There are two types of people: those who sit back and play by the rules, and those who rise up and challenge the rules. Authoritarian methods are often used to control people’s freedom, actions, and maintain order among a population. Most people believe authoritarian techniques will keep people in check because they are afraid of what will happen if they break the rules that hold control over them. However, there will always be people who choose to oppose regimes despite knowing there are implications for disregarding the standards at hand. People will constantly be inclined to have power over those who they deem have a lower authority position than them. There will always be someone somewhere that will go against rules implemented on a particular group because they refuse to have their freedom controlled. These thoughts can eventually spread to those around them that can prove to be worrisome to the oppressors, but sometimes there are people who are only familiar with the option of sitting back, unable to stand up to authority figures and mandatory structures in their lives.

In in book, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” American novelist Ken Kesey writes about a mental hospital where it doesn’t seem possible for its patients to return to the outside world due to their “craziness” when hope unexpectedly sparks in the patients’ hearts when a new patient arrives with a different aura from what they know and changes the atmosphere around them. The story portrays the ward as a cruel and authoritarian place, where characters such as “Nurse Ratched” (aka, Big Nurse) maintains her persistent authority by overpowering the patients emotionally and psychologically, leaving the ward dead and quiet. Throughout the book, we constantly hear about: Chief Bromden, one of the ward’s longest patients who pretends to be deaf and dumb and the narrator, and Randle Patrick McMurphy, a new patient who fakes having a mental disorder believing the ward would be a better place and encourages the other patients to question the environment and authority they face, characters that are the main focus of the novel and lead the readers to question what is the real approach one should take when in an oppressed society.

On multiple occasions, Kesey writes about the ways McMurphy opposes the rules and guidelines set mainly by Nurse Ratched, showing how troublesome he can be in the course of disrupting the quiet and dead ward she built. However, at the same time, Bromden shows concern and worry when he notices McMurphy is getting in Nurse Ratched’s head.

When McMurphy proposes their TV time be switched to see the world series, he falls angry towards the other patients not voting because they were “…acting too cagey–too chicken shit, he called it” because no one said a thing (103). Billy, another patient, said “…I just don’t think a vote wu-wu-would do any good” and others agree (107). McMurphy doesn’t let this get to him. Their conversation switches to what McMurphy would do to get out of the ward and says “..I guess I could knock the mesh outta one of these windows with a chair…” (107) but Cheswick, another patient, told him “…we were given a demonstration about these screens. A technician picked up a chair…and beat the screen till the chair was no more…Didn’t hardly dent the screen” (108).

McMurphy kept changing the objects with what he would use to break the windows, one after the other when the other patients kept telling him they wouldn’t work, until he brought up “that big control panel…” (108). The patients didn’t believe he could move it because it was extremely heavy. But when McMurphy tried to move the control panel, Bromden narrates, “…for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think…he might do it” (110). He wasn’t successful at making it move a great deal. McMurphy then starts to leave but then “…stops at the door and looks back at everybody…” and says, “But I tried, though…I sure as hell did that much…” (110). The other patients were left in thought.

At the next meeting, McMurphy brings up the suggestion to be revoted on. When ready to vote, the patient’s hands went up, “first one, then another…right down the line…raising not just for watching TV, but against the Big Nurse, against her trying to send McMurphy to Disturbed” (121). McMurphy got the majority of the votes by getting Bromden to raise his hand too. When the time came to watch TV, he and the other patients sat in front of the TV despite Nurse Ratched getting worked up wanting the patients to “…Stop this. Stop!” (125). Bromden states that McMurphy “…knows there’s no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who’s trying to make it hard for you than by acting like you’re not bothered” (103). McMurphy revealed how authoritarian regimes could be challenged through a patient who recognized the unhealthy control other patients’ were under that weren’t helping them get better, and making an impact with his actions.

When considering authority figures and mandatory structures of my life, this was a moment from the novel I resonated with. Throughout my life I’ve constantly seen how people stand up for what they believe in, and though it doesn’t include standing up for others, I consider this to be a similar situation. Reading how McMurphy is aware of the oppressive structure in the ward while making several attempts to convince the patient’s to realize the unjust environment they’re living in and go against it, convinces me that at times people need to challenge the rules that prevent them from being themselves. In contrast, Bromden continuously claims that this oppression can make a negative impact on them. He states, “That’s what McMurphy can’t understand, us wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at,” and is something I can understand (112). I’m not one to stand up to authority figures from the fear of making situations worse.

Requests I’ve made apart from wanting to do various activities in the past have been denied multiple times, that I’ve come to be comfortable with not asking or contradicting anything asked of me. I felt that asking for something, even though I already knew the answer was useless. People say one never knows if their parents or whomever they might address for reconsideration there’s a possibility they can change their mind. However, when receiving the same responses and the same reactions when I wanted something more or something to change, I grew tired of asking and eventually decided it was easier to follow the rules and not question anything.

When faced with authoritarian environments and demands, there are multiple ways to go against them. In the long run, we should consider how we go about those situations and consider if they are worth going against. There will be moments when it’s better to comply than to rebel when giving thought to what truly affects us and how much. Even so, we must not be blind to those who try to control us or others just because they believe they can. In the ward, Bromden was one of the many patients that didn’t dare to go against Nurse Ratched because of the implications she had bestowed on them. What they needed to liven up was someone like McMurphy who stood up for what was wrong and wasn’t afraid of going against anybody who seeks to control those they deem don’t have much effect over them.

It’s disappointing to know how cruel people can be towards others who don’t give them a reason to be. People that have had difficult experiences and been rejected time over time will learn and adapt the act of accepting anything they are presented with without question. Even so, there are also other people who won’t allow themselves to be blind to the unjust rules and implications they are expected to meet just to make someone else satisfied. At times, there will be people who will help others they see being taken advantage of, but we cannot expect for someone to always appear and help us with our problems. We should learn how to realize when we are being controlled and find ways to prevent that from happening, but who said it would be easy?

In “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, a new patient named McMurphy strolls into a mental hospital and throws everything into chaos. The highly controlled hospital environment strains as McMurphy constantly challenges it, fighting the authority figures of the book and trying to convince the rest of the patients to join him. As the patients have started to question their role in this authoritarian environment, I’ve started to question my role with authority in my life. I’ve always been a very “easy” child. An obedient child, you could say. My mom jokes she used to tell me to take a nap and I’d say “okay, how long would you like for me to nap mother?”. I’ve always gotten good grades, I’ve never really acted out, and I didn’t have any major problems with authority. I’m very much like my dad in that way- I stay in my box because it’s comfortable and I know how to be “good” in that environment. When I disagree with an authority figure, I either resign myself to it or stew in silence. I’m kind of like the Acutes of this novel, where I can hide behind excuses the authority figures have given me or try to justify what they say. “‘I’m pretty used to seeing that six-o’clock news.” one Acute says, “And if switching times would really mess up the schedule as bad as Miss Ratchet says-” (104). The justification of authoritative rule stops any change from happening because you accept that rule. I don’t justify authority on such an extreme scale, but as I’ve gone through the novel I realize I do it more than I thought. I am more like the Acutes than I want to admit.

My brother is the complete opposite. He is always breaking the rules, trying to see how much he can get away with. He’s more of a “difficult” child, and my mom and him are always at odds, which is funny given how similar they are. He is definitely more of a McMurphy figure, which always annoyed me when we were younger- couldn’t he grow up, stop fighting all the time, stop taking all the attention in the household? It wasn’t until this year that I’ve really begun question my role as an “easy” child.

I went to dinner with my family a month ago, and my mom said to me and my brother- “You know, there’s things I would change about both of you.” I was curious- what would she change about this easy child I was? “You’re in the box too much,” she told me. “I wish you would break the rules a little more, I wish you would fight more for what you think is right, or challenge people instead of just accepting their rule.” I didn’t really know what to say to that. My brother of course got excited when he heard this, saying, “Oh yeah! I’ll break the rules” My mom laughed and said, “No you need to go back IN the box”.

I think about what she said to me a lot, and I’ve started to realize that maybe I do have a problem with authority. Not in the way that I always fight it, but in the way that I don’t. Too often I just go with the rules because those are the rules, and I trust authority figures just because they are authority figures. When I disagree with something, I like to avoid conflict, like the Acutes. My brother is always challenging those rules and authority figures, always fighting. For a while I saw that as bad, but now I’ve begun to admire him. At least he speaks up for what he thinks is right.

It’s strange that we are so opposite, that my family is split like this, but I think in many ways it makes us challenge each other. Having opposites in the household encourages us all to grow towards a more middle ground, helps us get away from our extremes and find both “easy” and “difficult” within us. This is similar to the ward environment of the novel, where none of the chaos would have occurred had it not been for McMurphy. The ward needed someone who goes up to people and challenges them to change. As the novel unfolds, even the Acutes have begun to fight, rallying behind McMurphy’s voice: “‘Yeah, yeah, is that what you mean?” Their challenge is starting small, simply speaking up, but they are gaining momentum. They are pulled out of their comfort zone, out of the boxes they all have been hiding in. Like the Acutes, I am trying to find my own challenging voice. I am starting small and slowly I am figuring it out. While I still haven’t exactly found my voice yet, I’m trying more and more, and am hopeful that one day I won’t need a voice to rally behind, one day I’ll be enough to step outside the box on my own.

My artwork depicts Bromden’s hallucination/dream when he did not take the medication they gave him from pages 76 to 79. In this scene, Bromden sees one of the staff bring the dorm room down to an underground, dam-like structure beneath the ward. Bromden describes this world below the ward as being very industrial, like a factory or a “tremendous dam”(77). As the floor moves, Bromden sees many things, specifically workers, identical each other, running around, and furnaces. As the floor comes to a stop, one of the chronics, named Blastic, who was pointed out by the men in charge, is taken by a worker and “…with the other hand the worker drives the hook through the tendon back of the heel, and the old guy’s hanging there upside down…his pajama top falls around his head. The worker grabs the top and bunches and twists it like a burlap sack…” (78). This detail can be seen in the piece.

In this part, Bromden says “…there’s no blood or innards falling out like I was looking to see–just a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece of wire or glass. Worker’s standing there to his knees in what looks like clinkers.” (79). He also says “One of the guys takes a scalpel from a holster at his belt. There’s a chain welded to the scalpel. The guy lowers it to the worker, loops the other end of the chain around the railing so the worker can’t run off with a weapon.” (78 - 79). These details are captured in the machinery spilling out of the hole in Blastic’s torso and the hook caught on his heel.

The main scene is placed in the background while the beds are in the foreground, showing the perspective of Bromden, being a witness to a horrible act but not able to interfere or do anything due to fear. The focal point has the most color as it was a scene so vivid for Bromden. Everything else fades into the background as Blastic’s death was the only thing Bromden could focus on. The hallucination is intentionally disconnected from the beds as it is unclear whether this moment was Bromden’s fantasy or reality. This is also represented by the hazy, blurred nature of the drawing. The disconnect also conveys how his death is not acknowledged. They can’t reach him, not even Bromden who is the only one to witness this.

The horrific nature of this scene is captured by the grotesque visual of the hole, stark when compared to the rest of the dark, dimmed scene. The only face you can see is ignorant of his actions and disinterested to the acts he commits. The worker’s face looks “handsome and brutal and waxy like a mask”, shown in the detachment of his features from the rest of his face. I decided to have the machinery falling out candidly to express how sudden the scene was. In place of blood, there are wires and glass, rust and ash. As suddenly as he died, the in-progress nature of the art expresses it.

This artwork portrays how Bromden’s mind alters how characters are perceived. Blastic is depicted as a character that was so far gone, he has no organs or things of human nature left, being reduced to wires like a robot, puppet, or doll. This scene is so significant because it was the first described death in the book. On the ward, the Chronics have no say in what happens to them. They live through the motions set out for them by the staff. Even what happens to them in the night and after death is out of their control. Blastic was forgotten, not mentioned again after this scene, as there are no real treatments for the Chronics, just drawn-out existence and inevitable death. As Bromden would say, they are taken back into the fold by the Combine when their time runs out.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, the ward represents a creation of society, with Nurse Ratched symbolizing the oppressive authority and control. McMurphy, A main character in this ward, is seen as the protagonist, challenging the authority and arguing with the patients to rebel against the structures forced upon them. In our lives, authority figures and mandatory structures can make us feel restricted or oppressed. In my own life, there have been moments where I have broken free from these constraints, which have led to personal growth.

In this novel, McMurphy’s character is defined by encouraging patients to rebel against the ward’s rules. McMurphy is often seen challenging the control of Nurse Rached and inspiring patients in this ward to follow his lead in asserting their independence. When McMurphy arrives at the ward, he challenges the rules and authority, questioning the strict routine and rules of the ward that could be seen as dehumanizing.

McMurphy shows a significant moment of rebellion when the patients vote to change the TV schedule to watch the World Series, while Nurse Ratched opposes this idea. A quote reads, “All twenty of them, raising not just for watching TV, but against the big nurse, against trying to send McMurphy to disturbed, against the way she’s acted and beat them down for years”(140). The narrator, Chief Bromden, describes this act of rebellion by McMurphy as one that makes Nurse Ratched question her power. The majority of men who voted on this can be inferred as an immense act of rebellion waiting to occur.

McMurphy foreshadows a personal rebellion evolving into a collective rebellion in which he is the “leader.” He often encourages other patients to join him in this battle against the authority. The actions that he creates inspire the people to stand up against the oppressive environment of the ward.

In my own life, I can relate to moments when I have felt the need to rebel against authority. There have been negative moments with significant people that I found myself around on a daily basis. I was in this rebellious state at a young age with my teachers, parents, and even coaches. I often thought they wouldn’t know better than me, so I would do what I wanted and often paid the price. Challenging simple rules like “Don’t talk while the teacher is talking” or “Stop playing video games and clean up your room” were moments where I felt the need to challenge rules because they were unjust. While I may not have faced the same extreme circumstances as the characters in the novel, these instances led me to question the oppression I faced from then until now.

This novel portrays the ward as a nature of society, with Nurse Ratched symbolizing oppressive authority and control and the character McMurphy, seen as a protagonist in this situation, challenging this authority. This theme of rebellion is seen to have resonated with real life as many people have experienced moments of trying to break free from constraints explicitly placed on them, which often leads to personal growth. The novel’s exploration of rebellion reflects humanity, highlighting the desire for freedom.

This art piece represents the scene from page 125. McMurphy makes himself comfortable in front of the TV, defying the nurses order to get back to work. The other patients see his actions and pull up a chair to join him. McMurphy had attempted to switch the cleaning schedule so that they could sit and watch the world series however his attempt was unsuccessful. He didn’t want to believe he lost so he stood up against Nurse Ratched and finally made her lose her cool. Nurse Ratched, furious, cuts the TV off but McMurphy isn’t bothered. Bromden notes “That eye doesn’t faze him a bit. To tell the truth, he doesn’t even let on he knows the picture is turned off…” (125) The artwork represents McMurphy’s act of defiance as well as the consequences that followed.

The top right portion of the piece represents the cleaning supplies that the patients dropped when deciding to join McMurphy. “Harding shuts off the buffer and leaves it in the hall.” (125) I chose to include this because it shows that the choice the patients made was spur of the moment. I felt it was most important to emphasize McMurphys character in this piece so he got the most detail. McMurphy leans back, “puts his cigarette between his teeth and pushes his cap forward in his red hair till he has to lean back to see out from under the brim.” (125) I drew McMurphy just as described, leaned back, hands crossed behind his head, cigarette in his mouth and hat brim on his head. His relaxed nature while Nurse Ratched yells from behind is really important to notice. He intentionally acts like this because he knows that it will annoy the Nurse and his goal is to make her lose her temper.

In my artwork, I included the other Acutes sitting in front of the gray TV screen to show that they were supportive of the effect it would have on the nurse Ratched and not so much actually wanting to watch the world series. The patients are “sitting there lined up in front of that blanked out TV set, watching the gray screen just like we could see the baseball game clear as day, and she’s ranting and screaming behind us.” (125) McMurphy continuing to watch the TV as if it were still on shows that he doesn’t want to let the Nurse know that she has won. For him, this front that he has put up must stay intact even if that means he has to act in this manner. By doing this he won the bet that he could make the nurse lose her temper.

The nurse’s appearance is simple, she is drawn to have infuriating facial expressions towards the men by the TV. The artwork shows the important moment when she loses her temper with the patients. Throughout this moment her anger grows more intense, “Mr. McMurphy, I’m warning you!” then she pulled out her fist and “all those red - orange fingernails burning into her palm.” (125) In the piece, Nurse Ratched’s Facial expressions, red cheeks and orange fingernails were done intentionally to replicate this moment from the book.

This scene is significant to the story because it’s the first moment where McMurphy makes Nurse Ratched lose her temper on the patients. Each moment before this, she has calmed herself down before things escalated but this scene shows how McMurphy tipped the scales. This scene could lead McMurphy to have many more moments where he defies the rules and causes Nurse Ratched to be furious with him. It leaves the reader wondering about the amount of control the patients truly have within the hospital.