One flew over the cuckoo's nest comparison

¶ … Danger of Authority Explored in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Brave New World

The conflict between man and authority provides the perfect backdrop for considering power and to whom it should belong. Two novels that emphasize the importance of individuality within a society that tries to force conformity are Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Each novel examines the danger associated with authority gone awry. McMurphy challenges his friends to look within themselves and delight in who they are. John the Savage realizes the dangers of living a life without passion and attempts to talk rationally with the Controllers. Both characters are heroes. Both authors utilize irony and characterization to emphasize their points that a society with too much control is a society that will leads to the destruction of the human soul - the very force that keeps man moving in a positive direction. The price for individuality is high but worth the price.

Characterization plays an important role in exploring the issue of domination. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey explores the issue of authority in an environment that is supposed to be controlled but only in such a way that it benefits the patients.

However, we see power taken to the extreme with Nurse Ratched and her desire to dominate the men in the ward. In this way, Kesey utilizes the role of women as the danger of authority. In addition, the men in the story become those that are beaten down. While Nurse Ratched symbolizes the danger of authority, McMurphy becomes a symbol of every man that refuses to be held down and, as a result, he becomes the hero of the story. Bromden tells us that he is not "gonna let them twist him and manufacture him" (Kesey 140). With such passion, he becomes the hero who pays the highest price with his life. Vitkus agrees adding, McMurphy "sacrifices himself so that the other men on the ward may be redeemed" (Vitkus 66). In Brave New World, power and authority are much more subtle as they are hidden behind the haze of a drug-induced state. John the Savage becomes every man's hero because he refuses to conform. Just like McMurphy, Savage is a fighter and he would rather go down fighting that give in to a life without passion. He understands that life needs some level f conflict in order to be appreciated. He states, "Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it" (Huxley 182) is what makes humanity soft and weak. Like the men in the ward, the population in Brave New World is broken down with the Controllers discarding "everything that might provoke either thought or passion" (Woodcock). Characters in these novels are forced to become shells of people rather than individuals with differing opinions and attitudes.

Irony also plays a part in each novel. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, men become the weaker sex. Lupack points out that conventional male and female roles are "comically reversed" (Lupack 96), emphasizing the "underlying principle of ironic contrast and the reason for the novel's universal appeal... madness is sanity and sanity is madness" (96). In addition, we come to grasp the notion that the patents are more "sane" (96) than their caretakers are but they only become aware of this after they check themselves into the asylum. Lupack observes, "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). While life appears to be orderly, it is actually empty. In Brave New World, the irony exists in the premise of what defines happiness. The Savage touches on it briefly when he realizes that without pain, there can be no real, measurable pleasure. In a sense, everything is equal and while this may keep individuals from lashing out against authority, it also keeps them from seeking and attaining happiness and fulfillment. Hochman observes, life is "so controlled and safe that there is neither need nor opportunity for bravery" (Hochman) and "From birth to death, the life Huxley describes in Brave New World is a fully engineered existence in which both people and their environment are remade to society's specifications" (Hochman). Here we see that while our differences might create a little dissension, that is actually a good thing because it demonstrates that we are living, thinking beings.