Man and Authority in One

¶ … Man and Authority in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The struggle between man and authority becomes a significant theme in Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as those seeking freedom experience moments of enlightenment. Kesey utilizes dramatic characterization to emphasize the struggle of man amid institutions, laws, and restrictions that attempt to hold him down. McMurphy and Bromden represent the individual seeking freedom from the institution bearing down on them and Ratched becomes a symbol of the system attempting to crush man and his spirit to remain individual. The beauty of McMurphy and Bromden is how they are so different from one another yet they seek the same thing. In the end, they are recognized as heroes in their own right although McMurphy pays the ultimate price for his fight. Bromden enjoys the victory that McMurphy would have wanted him to own. In these characters, we see bits of ourselves and this is why we are drawn to their struggle. We understand the cost of freedom and these men validate that understanding.

Characterization is the literary technique Kesey employs to emphasize the struggle between man and authority. Bromden and McMurphy represent the types of individuals that find themselves struggling with the institution and Ratched symbolizes the authority that hopes to crush them. Bromden is one of our heroes and while he may also be our humble narrator but the story belongs to McMurphy and his eventual heroic efforts. McMurphy is Bromden's foil in that he is absolutely crazy from the moment he bursts onto the scene. His first admission to the other men is that he is a gambling psychopath and the men in the ward need to take him to their leader so he determine "who's gonna be the boss around here" (Kesey 23). Bromden's reaction to McMurphy is cautious but open. He observes, "Nobody's sure if this barrel-cested man with the scar and the wild grin is play-acting or if he's crazy enough to be like he talks, or both, but they are all beginning to get a big kick out of going along with him" (23). This scene sets the mood and tome for much of the remainder of the novel. McMurphy is everyman's "psychopathic sidekick" (58) in the ward and he seems to be perfectly content with this title. With this image, Kesey is preparing us for the role of McMurphy. Spiller notes in the novel, Kesey explores the "redemptive effects of individual rebellion, the edge of creative violence" (Spiller 1467) in crafting McMurphy. In contrast, Bromden becomes a hero but not in a traditional way. It is almost as if heroism lands upon him accidentally. He does not seek it nor does he realize that he is becoming the hero; Bromden becomes a victim of circumstance more than anything as the novel progresses. He chooses to act honorably but it is not for any type of recognition. Instead, his actions are the result of his new way of thinking outside the fog. Ware maintains, "This behavior shows that Bromden just cannot take the responsibility of defining himself and may continue to submit to outside pressures to determine his actions. The escape itself is not executed in a positive way, for Bromden thinks about going back for the others so unsure is he of his new freedom" (Ware 101). Bromden is our unexpected hero in that he never sets his goals this high; he simply seeks a type of freedom that comes with the notion of living a good life and doing the right thing.

It is worth noting that McMurphy is another one of our heroes in the story because his antics bring the men out of themselves. Fick contends, "McMurphy pays the steep but unavoidable price of monolithic heroism on the modern frontier: he chooses to share himself and in the end must pay with his life" (Fick 50). As such, the novel "effectively translates into contemporary terms the enduring American concern with a freedom found only in-or between-irreconcilable oppositions" (Fick 30). This opposition exists in the form of establishment, which ultimately seeks to confine and destroy the human spirit. Lupack asserts, "throughout the novel McMurphy uses his grip on the inmates, both literally and metaphorically, to counteract Ratched's debilitating influence and to transmit his strength" (Lupack 78). He is responsible for showing the inmates that they can "function as individuals within the asylum walls" (Lupack 79). His voice rises above the rhetoric they have heard for years because it resonates within some innate passion to which they can identify. Bromden is aware of how McMurphy affects the men in the ward and does not know what to think about it at time. He refers to the circumstances as "dangers" (Kesey 130) when they allow McMurphy to lure them "out of the fog" (130). Here we see how Bromden is realizing the McMurphy is a hero but a dangerous one at that.

McMurphy might steal the show but it is through Bromden's character development that we understand one of the primary themes of the quest for individuality. Lupack maintains that Bromden gives the novel its "metaphoric richness, its peculiar horror, and ultimately its emotional force" (Lupack 66) and without his point-of-view certain things would no doubt be lost. As he separates himself from the fog that has covered him all of these years, he "becomes more aware of the world and thus more vulnerable to the dangers inherent in it" (Lupack 70). Lupack observes that the "further Chief moves out of the fog, the more his nature of his narrative changes. No longer tentative and fantasylike, his story becomes more stronger, more lyrical" (70). As the tone of the novel changes, so does Bromden's perspective. This can be seen in the scene when Bromden becomes aware that McMurphy has used him in order to make a profit off the other men by getting him to move the control panel. Before the incident, he states that he still believed "McMurphy was a giant come out of the sky to save us from the Combine... how he was too big to be bothered by something as measely as money" (Kesey 224). However, something in him changes as he watched McMurphy play the other men, by telling them that no man could life it. Bromden hoped "all night " (225) that McMurphy would not go through with the bet but he does and Bromden feels as though he "helped him cheat them out of their money" (226). At the end of the novel, Bromden realizes everyone's part in McMurphy's erratic behavior. In a moment of clarity, he realizes that no one could stop him. He reflects, "We couldn't stop him because we were the ones making him do it. It wasn't the nurse forcing him, it was our need" (Kesey 267). In the end, his act of mercy is the ultimate gift for McMurphy and the sense of freedom he feels while leaving it all behind him represents victory.

The role of Ratched is significant because she represents authority in the worst way - under the pretense of care. Lupack observes that the traditional male and female roles are "comically reversed" (Lupack 96). The reversals "emphasize the underlying principle of ironic contrast and the reason for the novel's universal appeal... madness is sanity and sanity is madness" (96). The inmates are the ones that are "sane" (96) but the only way that they become cognizant of this fact is through voluntarily checking themselves into an asylum. In addition, the nurse whose role is to "restore their health only aggravates their situation...The Combine's order is actually chaos, and the random natural elements of the world outside provide the only real meaning and order in life" (96). Ratched is characterized through a series of "rote gestures" (86) and her "mindless regimen" (86) with "monomaniacal zeal" (86) make her very much like a ratchet that can only move in one direction and one direction alone" (86). Ratched is undoubtedly an oppressive female in this novel but her symbolic presence as the crushing machine that attempts to destroy men is her overarching role.