Beyond The Cuckoo’s Nest: Analyzing Authoritarian Dynamics in Ken Kesey’s Book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and The Contemporary World Of Managers By Amjed Washaha

Beyond The Cuckoo’s Nest: Analyzing Authoritarian Dynamics in Ken Kesey’s Book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and The Contemporary World Of Managers

In the maze that is the modern workplace, where the echoes of the proverbial “rat race” reverberate through the corridors of a corporatized society, the compliance demanded by authority finds its counterpart in the soulful yet automatic refrain, “Good Morning, Miss. Rat-ched” as aptly stated by McMurphy on page 86 of Ken Kesey’s book One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. This adjustment in address where “Ratched” is innocuously muddled down to “Rat-ched,” echos a rebellious but subtle confrontation that binds the autocratic nature McMurphy is portrayed to inhabit in this novel. It also echoes what modern workers have been calling the “Rat race” which is a term used in reference to the relentless, competitive, exhausting, and oftentimes monotonous pursuit of inevitable self-defeat encapsulated within the corporate ladder. In response to McMurphy’s greeting and question, “How’s things on the outside?’ Miss Ratched responds “You can’t run around here in a towel!” A response that serves as an immediate reminder of the power structures previously established. The life of Miss Ratched outside the hospital is no business to McMurphy not because it is simply irrelevant but because McMurphy simply has no place in society. Apparently to Miss Ratched’s account that is plainly evident in the fact McMurphy parades himself around the commons in a towel. Such a man in Nurse Ratched’s eye is incapable of understanding what it is like to be normal that is why she feels compelled to get these men to conform. It is her job after all.

Ironically McMurphy’s elegantly poised derogatory remix of Nurse Ratched’s name was supposed to signify Nurse Ratched, much like the patients and staff of this ward painted in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is indeed a rat. If we are to believe it is the nurse’s managerial duty to help the hospital better remold these men back into society we must be open to the idea that the nurse and other staff members alike are to effectively be the only representatives of the “outside” and the values and structures the “outside” would have reflected to the average reader at the time. But through Nurse Ratched’s actions and the sacrifice of oneself, (being everyone else in the ward) we see how the guiding autocratic structures of the outside world creep their way into the hospital.

Autocratic structures have been in place within our society for quite some time now even during the 50s when this book takes place. Parallels can be drawn from the examples of condensation, passive aggressiveness, and conformity throughout the novel. “Don’t you think we’d better climb back into our nice toasty bed?” says Nurse Ratched to Chief Bromden pg. 143, a man perceived in the hospital to be deaf. What is particularly scary about this first example is the fact Nurse Ratched knows Chief is deaf yet she carries on with her language and the usage of words like “we”, “you”, and “our” which all insinuates the illusion of choice. It blunts the sharp edges of authoritarian demands making them look more collaborative and self-serving. The reality, as we see immediately after, is that Bromden chooses that he does not want to go to bed but still, the Nurse aggressively sets her staff on Bromden and they proceed to lock him down to his bed. Bromden is then left in his bed locked up forced to cope with the reality in front of him pg.144 “she figures it’s on account of working evenings among a whole ward full of people like me. It’s all our fault, and she’s going to get us for it if it’s the last thing she does. I wish McMurphy’d wake up and help me.”

Through Nurse Ratched and her managerial stylings comes forth an admission of guilt. Nurse Ratched has her sights set on strict conformity and submission, in Nurse Ratched’s eyes the correlation between a patient’s inability to adhere to her exact instructions and misbehavior and the subsequent punishments dealt out to the patients as a result of that are entirely justified. “You men are in this hospital because of your proven inability to adjust to society.” pg. 144 As a result of this thinking inspired by beliefs fostered within the outside world any opinion or right proposed by these patients is completely invalid as she is sure, using failure to adhere as a soul justifier that the patients are incapable of knowing what is truly best for not only the hospital and overall community but also themselves. That is why I felt it was imperative Ken Kesey introduce a personality like McMurphy to the ward.

McMurphy is a con man, con men don’t like to be conned, and because of that he is particularly good at seeing through the various masks the inhabitants of the ward seem to hide behind, from uncovering Bromden’s lie of deafness to cheating the patients out of their cigarettes. But a man with such an intuition is a dangerous thing for any structure grounded in conformity. He initially detests the adherence to the culture Nurse Ratched was trying to pose within the ward. Eventually, after time it has become overwhelmingly apparent to Nurse Ratched that McMurphy’s failure to adhere would become the ward’s greatest perceived threat. This only begins to affect McMurphy when he finally realizes Nurse Ratched has the ability to extend his sentence at the ward indefinitely if she so desires “You got to swallow your pride sometimes and keep an eye out for old Number One.” pg. 165 McMurphy vehemently exclaims after ditching his original plans of antagonizing Nurse Ratched as a result of this newly acquired piece of knowledge. This instance of submission is telling of the true pressures such a hierarchical framework can have on even the strongest of personalities. It is also the first instance in the book that I began to feel a sense of helplessness, that there is no escape for these men, and that ultimately the fate of these men’s lives will forever be in accordance with the merits of their “caretakers”.

In conclusion, the dichotomy between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy is stark, and that is for a great reason. Pitting these two characters together serves as a fantastic lens into the relationship between the managed and the managers within contemporary society. It puts on display in some of the most extreme of ways the authority we grant professionals and managers in our lives. Nurse Ratched and the significance of the “outside” and how McMurphy so innocently assumed that meant anything exposes the overlap between the scenes and attitudes depicted within this novel and how they may reflect the manifestations of our current reality. In doing this Ken Kesey demands the reader to reflect on the relationships they may have with authority and hierarchy in their day-to-day lives, just as he did when preparing this novel.