One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Themes

02.20.16
Identical in Independence or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Loons

In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the significance of conflicting values is present around every corner. McMurphy hates the idea of being locked up inside the institution; however several patients turn out to be enrolled voluntarily because they find comfort in being confined. Nurse Ratched’s extensive rules and regulations are present to keep the patients under control, whereas McMurphy’s free spirit produces an aura of resilience that inevitably dissipates the dull atmosphere. The patients respond positively once they realize they’ve been living under petty rules in shame. Puritan and Romantic ideals are in fierce rivalry once McMurphy
He sweeps the floors of the building and watches everybody react with one another silently. Once McMurphy arrives however, Chief is enlightened and appears to become happier and happier by his continued presence. His first words to him are a muffled “Thank you”, something he has wanted to say ever since McMurphy started changing things in the ward. By relating McMurphy to his father, he goes on to tell him near the end of the story how everybody “worked” on his papa, similar to “the way they’re working on [him]”. When faced with the repression of society, his father escaped into a crippling alcoholism which left him blind. Neither a big city nor a mental institution is enough room for such a large man. By introducing size to McMurphy as the magnitude and intensity of the heart rather than the clear physical/external reality, he affirms his admiration of the size of his father and McMurphy’s ability to live freely and behave as clear individuals and Romantics rather than slaves to their respective institutions. This connection of father and friend is a sign of Chief’s respect for McMurphy, which is also very present within the other patients of the ward. The men had finally learned to stop worrying and love themselves, something they could not accomplish without the help of McMurphy. Deep inside they did not know who they were; they were caught in the same cycle that everybody around them was following and
Her job is to treat these men therapeutically, however she deliberately sets them against each other by encouraging them to tattle on each other for rewards. Despite this, she technically has good intentions; the reader can decide whether or not she is truly evil. Referring to himself as the “Bull Goose Loony” several times, McMurphy is the goose who flies over the cuckoo’s nest. The nest of course resembles the hospital, which contains a flock – the patients. Chief is the one who is plucked out by the goose who flies over the nest, because he breaks out of the hospital. Billy and Cheswick flew in one direction from the nest to their death; they couldn’t handle being stuck in pens any longer. They were not mentally strong enough to handle more life inside walls, and in the midst of their attempt and progress at escaping they instead died. On the other hand, some geese fly in another direction towards finding themselves. It is hinted throughout the story that Harding is a homosexual, and that is why he decides to stay in an institution. After McMurphy flew over the nest, he is inspired to explore the road of finding his true self instead of hiding in the nest any longer. Martini is included in card and board games despite his extreme hallucinations, as well as Scanlon who has fantasies of blowing things up. In reality, people will appear in life who will attempt to fly over the cuckoo’s nest –