Analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kessey
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a novel by Ken Kessey set in Oregon Psychiatric Hospital. The narrative of this novel portrays a study of human mind and institutional process. The novel also provides for a critic of celebration and behaviorism human principles. The main persona in this book is one Chief Bromden who is represented as a deaf and dumb person. Bromden is also a half-native American who is docile but gigantic. Bromden narrates a story of Randle Patrick McMurphy who was rebellious enough to face insanity so that he can be detained in a mental institution rather than a prison, after being charged of gambling and battery. The mental institution is ruled by one Mildred Ratched. Ratched rules the words with tyranny and iron fist. McMurphy is mischievous enough to upset the routines of the institution thereby causing the nurses and the inmates to start struggling for power. There are various applications of symbols, imagery and motifs skillfully used to explain various themes of the novel. The aim of this paper is to assess how these imageries and symbols are applied to explains various themes of the novel.
Women and Emasculation
Kessey portrays women as terrifying and threatening figure. It is only the prostitutes who are portrayed as good women. The suffering and the torment the inmates are undergoing inside the institution is as a result of the continuous oppression and mistreatment by the nurses. The narrator Bromden and the main cast, McMurphy portray women as a figure of oppression and the only cause of castration among the inmates. The central feature of this novel is the fear towards women. The male inmates believe that their suffering is as a result of the tyrannical rule of the women in the institution.
Most of the male character in the novel have been damaged as a result of relationship between them and some women. Harding complains that “we are victims of a matriarchy” (Goldwyn 29) On the other hand, Bromden has a mother who is castrating as well. It was against the nom that his mother forced his father to use her last name instead of the other way round. Bromden’s mother also turned him into a weakling alcoholic from a strong gigantic man. She made herself emotionally bigger than Bromden and his father by continuously sitting on them. Billy Bibbit, on the other hand has a mother who treats him like an infant and does not want him to develop sexually. Billy only regains his sexual confidence after sleeping with Candy. This act made Billy’s manhood to resurrect until the day Ratched took it from him. This made Billy to commit suicide. When Rawler commits suicide by cutting out his trestles, Bromden says that even if he could have not done it himself, the women in the institution would have done it for him (Goldwyn 69). The novel represents an institution which is run by women and the tyranny by which the women rule over men. McMurphy received three different electrocutions but did not change him. As a result, Ratched decided that she should use even more radical measure. She suggests an operation which refers to lobotomy. By so doing, Ratched wanted to remove the individuality, freedom and sexual expression of McMurphy.
Symbols
The Fog Machine
Fog is a climatological phenomenon which is characterized by the smoky atmosphere which prevents us from seeing ahead of us. The word fog can be used to symbolize the inability to face reality and the lack of insight. During his meditation, Bromden could see fog drifting towards the wards. In his imagination he saw fog machines which produce fog and these machines are controlled by the staff of the institution. In normal occasions, this can be a frightening thing. However, Bromden sees it as a refuge; a place where he can hide and ignore the reality. The fog machine symbolizes the situation on which the inmates are forced to be, making them to lose insight and hide from the reality.
The Electroshock Therapy Table
The Electroshock Therapy Table symbolizes the process of crucifixion. The table forms a shape of a cross with two ropes at the middle and at the positon of the head, which are used to restrict the culprit. At the same time, the role of the table is similar to that of public crucifixion which was carried out by the ancient romans. When Taber, Ruckly, and Ellis rebelled against the ruling power, they were electrocuted on the table to provide an example to the public so that they will never think of going against the rules of the institution (Goldwyn 93).
Imagery
Metaphor
McMurphy refers to the therapeutic community meetings which were held by Ratched as “a pecking party” (Goldwyn 233). Pecking is a situation where a chicken or chickens see stain of blood on the face of other chicken. As a result, they start to peck the face of the chicken. As they peck the face, the chicken continues to bleed splashing blood to other chickens which are also pecked. As a result, the chickens will peck each other to death. In the therapeutic community meetings, Ratched made one inmate to reveal their weakness. The remaining patients then start following the lead, ‘pecking’ at each other. This process results into a chain reaction which ends up hurting all the inmates. The process is meant to set them all against each other thereby making them all demoralized and weakened. This therefore, means that therapeutic meetings are not meant to provide an avenue by which patients can help each other, but rather, it is meant to make them hurt each other and end up feeling even worse.
Works Sited
Goldwyn, Eileen. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey." (1967): 233.
