One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Analysis

Nurse Ratched Won the War

In the work One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy constantly battled over power and dominance. Both Nurse Ratched and McMurphy tried to assert on paitents in the hosipital. The patients were continuously persuaded to be on either McMurphy’s or Nurse Ratched’s side. The patients swayed back and forth between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched depending on who was more persuasive. However, Nurse Ratched ultimately won the war because she won the card game/ Cheswick’s Cigarettes battle, world series battle , and the battle over Billy.
The card game/ Cheswick’s cigrettes battle was when McMurphy won everyone cigarette’s in card games ,so Nurse Ratched confiscated the cigarettes and the Rationed them out.
So they had a vote during the therapy circle. During the first vote McMurphy and Taper ,who didn't really know what he was voting for, voted to watch the game. So, Nurse Ratched won the first vote because the other patients feared her. However, in the second vote the therapy circle all voted for watching the game but they had to get the majority of the whole ward and chief raised hand too late for the vote count. In the second photo nurse ratchet is once again using her authority to not count chief’s vote because she had already closed the
She then threatens to tell Billy's mother which installs fear in Billy once again. Nurse Ratched uses Billy's mother to persuade him to once again be under her control. However Billy then commit suicide and McMurphy is so enraged to strangles nurse ratchet but then leads to him being pulled off the nurse and punished giving McMurphy a lobotomy to silence him. Ratched win this battle because she final got want she wanted, which was McMurphy to be quiet and she used her status in the hospital to give McMurphy his punishment.
Nurse Racthed won the card game battle/ Chewswick’s cigarette’s battle because she was able to contiously gain control of the situation. Some might claim that McMurphy won the battle because he was able to still wager bets ,with small amounts of money, and was able to get Cheswick’s cigarettes for him. However, This claim is Insufficient because it ignores the information that McMurphy was punished with shock treatment and the patients were then afraid of nurse Ratched once