One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey follows the life of men who have to live in the harsh environment of a mental institution. Although we are restricted to only the interior world of the ward, we do not meet any high level authority figure other than Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is a very tyrannical individual whose goal is to maintain a harsh hierarchical structure which at the time that this novel was written, was fairly normal in mental hospitals. Nurse Ratched had many ways in obtaining the ideal order she desires. One of these is manipulation, which is seen in constant use throughout the novel. Under her tactics, the mental hospital transforms into a small world where anyone can be manipulated in order for people to get what …show more content…
One night, McMurphy brought some prostitutes over, and an inmate by the name of Billy loses his virginity to a girl named Candy. Nurse Ratched tries to exploit Billy’s fear, shame, and regret in an effort to regain control over him. Billy, who is terrified of his mother, is constantly threatened by Nurse Ratched due to her being very close with his mother. “What worries me, Billy...is how your poor mother is going to take this” (211). This thought bothers Billy enough and gets to him mental that he eventually commits suicide one night. Once the body of Billy was found, Rathed again tries to take over the situation and tell how the men to act. She states “Now calm down. The best thing we can do is go on with our daily routine” (215). The heartlessness of Nurse Ratched can easily be identified by her statement. Her constant need to have control over every aspect of a person's life, behaviour, and even feelings. With a very horrific scene of Billy’s death, she still wants people to be quite, in order, and continue routine! Her calmness and demand of order times like this shows how obsessed Rather is with controlling every aspect of life in her institution. From this, we can even make the argument that Ratched is more insane than the patients