False Diagnosis of Insanity
The novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, presents individualism pitted against the vast depersonalization of industrial society. Ken Kesey has an extraordinary grasp of the challenges faced by modern civilization which he depicts in the novel. Inside the walls of a mental institution a tyranical system controls the actions and decisions of its patients. However, the hospital not only houses insane patients but the institution itself reveals to be irrational.
The novel is narrated by Chief Bromden a schizophrenic patient who pretends to be dumb and deaf , “They don't bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when [Bromden's] nearby because they think [he's] deaf and dumb. Everybody thinks so. [He's] cagey enough to fool them that much. If [his] being half Indian ever helped [him] in any way in [his] dirty life, it helped [him] being cagey, helped [him] all these years” (7). The real protagonist in the novel is McMurphy; McMurphy represents unbridled individuality and free expression intellectually. McMurphy rebels against the institutions strict rules, by conforming to Nurse Ratcheds power and hostility he is allowing the oppresive society to make him machinelike- inhuman and unindividualized. McMurphy manages to maintain his individuality and original sanity throughout most of the novel; when his rebellion is continuously provoked by Nurse Ratched, he is destroyed by modern society's machines of oppression.
The tyranical system McMurphy faces in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest provokes his obvious taste to be wild. McMurphy's sanity is symbolized by his size, strength, and confidence in questioning the institutions system. As in the scene depicted, McMurphy is challenging the authority of the hospitals staff , more sepcifically Nurse Ratched. Bromden narrates, “[Nurse Ratched] sounds like a teacher bawling out a student, so McMurphy hangs his head like a student and says in a voice sounds like he's about to cry, 'I can't do that, ma'am. I'm afraid some thief in the night boosted my clothes whilst I slept. I sleep awful sound on the mattresses you have here'” (42). Though McMurphy’s rebellion takes a light-hearted form, Nurse Ratched recognizes rebellion when she sees it.
McMurphy wants to encourage rebellion in other patients and set up protests in order to change the institutions regulations. When another patient tries to tell him that he is acting against ward-policy, McMurphy says, “'Tough luck'"-and peels three bananas right under the black boy's nose and eats one after the other, tells the boy that any time [he] want[s] one snuck outa the mess hall for [him], Sam, [...] just [has] [to] give [McMurphy] the word” (12). Nurse Ratched believes that McMurphy is a manipulator- in this conversation with another nurse the insanity of the institution is foregrounded. Chief Bromden says, "But it's the truth, even if it didn't happen," sets the reader up from the very beginning for a story in which one's perception of situations more accurately reflects the truth than the outward appearance of things. Only a sane man would question an irrational institution, but the act of questioning means his sanity will inevitably be compromised.
The theme false diagnosis of insanity suits McMurphy in this way because he questions the actions of the institution his sanity prevails. Throughout the novel the sane actions of men contrast with the insane actions of the institution. For example, at the end of Part II McMurphy organizes a protest against Nurse Ratched for not letting them watch the World Series. Nurse Ratched loses control and looks just as crazy as the patients of the institution as Bromden notes.
The staff discusses McMurphy, but only one person is willing to question whether he’s actually crazy or just really smart, “And the third boy mutters, "'Of course, the very nature of this plan could indicate that he [McMurphy] is simply a shrewd con man, and not mentally ill at all'” (32). McMurphy's propensity toward rebellion makes him not a violent man but, in the eyes of the staff, mentally ill. Yet even within that meeting, it becomes clear that the staff has something to lose if they admit that McMurphy isn't crazy. Bromden, at one point, thinks to himself, “You’re making sense, old man, a sense of your own. You’re not crazy the way they think.” “[C]razy the way they think,” however, is all that matters in this hospital. The authority figures decide who is sane and who is insane, and by deciding it, they make it reality. The power Nurse Ratched wields over the staff results in McMurphy’s ongoing diagnosis as mentally ill.
The novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, presents individualism pitted against the vast depersonalization of industrial society. Ken Kesey has an extraordinary grasp of the challenges faced by modern civilization which he depicts in the novel. Inside the walls of a mental institution a tyranical system controls the actions and decisions of its patients. However, the hospital not only houses insane patients but the institution itself reveals to be irrational.
The novel is narrated by Chief Bromden a schizophrenic patient who pretends to be dumb and deaf , “They don't bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when [Bromden's] nearby because they think [he's] deaf and dumb. Everybody thinks so. [He's] cagey enough to fool them that much. If [his] being half Indian ever helped [him] in any way in [his] dirty life, it helped [him] being cagey, helped [him] all these years” (7). The real protagonist in the novel is McMurphy; McMurphy represents unbridled individuality and free expression intellectually. McMurphy rebels against the institutions strict rules, by conforming to Nurse Ratcheds power and hostility he is allowing the oppresive society to make him machinelike- inhuman and unindividualized. McMurphy manages to maintain his individuality and original sanity throughout most of the novel; when his rebellion is continuously provoked by Nurse Ratched, he is destroyed by modern society's machines of oppression.
The tyranical system McMurphy faces in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest provokes his obvious taste to be wild. McMurphy's sanity is symbolized by his size, strength, and confidence in questioning the institutions system. As in the scene depicted, McMurphy is challenging the authority of the hospitals staff , more sepcifically Nurse Ratched. Bromden narrates, “[Nurse Ratched] sounds like a teacher bawling out a student, so McMurphy hangs his head like a student and says in a voice sounds like he's about to cry, 'I can't do that, ma'am. I'm afraid some thief in the night boosted my clothes whilst I slept. I sleep awful sound on the mattresses you have here'” (42). Though McMurphy’s rebellion takes a light-hearted form, Nurse Ratched recognizes rebellion when she sees it.
McMurphy wants to encourage rebellion in other patients and set up protests in order to change the institutions regulations. When another patient tries to tell him that he is acting against ward-policy, McMurphy says, “'Tough luck'"-and peels three bananas right under the black boy's nose and eats one after the other, tells the boy that any time [he] want[s] one snuck outa the mess hall for [him], Sam, [...] just [has] [to] give [McMurphy] the word” (12). Nurse Ratched believes that McMurphy is a manipulator- in this conversation with another nurse the insanity of the institution is foregrounded. Chief Bromden says, "But it's the truth, even if it didn't happen," sets the reader up from the very beginning for a story in which one's perception of situations more accurately reflects the truth than the outward appearance of things. Only a sane man would question an irrational institution, but the act of questioning means his sanity will inevitably be compromised.
The theme false diagnosis of insanity suits McMurphy in this way because he questions the actions of the institution his sanity prevails. Throughout the novel the sane actions of men contrast with the insane actions of the institution. For example, at the end of Part II McMurphy organizes a protest against Nurse Ratched for not letting them watch the World Series. Nurse Ratched loses control and looks just as crazy as the patients of the institution as Bromden notes.
The staff discusses McMurphy, but only one person is willing to question whether he’s actually crazy or just really smart, “And the third boy mutters, "'Of course, the very nature of this plan could indicate that he [McMurphy] is simply a shrewd con man, and not mentally ill at all'” (32). McMurphy's propensity toward rebellion makes him not a violent man but, in the eyes of the staff, mentally ill. Yet even within that meeting, it becomes clear that the staff has something to lose if they admit that McMurphy isn't crazy. Bromden, at one point, thinks to himself, “You’re making sense, old man, a sense of your own. You’re not crazy the way they think.” “[C]razy the way they think,” however, is all that matters in this hospital. The authority figures decide who is sane and who is insane, and by deciding it, they make it reality. The power Nurse Ratched wields over the staff results in McMurphy’s ongoing diagnosis as mentally ill.
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