Self Discipline

Whenever I read the book One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, I never antagonize the character McMurphy because I relate to him in a way where he resists submitting to the control of authority. Most of the authority figures in my life take advantage of their power, and use it as a way of compelling others around them. Fortunately for myself, I tend to see the true intentions of the judgment, just like McMurphy. He is the newest addition to the Ward, but he is considered an outcast based on the way he has self discipline unlike the others who comply with Nurse Ratched’s jurisdiction. The more I analyze the interactions where McMurphy has tried to unbrainwash the other patients about the nurse, the more I realize that I resist the authority figures in my family if they aren’t my mother.

In response to McMurphy’s unpopular opinion of Nurse Ratched, Harding compares the analogy of everyone in the ward being rabbits controlled by wolves. “‘The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong.’” (57). I view the circumstance with my family as the adults putting on the persona as a wolf trying to control the rabbits, but in a sense I’m like McMurphy where I refuse to be a part of that stimulation. A lot of the time, older people in my family will try to give their input or solutions to things pertaining to me when their opinions weren’t asked for. But because they’re adults and hold an authority title over someone my age in the family, I’m expected to listen to them and apply their corrections, but I disagree and have always felt that way. Finishing his point, Harding ends his analogy with “He knows his place. He most certainly doesn’t challenge the wolf to combat.” (57). I break generational curses in my family with it being mandatory to submit to the control of other adults, the same way that McMurphy is breaking the routine of following orders from the nurse at the Ward. In my family, “what the adult says always goes”, no matter the circumstance and if you do otherwise, it equals disrespect.

My mom usually finds all my opinions on the traditional rules valid, and supports me to voice my opinion. She always said “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it”, towards the controversy of disrespect. I think that the other patients and staff members of the Ward take McMurphy’s honesty as a negative connotation because he doesn’t have someone to differentiate his delivery. There’s this one specific rule in my family that I find absolutely ludacris. If all the seats are taken at an event or gathering, and an adult doesn’t have anywhere to sit, then a younger person has to get up and offer their seat, even if they’re in the comfort of their own home. Personally, I am never doing that, especially not in my own house and I think that McMurphy would say the same. The quote “You mean to tell me that you’re gonna sit back and let some old blue-haired woman talk you into being a rabbit?” (58) reminds me of the time when I refused to give up my chair to a family member, and I received backlash for it. But just like McMurphy said I’m not going to let anyone talk me into being a rabbit.

The term “self discipline” in this case doesn’t go with its usual meaning. Instead it means that we are self-disciplined, as in giving ourselves authority, rather than taking in the orders from those that hold power above us. And by “us”, I mean McMurphy and I. To be quite honest, when adults try to boss me around, or give me orders, and they aren’t my mother, it makes me want to refuse to listen to them even more. For example, recently on Thanksgiving, I overheard one of my family members planning to send all the kids upstairs so they could play adult games. She isn’t even that older than me but she is an adult. So I went into the kitchen and told my mom I wasn’t going upstairs, before she even heard about the plan. But I ended up going upstairs later that night, and I was never even told to. I think the idea of me being controlled or told what to do irritates me. I’m not even one to act up or do something illogical, so when anyone who isn’t my mother tries to correct me, it’s in my nature to resist.