The world can be a very tough place to live in. We all are fighting our own battles and life doesn’t make things easy for us. Because of that, sometimes we turn to things that make our struggles a little easier for us to deal with. Let’s take a look at how some of the characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest have been dealing with their struggles.
Reader #1-I believe people volunteer for several reasons. Ons is to help others: it is human nature to be kind to each other. That’s why we call humans who go against our nature monsters. Another reason is to get away from home life. Sitting around all day doing nothing and wasting your life feels pointless, probably cause it is. And we like to feel accomplished. We are prestigious creatures, wanting to get ahead in life and leave behind a legacy we will be remembered for. And finally, a third reason is to get brownie points and look good to others. We all want to impress someone, or at least have. Reader #2-Patients in the ward choose to stay in the ward rather than the outside world. Most of the acutes are in the hospital voluntarily and can leave whenever they choose. In the book, Billy Bibbit shows why he stays in the ward when he could actually leave. In the text, it says “McMurphy, completely perplexed, asks Billy Bibbit why he chooses to stay when he could be outside driving a convertible and romancing pretty girls. Billy Bibbit begins to cry and shouts that he and the others are not as big, strong, and brave as McMurphy.” I think that is the reason why patients choose to stay in the ward. They think the outside world is a scary place and that they need to be big and strong to handle it. They feel much safer in the ward and they are probably too afraid to admit that they uncomfortable with going outside to the real world and being on their own. Reader #3-A lot of people in the ward are there by choice rather than force. People might want to be there because they’re afraid of living in the outside world. McMurphy is awestrucken by the fact that people choose to be in the ward. That’s because he values being on his own, and having his own freedoms. When you're in the real world you have a lot of responsibilities and choices to make. One of the patients who is there voluntarily says this to McMurphy, “Well I’m not big and tough” (Kesey 195). By living in the ward, the people are giving all those hard decisions up, and handing them to the nurses and doctors in the ward. Not having to make choices is comforting to the patients who are living in the ward. Being in the ward might not be as bad as them living in the real world. Many of them need the help that is given to them, so by leaving the ward, they are also leaving help. When you're struggling from a disorder, help is one thing you definitely need. Reader #4-many patients at the ward love their environment because the outside world is a cold place, with cold people, and cold vibes. in the ward these patients feel safe, and sound. they are fed and not beat. instead abused on the streets they are enjoying their stay, in what they believe is the best thing ever. free food, free showers, and many friends to make. being homeless is tough, not being able to sleep, eat or have a social life. any one would rather have the treatment that those patients get than be out on the streets. Reader #5-A person would want to be in the ward because it provides food, shelter, and keeps them from having to do work. Mcmurphy for example, didn't want to work on the farm so he went to the ward instead. He claims to be completely fine, but he really does have issues. Some drawbacks of being in the ward are having no freedom, being completely controlled, being forced to take medicine and even living with time slower than normal. Some benefits of being in the ward are that you don't have to work, you have food provided, you have people that are going through what you are, you have free medical care and you don't have to worry about paying bills or money. Also you can make your own decisions and having freedom. You can go out and enjoy fresh air, live go have fun with your friends instead of being inside all day. Little things remind Chief of those enjoyable times outside he said “The sound reminded me of how I used to feel standing in the cold fall Friday night out on a football field, waiting for the ball to be kicked and the game to get going” (Kesey 198). Some drawbacks of being in the real world are having to work, money problems, buying food and clothes, and just living like a normal human not having everything done for you. Reader #6-I think that the patients would rather spend time in the ward because that is the only place they are able to get attention. For example, Billy Bibbit is a shy patient in the ward with a bad stutter. He is there voluntarily because he is afraid of the outside world. Another patient is Harding. He is hiding in the ward, voluntarily, because he doesn’t know how to deal with his homosexualality. Some drawbacks to being in the ward is that the patients are too busy dealing with all of the unreasonable rules that they can’t actually work on solving their own problems. ALthough, it is beneficial because the patients are able to escape the danger and judgment of the outside ward. I do not think some of the patients are there for the right reasons though. Running from your problems will solve nothing. Reader #7-I feel some people want to spend their time at the ward because even in the environment and conditions of the ward, they are ‘protected’ from the real outside world. While in this environment, I believe they have realized this is the safest place for them. Being in the ward compared to the outside world is so much better for many reasons. These reasons are: they don’t have to face reality, they don’t have to take care of themselves, and even come to the conclusion of being a “normal” human being. They want to stay because in the ward the word “normal” is being different and odd, unlike the outside world. For the ones who want to stay, it’s simply because it’s easier for themselves. Reader #8-In the late 1950s/early 1960s many things were considered taboo. Understanding of mental illnesses/disorders or anyone that didn’t fit the mold of a typical model citizen was minimal. If the patients are treated so poorly inside the asylum, which is supposed to help them, it would be even worse in the outside world. They would be completely ostracized in society, probably seen as the equivalent of an animal, and treated accordingly. These patients have already tried their luck living among others who operate differently than them and that’s why they’re in the asylum to begin with, it’s where they feel comfortable. "Sure!" It's Billy, turned from the screen, his face boiling tears. "Sure!" he screams again. "If we had the g-guts! I could go outside to-today, if I had the guts. My m-m-mother is a good friend of M-Miss Ratched, and I could get an AMA signed this afternoon, if I had the guts!" (Kesey 2.7.65) Here McMurphy realises that he, probably the most sane, is one of the few actually committed to the hospital while the other patients, young as some of them are, are there by choice because it’s all they know and they’re scared of being anywhere else. They don’t realise how manipulative and harmful the environment really is to them because they envision the outside as much worse. They let McMurphy try to rebel against Nurse Ratched knowing how much he had to lose.
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While we have made some drastic leaps and bounds in the field of the human mind in recent times, there is still much that is unknown. One thing that is certain though is that everyone thinks in different ways. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, we encounter a lot of different perspectives on how the world is viewed. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the story, believes that the world is a “Combine” that we are all parts of. What is “The Combine” and how might biases towards mental illness in the 1960s help develop his thoughts about it? Let’s find out!
Reader #1-In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief describes the asylum system as “the combine”. Chief believes the asylum is a huge over controlled atmosphere which he believes is being run by the combine. He uses “combine” to describe the authority figures and the society around him. “The ward is a factory for the Combine. It’s for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods and in the schools and in the churches, the hospitals. When a completed product goes back out into the society, all fixed up good, as new, better than new sometimes….”(Kesey 40). This is explaining the point that the society wants the patients to be controlled under lock and key. Being watched and told what to do. Just as in the 1960s, the society wanted nothing to do with the mental and they would stop at nothing to try to “fix” them. They would try to come up with new solutions such as using shock therapy and other brutal techniques. Similar to what the “Big Nurse and the black boys” do in Cuckoo’s Nest to deal with the patients that are still unacceptable. In the 1960s being “mental” was something that needed to be fixed. It wasn’t normal and needed to get out of the way for the rest of society. Similar to how the society looks at the people in Cuckoo’s Nest. Reader #2-In the novel Chief Bromden uses the term “the combine” to describe one of his beliefs in the first part of the novel. In the book Bromden says, “when you got something under your belt you’re stronger and the bastards who work for the combine aren’t so apt to slip one of their machines in on you in place of an electric shaver.”(Kesey 6). The combine to bromden symbolizes the forces of authority and society that place the mentally ill inside the asylum he currently is in. The combine represents people that want mental ill patients to be kept under control and locked up. In class we have learned about the 1960s and the way people would deal with the mentally ill. Doctors and all of society would think of patients as crazy/psychotic people that needed to be locked away somewhere and this is why institutions like asylums were created. the combine are those people that do not respect people with a mental illness. These people that are apart of “the combine” are just there to keep these patients locked up in the asylum. Reader #3-what is the combine? chief Bromden describes it as a “ huge organization that aims to adjust the outside as well as she had in the outside” (Kesey 28). This connects to what we learned about mental illness because it shows that people need to be controlling of their surroundings and what is going on. People with a mental illness want to be controlling of what they think is going on; even if what they think isn't really happening. The combine actually controls things by tricking the patients into doing what they want. this does not describe the truth they are altering what reality is. Reader #4-In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief uses ,The Combine, to represent the asylums machine like character. This “machine” has control over how the asylum runs in it’s day to day operations. Chief describes The Combine as a machine that either makes or destroys a man when he says” Across the room from the Acutes are the culls of the Combine’s product, the Chronics.”(Kesey 15). Since mental illness had no set treatments in the 1960’s, many new treatments failed and would damage the patient physically or mentally. Chiefs delusion of this machine could possibly represent protocols for treating patients or even society's little experience in treating mental illness. Although The Combine is a figment of Chiefs imagination, it is describing the truth about mental institutions. These institutions followed the same cookie cutter treatment plan for everyone, those who were broken in the process just rot in the institution until they suffer the same fate as Chief or Ellis, life in a institution. |
AuthorWelcome to Miss Hardie's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Blog! Here we will be posting our thoughts and discussing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Please join in on the discussion! ArchivesCategories
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