One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest is narrated by an inmate
inside an Oregon insane asylum, Chief Bromden, whom the other characters
believe to be incapable of speech for most of the story. Bromden’s own specific mental problem seems to
be of the delusional paranoid quality: he constantly writes of a machine called
the Combine, which appears capable of controlling the behavior of the
inmates. This idea that behavior must be
controlled in order to be manipulated by
authority is the central thematic
conceit of the novel.
Bromden''s narrative centers on the act of destruction that
gives the
novel its title and is initiated by the arrival of Randle Patrick
McMurphy, a fun-loving petty criminal who has succeeded in convincing the
courts that he should be institutionalized rather than put in jail. McMurphy soon insinuates himself between the
patients (who are separated into the Chronics, those who are permanently there,
and the Acutes, those with a chance for getting out) and
Nurse Ratched, the
strict authority figure on the ward, whom he derisively refers to as Big Nurse.
The source of conflict in the novel is
the battle between Ratched and McMurphy, which symbolizes authority versus
freedom.
Bromden offers a series of events that touch upon this
theme, best exemplified by the battle of wills in which McMurphy fights for the
right to watch a World Series game. The
decision is put to a vote, and McMurphy thinks he has won, but Ratched cuts him
down by claiming that everyone on the
ward has the right to vote and he didn’t
get the support of the extreme Chronics, who don’t even seem to be aware of
what is happening. No matter, McMurphy
wins the hearts and minds of the
inmates by imagining his own game taking place
on the TV.
When McMurphy learns that several other patients have
voluntarily committed themselves and are able to leave whenever they
choose. This leaves him thoroughly
confused and adds to his anger toward Ratched, which intensifies when she
removes their tub room privileges.
McMurphy’s reaction is to smash a window that serves as a barrier
between the patients and the nurses; a symbolic act that serves as the opening
salvo in raising the consciousness of Bromden.
After this, McMurphy takes every opportunity to annoy the nurses,
resulting in his greatest accomplishment: taking several of the men out on a
deep-sea fishing trip. Nurse Ratched''s
responds to this by explicitly trying to turn the inmates against McMurphy by
claiming that McMurphy doesn’t really care for them except as easy marks for
gambling success. The Chief, meanwhile,
is coming to fully understand the significance of his situation. Previously, McMurphy had bet that he could
lift a cement console in the tub room.
Although he couldn’t, he won by shaming the men when he asserts that at
least he tried. Now, the best involves
whether Bromden can lift the console. He
does, but when McMurphy attempts to share his winnings, the Chief recoils,
suggesting that it isn’t about winning, but trying.
When a fight breaks out, Ratched is finally presented with
her opportunity to make McMurphy undergo shock treatment. The result it less
than Ratched had hoped for, and immediately McMurphy arranges for the youngest
of the inmates, the stuttering, shy Billy Bibbitt whom Ratched seems most
capable of manipulating, to lose his virginity to a hooker. A big party is held
and McMurphy plans to escape with the girls afterward. The next morning,
however, Ratched discovers Billy and the hooker sleeping naked and she taunts
him to the point that Billy kills himself.
This drives McMurphy to rage and he attacks Nurse Ratched, ripping the
front of uniform so that here large breasts are exposed. He then attempts to
strangle her, but is pulled off by the orderlies. He isaken away.
The next day McMurphy is wheeled back into the ward,
semi-comatose. He has had a lobotomy,
the removal of a portion of his brain.
That night, Bromden places a pillow over McMurphy’s head and suffocates
him. He lifts the heavy cement console
and tosses it through a window, escaping from the asylum.
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