Critical analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey.
In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey invites his reader into the world of the mental hospital, where everything and everyone is under strict dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. She is the one who decides medications, routine, and the destiny of her patients. She uses all of her power to keep them in fear, so they stay under her full control and obey her rules. Everything runs smoothly on her strict routine, until Randle McMurphy comes into the ward. This free-will rebel starts to question the authority of Nurse Ratched and constantly upsets the routines, which leads to a power struggle between the two of them; a power struggle that becomes a battle between wills, a battle between man and woman, between freedom and control. All the way through the story, McMurphy tries to restore the patient‘s masculinity; he shows them how to live the lives that they are too afraid to live; he attempts to teach them how to laugh, to be brave and, most important, to be free.
Although, the power struggle with Nurse Ratched does not finish well for McMurphy-- a lobotomy takes away his freedom and, ultimately, his life--in the battle of wills, he is the conqueror. His free-will changes patients from “rabbits” into men(64). His strong nature teaches them how to stand up for themselves, how to find what they believe in and fight for it. Essentially, he teaches them how to be free men. McMurphy sacrificed himself to give them the knowledge, that man can always hold his destiny in his hands. In the end, this knowledge costs him his life, but changes the lives of the other patients forever. McMurphy comes to the ward by faking his insanity to get away from hard work at the farm. He expects the life in the hospital to be easy and very favorable to him, so he can play cards, have fun and even make some