Good, evil. Fun, boring. Fire, ice. There are a lot of opposites and contrasting ideas out there, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is no different. Let’s take a look at two of the biggest opposites in this novel, McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, and how opposites in general affect each other.
Reader #1-Nurse Ratched and McMurphy both have very different characteristics in the story so far. McMurphy is a loud, sexual and confident person. Bromden says “nobody’s sure if this barrel chested man with the scar on his face and the wild grin is playacting of if he’s crazy enough to be just like he talks” (kesey 19) From this quote you can tell McMurphy is a loud and confident because he talks to everyone and always has a smile on his face, unlike everyone else in the ward. Unlike McMurphy, Nurse Ratched is very cold and sometimes rude. McMurphy during the first group session explains to the patients in the ward that he is going to “play her game” Nurse Ratched doesn’t like this because McMurphy is going to change how Nurse Ratched acts, and he does this by finding Nurse Ratched’s weak spots. They conflict with each other because McMurphy shouldn’t really be a patient in the ward, and because of this he knows that the Nurse is just attacking the men at their weakest parts because she knows that she’ll get a response that way. Due to this McMurphy decides to include all the patients in how he’s going to destroy the nurse by playing “her game” Reader #2-Nurse Ratched is very odd in this novel. She really doesn’t display a lot of emotion, but you know from reading each chapter, that she isn’t a good person. Nurse Ratched takes her authority and uses it to her wrong advantage. She mildly attacks the patients with small threats that force them to give her what she wants. The nurse likes to keep things in order or “adjustment” but it’s not the typical “order” you would think of. Her idea of it, is all the patients doing what she says and following rules that don’t even help them. McMurphy is the opposite of Nurse Ratched. He has a really big personality when he first enters the ward, and isn’t afraid to show it off. Unlike Nurse Ratched, he truly want the patients to be helped and benefited. You would think the nurse, being a nurse and all, would want to help the patients get better, but she doesn’t do anything to help them at all. McMurphy isn’t actually mentally ill like the rest of the patients, so he can see that Nurse Ratched doesn’t do her job correctly, and wants the patients to see that too. It’s clear the two aren’t fond of each other. McMurphy thinks Nurse Ratched shouldn’t hold her job, and Nurse Ratched will and wants to take any chance she can, to make sure McMurphy has an awful experience at the ward. The two are always butting heads when decisions need to be made. She doesn’t want to give McMurphy want he wants and McMurphy is always trying to expose Nurse Ratched’s true self, to the other patients. Reader #3-There is a lot of tension between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. That seems to be all their relationship is. They both are the kind of person who wants control and respect by everyone. They both want to win over everyone. They kind of battle for this in different scenes in the book. They never say it out loud, but everything just seems like a competition between them. For example, the text says “She’s lost a little battle here today, but it’s a minor battle in a big war that she’s been winning and she’ll go on winning.” (Kesey 113) This was after the meeting where McMurphy essentially “won”. The conflict was involving the idea of a second day room. Reader #4-In Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, two characters are controlling in the power struggle over the hospital ward. These two characters are Nurse Ratched, who is in charge of the men in the facility, and Randle McMurphy, who is a patient in the ward. Throughout the novel each character tries to convey their power to show the ward who has more control. McMurphy wants everyone in the ward to be by his side, so he can disobey the rules of the ward and try to get out of there. Nurse Ratched wants to keep everything in complete control. She is very mean and an unpleasant person, so all the patients are afraid to do anything that will disobey the rules of the ward. That’s why McMurphy is having trouble competing with Nurse Ratched, because she has more control over the patient's. Since McMurphy and Nurse Ratched want two opposite kind of power in the ward, there is a lot of tension between the two. McMurphy doesn’t like to follow the rules and in one part of the novel he walks around in a towel and Nurse Ratched yelled at him. McMurphy says to nurse, “Towels against ward policy too? Well, I guess there's nothin to do except..” Nurse Ratched stops him from taking his towel off and says, “Stop don’t you dare! Get your clothes on this instant!”. They keep fighting back and forth at each other. Therefore, this shows that tension between two people can cause many problems in their relationship. That tension might cause someone to turn into a person they aren’t. Tension usually never works out in a relationship and can cause the two people to become a stressful and unhappy person. Reader #5-McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are a lot alike which makes their relationship complicated. The book says “ she’s too big to be beaten.. we mustn’t let McMurphy get our hopes up any different, lure us into making some kind of dumb play” (Kesey 113). They both like to be in control and be the leader, because of that both characters seem to dislike each other and there’s a lot of tension between them. Since they both like being in charge they can’t get along because they are so similar. McMurphy doesn’t want another leader he wants to be the only leader and that’s why he wants to take down Nurse Ratched. McMurphy has been getting all the patients on his side instead of the nurses which is affecting the relationships between the nurse and the other patients. Overall McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are very similar people which causes a lot of problems between relationships.
7 Comments
Ryan Franicevic
11/19/2015 11:41:24 pm
#3 I think they are accurate about McMurphy and the nurse battling it out. Athough the nurse is the one in charge the ward, it is technically ran by the patients. The patients tend to side with McMuphy, giving him that edge. I believe McMurphy will figure out a way to beat her at er own game, otherwise this story will low key disappoint me.
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Paige
11/20/2015 08:49:20 am
I agree with reader #2 because of the way they contrasted Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. The Nurse doesn't want to help the patients because she is constantly putting them down. On the other hand, McMurphy wants to make changes in the ward that will help the patients.
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Lauren seidenzahl
11/20/2015 10:06:35 am
I agree with reader #5 that nurse ratched and mcmurphy are very alike. They both seek control and leadership, and that is where the tension comes from.
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Danielle Morrissey
11/20/2015 10:10:08 am
I agree with reader # 2 nurse ratched is taking advantage of her control. She knows she has ton authority so she does what ever she wants not even thinking twice about laws or rules against it.
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kylie kasey
12/1/2015 10:26:37 am
I agree because she feels like she can do anything and with that control over the patients she's probably scaring them, and they probably feel like they can't do anything without getting in trouble
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Hanna Smith
11/22/2015 10:57:30 pm
I agree with reader #1 because Mcmurphy is just player the Big Nurse's game. But a question does come to mind. How is it that she's letting him do this to her? Is she aware of the manipulation goes on? has she been listening to the patients conversations with Mcmurphy and playing "his game?"
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Megan
12/15/2015 10:28:37 am
I agree with all of these readers that McMurphy and the Nurse are nothing alike. Kind of like good vs. evil. The nurse just wants control over everyone.
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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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