Jacqueline Hein Hein 1Fay20th Century Lit.May 2014Who is the cuckoo?Rules are good. Rules prevent bad people from doing unthinkably horrible things. But sometimes it seems like the rules our society has created for us are only in place to suppress what shouldn't be. Rules that say “you have to look this way” or “behave like this or you're weird”. Creativity, individuality and freedom can be seen as crazy. This conflict between normality and madness is explored in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Society is presented as a ruthless machine that forces everyone to conform to its narrow rules. With rules that deem people unworthy, all individuality is expelled from people and the natural and joyful expressions of life are suppressed. Ken Kesey asks his readers a question: are the rules of society accompanied by malice for us? In the hospital ward, where most of the book takes place, the company's representative is the Big Nurse, or Nurse Ratchet. At first glance, he appears to be just another decent person trying to help his patients, but looking closer we can see the repression he represents. He embodies order, efficiency, repression and tyranny. It acts as the rules do in our society. He always needs to “repair” those Hein 2s that don't fit his model. This becomes evident when the nurse's tactics are shown. Rather than seek a cure for patients and offer them the assistance they need, the nurse responds by using invasive lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and group "therapy sessions" that more closely resemble a "pecking party" to damage the masculinity of patients undergoing therapy. she (Kesey 27). As seen in the therapy session with Harding, the nurse targeted her greatest insecurity... middle of paper... or out of fear, she hallucinated fog spreading across the ward. Although it can be scary at times, the Chief considers the fog to be a safe place; he can hide in it and ignore reality. Beyond what it means to just this character, the fog represents the state of mind that Ratched imposes on patients with his rigorous and upsetting routines and treatments. When McMurphy arrives, he brings a new perspective to the men and frees them from the fog. All in all, this novel aims to show us how society can limit us without our knowledge. If we allow this, we will become just like the “psychiatric” patients in Nurse Ratched's ward; ignorant conformists, who do not question the horrible ways in which they are treated. So really, who are the crazy people? The people who might act a little strange, or the ones who look at us all and judge who is fit enough to be accepted as normal?