One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Essay

The novel ane Flew Over the snatchs live (Kesey, 1962) is narrated from the point of muckle of a character c solelyed The master(prenominal) who is an gyp of the work forcetal refuge in which the account statement pull ins place. The leger opens with a pictorial matter where the read/write head is sweeping the floor and ends with the read/write head escaping from the mental hospital, and so the changing perceptions of the top dog are a key to the main messages of the book. The character who occupies nearly of the action in the book is a rebellious newcomer called McMurphy.It is McMurphy who is the catalyst for the replace in the honcho, demo him a two a different way to peck the asylum and a number of strategies of opposite which ultimately allow the Chief to good fortune free. This paper will analyse how the Chief perceives the asylum in the early stages of the book, pore especially on the concept of the compounding. After that Murphys discern of the popula ce will be presented, on with his various opponent strategies. In close the Chiefs revised regard of the Combine will be analysed, showing what has changed in his understanding of the demesne of the asylum, and of the world in general.At the low of the book it is non immediately evident that the Chief is mentally ill. He explains that he is half(a) Indian and chooses to be deaf and taciturn Im cagey jutmly to fool them that lots (Kesey, p. 9) His separation from the world of sound is presented as a reach defence against oppression, entirely the reader may suspect that it is a symptom of a mental illness same paranoia or schizophrenia. It is a feature of the book that checkup descriptions are avoided, and the reader is left to bit out for him or herself whether or not, or to what extent the characters are ill or mad.The Chief imagines the monolithic nanny having places that hand via wires which hardly he can see I see her sit in the centre of this web of wires l ike a watchful robot, tend her network with robotlike insect skill (Kesey, p. 27). He imagines that she is workings to control the world exterior the installation as well as, suggesting that on that point is a considerable crew against him and the an other(a)(prenominal) inmates called the Combine which he defines as a huge organization that aims to right the Outside as well as the Inside (Kesey, p. 27).This analogy works both as a description of a delusion, with no basis in reality, and as an artistic representation of an institution (the asylum) and a wider authoritarian ball club (conservative American baseball club in the early 1960s) which operates on a rigid and inhuman basis. At the start of the book the Chief, and through him the reader, feel this c experienced, hard, dictatorial guide and see the inmates as victims of its power. maven way of making this chilling force constantly present in the level is the Chiefs riding habit of phrase relating to machiner y to describe all of the asylum personnel.The triplet caustic boys who are ordainlies working for the great Nurse speak with the hum of black machinery (Kesey, p. 9) and the most frightening of all is Nurse Ratched herself She works the hinges of her elbows and fingers She starts moving,when she rumbles past shes already as big as a truck, trailing that wicker bag after part her in her exhaust like a semi behind a nose Diesel and her smiles passing out before her like a radiator grill. (Kesey, p 79). These are inhuman images apply to describe the leaders of an inhuman regime.The stretch of McMurphy into the story makes a huge characterization on the Chief who, despite his huge size, is cowering and fearful of the cold and all-controlling power of the Combine. The commencement ceremony impression is of McMurphys loud chinchy constituent (Kesey, p. 14) Chief significantly makes a connection between this voice and the voice of his Indian father He dialogue a little the way daddy used to, voice loud and wax of hell Shortly after this the hold is stunned by the sound of McMurphys laughter, which is strange to them because no one of all clip laughs in this oppressive place.So much of McMurphys verbal behaviour is a surprise to the ward his laughing, singing and juiceless banter are all examples of a language the inmates have forgotten the inwardness of. This is one of the most important aspects of McMurphys find. He re melodic themes the inmates of a different considerate of communication with mandate and with each other that is free and spontaneous, unconcerned about the hierarchies of the asylum context, and taking everything less seriously than the goernment activity intend things to be taken.McMurphy mocks people, including his friends, in order to show that there is more than unspoiled one way of seeing things, and that the asylums regime is ridiculous when involveed from external perspectives. He argues with the Big Nurse, and he laughs at her rants and rages. This is a subversive attitude, and it sparks new thoughts in all the inmates, setting off a chain reaction of awareness that cannot be stopped.The first meeting of McMurphy and the Chief is also an important moment in the book, and this season the Chief is struck by the tactile sensation of McMurphys hand It rang with blood and power (Kesey, p. 25). Later, when sweeping out the sleeping area, the Chief notices a heart that he has never encountered before in all this time on the ward the man smell of dust and dirt from the open fields, and sweat, and work. (Kesey, p. 83). It is as if the Chief is rediscovering through the presence of McMurphy, all the natural human senses which had been dulled or switched out of commission by the Combine. alone by being himself McMurphy reawakens the warm, human qualities of the inmates and shows them how to use these qualities against the hard, cold machinery of power. The world that McMurphy represents is offered as a contrast to the regimented, controlled environment of the ward. There is zippo particularly radical about what he represents, for example setting up a voting process to determine the television system viewing schedule for the inmates, but in the upside-down regime of the Combine this appears to be a shocking suggestion.Drinking, smoking hemp and sex with prostitutes are, in the world outside the asylum, quite ordinary and natural expressions of commonplace masculine behaviour in commodious sections of the community. It is the abuse of power by the Big Nurse in talking to billy goat Bibbits mother that turns the antics of the inmates from a magic into a tragedy. In every society it is common for young males to push boundaries and taste with things that are forbidden by teachers, parents and authority figures.It is part of normal growing up. The chaff of the asylum is, that it takes an ladened youngster like Billy and then just when he catches a glimpse of sexual and ot her kinds of freedom via McMurphy, crushes his spirit so solely that he takes his own life. The book depicts a struggle for power over the inmates As the many symbols and images indicate, the central theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is the restoration of the inmates individual and collective potency. (Lupack, 1995, p. 94).Whether as group, or as separate individuals, McMurphy encourages the inmates to take back the power that has been unjustly stolen from them by the institution. Some critics have seen McMurphy in spectral terms, as a character who sacrifices himself in order to save his brothers The fishing scene is an extended figure of Christ and his disciples, and interpreter of McMurphy as fisher of men. (Hicks, 1981, p. 174). Hicks points out that there are images of the cross and the crown of thorns in descriptions of the electric shock table, and that McMurphys men are physically cannibalizing him (1981, p. 5) by corrosion him out more and more as he transfers hi s power and energy over to them. It is true that as McMurphys influence grows, more and more of the inmates rebel or discharge themselves, or in the suit of the Chief, make a spectacular ply but this is a book that does not come with a happy ending and salvation in a heavenly future. McMurphy is turned into a lobotomized shell of his old self which the Chief kills out of mercy, as an Indian would kill an injured animal.The future of the other characters is not known. The freedom that the Chief gains is a freedom from the real and imagined wires and connections (Kesey, p. 254) that he rips up when he throws the control lash out of the window. In conclusion, then, it appears that the Chief has changed his view of the Combine. He leaves the delusions and the asylum behind but he still must sail his way in the outside world. It the Great Compromiser to be seen how he will equipage the Combine-like injustices and oppressive forces in the wider world.He does not have his mentor M cMurphy with him, and must only go back to where he started and attack to reintegrate into a community that has been oppressed and exploited by the building of a great dam. The great difference at the end of the book is that that he wants to go back to his old haunts just to charter some of it clear in my mind again (Kesey, p. 254) and thanks to the example shown by McMurphy, he can now do this with courage and clarity, seeing possibilities of collective resistance rather than just being stray and crushed by overwhelming institutional power.