There comes my essay:
Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” illustrates the patients being struggles with Big Nurse and the other staff in a mental hospital. As the patients follow Big Nurse’s orders cagily and being conformed to be adjusted to the outside step by step, they are losing their own judgment to the inside and individual. But in fact, some of them are still trying to keep calm and tend to seek the deep fair inside, in order not to be covered by fears and numbness under the great pressure of controllers. Kesey describes the Combine generally in his novel as the feeling of pressure and power from the society, since to everyone the feeling to Combine is not the same. To escape it, Kesey suggests one should not be immersed in the past or completely lean upon others, but indeed try to defeat one’s fear by being who he or she is and looking forward.
Fear makes the patients silent and leads them to conform willingly even if most of them actually feel the slightest rebellion that deep inside.
McMurphy argues with Harding about Big Nurse after he attends his first ward meeting, he tells what he thinks about Big Nurse straight out, and Harding tries hard to refute McMurphy but he fails at last. “No one’s ever dared come out and say it before, but there’s not a man among us that doesn’t think it, that doesn’t feel just as you do about her and the whole business-feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul(Page 60).“Harding’s words show that actually some of them know what is going on but they choose to be silent, not to speak the truth. They do feel the pressure from all directions, but they are scared to be against it. In fact, they think it is wise to be cagey and act weak in order to survive in the changing world. Then Harding shows more what most of the patients (including himself) consider themselves: “All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees, hippity-hopping through our Walt Disney world. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, we’re not in here because we are rabbits-we’d be rabbits wherever we were-we’re all in here because we can’t adjust to our rabbithood. We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place (Page 62).” They do consider themselves weak and not adjusted to the outside world. They prefer to toe the line, follow the instructions and conform cagily than combating the Combine, which stands for the controllers’ power and authority, where people are conformed and lose their individuality unconsciously. Instead of standing up for what they really need, they wait and wait, until they find a hero to save them from pain or a ‘wolf’ to teach them to find their ‘rabbit-holes’.
McMurphy teaches Chief how to laugh off the pain and pressure
During the fishing, Chief feels the calmness and freedom clearly again when he faces to the wide blue ocean and the pure laughter of the men. “Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy(Page 237).” Chief once forgot what laughter can do, but as he has more contact with McMurphy, he seemed to remember how sweet the laughter can be and how it can change a man. With the help of McMurphy, he tries to look forward, tries to find the good sides of things and laugh the bad sides off. On the way coming back to the hospital from fishing, Chief feels that “I noticed vaguely that I was getting so’s I could see some good in the life around me. McMurphy was teaching me. I was feeling better than I’d remembered feeling since I was a kid, when everything was good and the land was still singing kids’ poetry to me (Page 243).” In this way, he finds his past sweet and yearning, not just the fog full of fear and numbness. He tries hard to look forward straightly through the past. He does think he should no longer stay still in the past, but keep walking on and on, through the foggy way.
Chief struggles to be out of the dark and finally beat the Combine.
“And I’m glad when it gets thick enough you’re lost in it and can let go, and be safe again (Page 110).” Chief used to hide himself in the fog, which seems to be the safest place to get lost (Maybe it is just to Chief that the ’fog’ appears to be fog). He hides himself inside the fog, thinking of his childhood with his father, who used to be a chief of an Indian tribe.
After the fight with the black boys, both Chief and McMurphy are sent to the Disturbed and they are then given the electric shock. “This time I came fighting out of it in less than a day, less time than ever. And when the fog was finally swept from my head it seemed like I’d just come up after a long, deep dive, breaking the surface after being under water a hundred years. It was the last treatment they gave me (Page 276).” But Chief walks out his fog of his past and memories finally, according to “It’s fogging a little, but I won’t slip off and hide in it. No…never again… (Page 275)”, “I couldn’t remember all of it yet, but I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands and tried to clear my head. I worked at it. I’d never worked at coming out of it before (Page 275).” and also “I saw an aide coming up the hall with a tray for me and knew this time I had them beat (Page 275).” He realizes that he is supposed to be who he is, like McMurphy does, instead of hiding in the fog, covering himself with the memories of past or trying to be another person when ‘looking into the mirror.’ It is not Disturbed’s electric shock that makes him find his true self, it is the contact with McMurphy. Chief once had a strong feeling: “I just want to touch because he’s who he is (Page 210).” He decides not to be immersed in the fear and numbness and tries to enjoy the good in life. Chief understands that McMurphy is teaching all of them to be true to themselves, to laugh, to enjoy life. Chief was afraid at first when McMurphy came to them because he is not sure if he is ready to risk everything to be in the open. But he decides to be honest to the rebellion inside his heart in the end. He succeeds in being who he is under both the leadership of McMurphy and his own grittiness.
McMurphy changes most of the patients
“All our hard-boiled strength had just walked up those steps with his arms around the shoulders of that bald-headed captain (Page 230).” to “They could sense the change that most of us were only suspecting; these weren’t the same bunch of weak-knees from a nuthouse that they’d watched take their insults on the dock this morning (Page 242).” After coming back from the fishing, the patients show great change, they begin to laugh a lot, they begin to look for the good sides of things, as Harding says:” We are sick men, but not rabbits any more.”
Kesey does believe and suggests in his novel that one should not hide inside his or her fog which represents fear and numbness, but keep walking on and try to look forward to the greatness in life.
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