Madness In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

In the literary criticism Madness and Misogyny in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Daniel Vitkus, he argues that generally the people that are in the ward are not actually insane, but just think differently from society. This different ideology and “reasoning” the patients have cause them to be rejected by the world around them and sent off to the mental institution (Vitkus 64). He also believes that society has this innate “hegemonic power” over everyone (Vitkus 65). The patients are then continually put down through rules and a loss of individuality in the ward. This lack of individuality and lack of power the patient's hold to express themselves and fulfill any of their wants and needs under the harsh rule of Nurse Ratched
While he does present signs of instability in his sudden outbursts and actions, he does state from the beginning that he wanted to come to the ward to get away from his sentence (Kesey 119). It depends on how one defines mental illness. If mental illness is wanting to rebel against society then that automatically puts McMurphy in the mentally insane category. It is explicitly stated that he breaks the laws and rules multiple times outside and inside the ward (Kesey 100). But, if having a mental illness is defined as having some kind of chemical imbalance issue with your brain, then we cannot know for certain because those determining tests were not run on McMurphy. McMurphy also has a tendency to act insane for show and attention by making comments and jokes constantly. He wants the attention of the other patients and the Nurse or fun and to promote himself and his cause of making the patients feel more human and stand up for themselves. I do not believe that many of the characters in the novel have a mental illness. For example, Harding, who is in the ward because he is a homosexual; homosexuality is not a mental illness at all. Even Bromden, while exceedingly quiet, if put off into the real world with some opportunity could certainly find a way to succeed and get a job and everything. He appears to have strange thought patterns sometimes because of the drugs the Nurse uses, and how childlike he is after being trapped in
In doing this, the fog acts as a tool for the Nurse to use to keep the patients in a sedated state so they do not know what is happening and she can maintain control of the ward. Taking the pills themselves can also cause a sense of confinement because they are a requirement, another rule to be used against them. Being in the fog causes the patients to lose touch with reality and even hallucinate (Kesey 12). This constant state of not knowing if what one is seeing is real, can be very disconcerting to the patients and make them more on edge and confused than they were previously. While the patients, feel more free when they are not taking the pills, they do not feel truly free until they have left the building to go on the fishing trip with McMurphy. Here, they are essentially unsupervised and can do whatever they please. There is no set of rules and order that they have to follow. This freedom is actually beneficial, as it allows them to discover their abilities on their own, like with catching fish, and also makes them laugh more and feel accomplished. In the end, the reader does not know if any of the patients are free, even Bromden who escapes. Bromden may be found and put back in the mental hospital, but he also could be trapped in his mind forever after the use of drugs and electroshock