associated with the patients by controlling who is employed to take care of the patients. Nurse Ratched and the supervisor served in the Army together as nurses. They are still very close and have a good relationship. Because of this relationship, Nurse Ratched’s employment is secured and others won’t stand up to her for fear of losing their own jobs. Harding states “In this hospital, the doctor doesn’t hold the power of hiring and firing. That power goes to the supervisor and the supervisor is a woman, a dear old friend of Miss Ratched’s” (61). The receptionist on the ward is Nurse Ratched’s neighbor

Bromden describes Nurse Ratched as a machine due to her strict, mechanical way she runs the entire ward. She imposes a rigid schedule that she is reluctant to change. Even though McMurphy received a majority vote, 21 out of 40, to change the TV schedule, Nurse Ratched disregards the last vote because it happened after “the meeting [is] closed” (Kesey, 124). Bromden views the fog as just another machine in the asylum. Just like the other machines, it's aim is to control the patients and destroy the natural impulses. In the case of the fog machine, it is to destroy the urge to seek out

In the beginning of the novel, Nurse Ratched undoubtedly dominates the control of the mental hospital. Chief’s profound description of Nurse Ratched reveals he feels threatened by her. Chief insists that “she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor”(5) indicating he feels figuratively smaller than Nurse Ratched. He also details her as a stiff, calculated, and precise like a machine running the whole facility. Chief Bromden feels so impotent under her ruling, that he hallucinates a fog machine and keeps everyone satisfied under her power. The fog is a reoccurring symbol in the novel that can represent Chief’s helplessness: “One of these days I'll quit straining and let myself go completely, lose myself

Each of the characters at the hospital in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has a routine each day that Nurse Ratched likes to keep working as smooth as possible. Her control over the patients is best displayed in the machinery on the ward, as while the patients are working throughout the day, Chief’s narration explains to readers how the Nurse feels about something going wrong. Chief tells us that “big nurse gets annoyed when something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision made machine.” (28) When Chief describes the nurses’ outfit to us, he is really saying that the nurse likes her ward to run like a machine. This machine is precise, and keeps the patients in check. By describing this early in the story, Ken Kesey wants readers to know about the nurse’s control, and how she likes the ward. He wants readers to see this control, and uses the mechanical imagery in order to convey it. Kesey shows readers the Nurse’s control through over the patients through mechanical imagery, but he also uses it to show readers a larger message that is displayed at two different moments in the story. They involve Chief and McMurphy, and their encounters with the control panel. Chief consistently describes the Nurse at the control panel through mechanical imagery, telling the readers that she is constantly fiddling with the dials on it, as

As a reader, one becomes so caught up with the patients being caged up, that one almost forgets about the role and character of Taber. Although, he does not appear as much as the others, he does enhance the novel. His existence in the book gives insight to the reader about what is to come in the strict, gloomy world Nurse Ratched has created. In Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Maxwell Taber’s characterization as a parallel and foreshadowing figure to McMurphy contributes to the themes of power and authority.

The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.

Character Analysis: Chief Bromden - The narrator/patient of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden is the son of the chief of the Columbia Indians and a white woman. Also, He suffers from paranoia and hallucinations, and received several electroshock treatments for ten years. In the novel, Chief Bromden’s physical characteristics are described as a huge man in society.

Power and control are the central ideas of Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There are examples of physical, authoritative and mechanical power in the novel, as well as cases of self-control, and control over others. Nurse Ratched is the ultimate example of authoritative power and control over others but R.P. McMurphy refuses to acknowledge the Nurse’s power, and encourages others to challenge the status quo. The other patients begin powerless, but with McMurphy’s help, learn to control their own lives. Many symbols are also used to represent power and control in the book, such as the ‘Combine’, ‘fog’, and the imagery of machines.

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a creation of the socio-cultural context of his time. Social and cultural values, attitudes and beliefs informed his invited reading of his text.

Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950's Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50's, 60's where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting' & its significance towards Ken Kesey's "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, is a suspenseful composition with an undertone theme of the fact that society is controlled and that the physical perception does not determine the stature of a person. The protagonist, Chief Bromden, is a perfect example of a victim of this theme. Chief Bromden, immaturely nicknamed “Chief Broom” because the aides (or black boys) make him sweep the halls, narrates the story. Although he says that he is telling the story about “the hospital, and her, and the guys—and about McMurphy,” he is showing us the real view of people as opposed to the character they try to portray. When the novel begins, Bromden is paranoid, bullied, and surrounded much of the time by the fog that represents his want

The Combine is “a huge organization that aims to adjust the Outside as well as she has the Inside,” and the hospital only exists as an extension of the Combine to fix the mistakes that were produced by the machine. (Kesey 42) The Chief believes that Nurse Ratched, who runs the ward, is a tool of the machine to help oppress people into conforming with society.

Size, both physical and metaphorical, plays a large role in the misogynistic references in the ward. The Chief makes constant references to people’s size. However, size is relative. One cannot be big without someone else being small. When the nurse is in full control, the Chief sees her as “big as a tractor” (5). With her great size, Nurse Ratched is squashing the