One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Essay
One Flew Over the Cuco's Nest Theme Analysis
Rebellion Against Authority and Conformism
The psychiatric ward where the novel takes place can be seen as a microcosm of society. Society is presented as a ruthlessly efficient machine (the Combine) that makes everyone conform to its narrow rules. All individuality is squeezed out of people, and the natural, joyful expressions of life are suppressed. In the hospital ward, the representative of society is the Big Nurse. She embodies order, efficiency, repression (including sexual repression), slavery and tyranny. She fulfills the need of society to somehow “repair” those who do not fit into its model so they can be sent back to take their places as cogs in the great machine. If they refuse or resist, they are destroyed by invasive, abusive treatments such as electro-shock therapy and brain surgery. …show more content…
This is the central conflict of the novel. McMurphy, who has moved around a lot during his life, taking many jobs, never marrying, and living by his wits, has managed to escape the corroding influence of the Combine. He is ideally suited to get the men in the ward to see what they have lost, and to help them recover it. McMurphy’s efforts to encourage freedom and spontaneity in the men and to defeat the Big Nurse and all she stands for, reaches two grand climaxes in the novel. The first of these is the fishing trip, in which the men rediscover their own power in a natural environment. The second is the Bacchanalian revel at night in the ward, when all the repressive rules of the Combine are flouted in a drunken
Rebellion Against Authority and Conformism
The psychiatric ward where the novel takes place can be seen as a microcosm of society. Society is presented as a ruthlessly efficient machine (the Combine) that makes everyone conform to its narrow rules. All individuality is squeezed out of people, and the natural, joyful expressions of life are suppressed. In the hospital ward, the representative of society is the Big Nurse. She embodies order, efficiency, repression (including sexual repression), slavery and tyranny. She fulfills the need of society to somehow “repair” those who do not fit into its model so they can be sent back to take their places as cogs in the great machine. If they refuse or resist, they are destroyed by invasive, abusive treatments such as electro-shock therapy and brain surgery. …show more content…
This is the central conflict of the novel. McMurphy, who has moved around a lot during his life, taking many jobs, never marrying, and living by his wits, has managed to escape the corroding influence of the Combine. He is ideally suited to get the men in the ward to see what they have lost, and to help them recover it. McMurphy’s efforts to encourage freedom and spontaneity in the men and to defeat the Big Nurse and all she stands for, reaches two grand climaxes in the novel. The first of these is the fishing trip, in which the men rediscover their own power in a natural environment. The second is the Bacchanalian revel at night in the ward, when all the repressive rules of the Combine are flouted in a drunken