Q1.
Nurse Ratched position within the establishment is machine like in many aspects, especially in the way she wants the ward run, and the actions she takes in making things run in a line. She desires order, and complete power over the situation, which is evident din her manipulation of the staff to do her bidding. Her effectiveness at getting people to do her bidding is machine-like. Her selection of staff to run the ward is indicative of her ruthlessness, where she places black attendants with deep resentment over the white race. Thus, while the white patients should benefit from the authority of the nurse and her attendants, they suffer hatred and mistreatment. Further, nurse Ratched is unmoved by the suffering she suffers upon the patients, with her sole purpose being to ensure that the ward is run in line with her will. The presentation of the nurse in this manner has a sympathetic effect upon the audience, where the patients, and to an extent the staff working under her supervision are reduced to mere parts in a system she had complete control.
Further, chief believes that nurse ratchet herself is only a part of the larger machine, outside of the ward, which he refers to as the combine. The creation of this artistic representation of society has the implication that each is not in control over the circumstances in their life; rather they only react to events they have little control. The combine in Chief Bromden’s mind is an organization representative of hate machines in human form (Roach, 457). The overbearing impression created of the machine is of its intolerance to narrowly defined behavior, always on the watch for nonconformity.
Q3.
The ward perpetuated multiple instances of inhumanity and degradation extended towards the patients. The methods employed by nurse ratchet to keep the patients in line are tailored to dissuade disobedience through their severity. After his admission, McMurphy quickly learns of the degrading punishments meted out to rebellious prisoners. He places a bet that he goes against the authority of nurse ratchet without meeting some of the dreaded punishments such as being sent to the disturbed ward, being treated with electroshock therapy, or being lobotomized. Nurse Ratchet also goes over the line in many of the punishments that she sets out for her patients. She in one instance crossed the line when she threatened a patient by the name of Billy Bibbit of telling his mother of a visit he had with a cheap woman. Given his condition, Billy panics which serves to demoralize the other patients against revolting against the nurse. His suicide soon after is a manifestation of how cruel the nurse is, as the administrator of the ward.
An incident that also illuminates the degradation suffered upon the patients occurs when nurse Ratchet attempts to blame the death of Billy Bibbit upon McMurphy. Understandably, and given the illness that the man suffered, he overreacted to the situation by ripping off nurse ratchet’s shirt, exposing her breasts (Roach, 457). The act is degrading to womanhood and the stature of the nurse. However, the nurse’s reaction to this humiliation, sending McMurphy for a lobotomy, is indicative of the extent of cruelness and human degradation that was considered acceptable. Any wrongdoing can not justify McMurphy's condition after the lobotomy, which leaves him in a vegetative state. Chief, the only protagonist in this story, realizes that McMurphy will live a life trapped under his body, and smothers him before escaping the cruelty of the ward.
Works Cited:
Roach, Neale. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." British Medical Journal 321.7258 (2000): 457-457. Print.
