“Hierarchy means you will find the dominators, and there are the dominated. ” Social hierarchies can be precise in a variety of surroundings, and a man’s put in place this predetermined structure is chosen depending on his job in the location. This concept of the microcosm using a hierarchy of power is visible throughout Tobey maguire Kesey’s book One Travelled Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in which Nurse Ratched stands first and foremost. Through his implications of animal symbolism, Kesey stresses the importance of challenging the ideals of those of a bigger power to be able to free oneself from a strict program and escape the conformities they impose. The men will be portrayed since weak pets or animals, who will be preyed after by Doctor Ratched plus the aids, or perhaps in this case, the predators.
Kesey shows the men while the food of the keep to imply their some weakness and deficiency of manhood. The patients have got virtually no electrical power while, on the other hand, Nurse Ratched has an large quantity of power over the incidents and the people. The people are aware of their particular position through this microcosm and still have even come to accept they are, infact, just like rabbits. Harding even claims that “rabbits accept their role in the ritual and acknowledge the wolf as the strong” (Kesey 64), mentioning him as well as the other males as the rabbits. Harding also clarifies how a rabbit becomes “sly and terrified and elusive” (Kesey 64) and “hides when the wolf is about” (Kesey 64). This imagery exhibits how the men have to control their voices and themselves to avoid the wrath in the wolf, or Nurse Ratched. As the boys begin to gain their self-reliance, they progress from rabbits to wild birds. Kesey implicates the birds to symbolize flexibility and their new-found confidence to escape from the keep. The men experience this independence during the sportfishing trip, when ever Chief imagines he is “off the boat, blown up off the water and ice skating the wind with those dark-colored birds, excessive above¦” (Kesey 250) himself. The sportfishing trip is known as a way for the men to escape and separate themselves from their conformed nature, and it gives them a chance to release and regain some of their confidence and manliness. Nurse Ratched is unapproving of this self-confidence and works to demean them once again. When McMurphy and Main are sent to EST, McMurphy confidently offers to go first. He ensures Chief that they can can’t hurt him. Before, while they were waiting for their very own turn, Key illustrates the “puffy sparrows strung up to wire just like brown beads” (Kesey 282), and after McMurphy receives REPRÉSENTE, Chief realises “out the window the sparrows drop smoking from the wire” (Kesey 283). The birds getting burned and falling shows Nurse Ratched demolishing their very own new freedom and independence. Later, McMurphy receives a lobotomy and Nurse Ratched “could put it to use as an example of what could happen if you buck the system” (Kesey 322). Not only does this kind of highlight Registered nurse Ratched’s electricity and capacity to abuse the machine, but the application of the word ‘buck’ reinforces this kind of idea of the men becoming self-employed and strong. Typically, pets who dollar something will be strong, hard to control, and independent. The boys recognize McMurphy as an idol and therefore are finally in a position to become somewhat independent and assured in their own capacity, and they are capable of detach themselves from her system.
Kesey contrasts the roles of the males with that of Nurse Ratched to further illustrate his idea of a hierarchy of power within the ward. His eye-sight of the men as food influenced his view of Nurse Ratched and the assists as the predators. Doctor Ratched is definitely described as rather beastly when ever Chief was observing the feud among her and the aids, her “painted laugh twists, extends into a snarl, and she produces up larger and bigger” (Kesey 5). This symbolism represents what Nurse Ratched is really like, a vicious and crazy animal, although on the outside she appears calm and kind. Her becoming bigger also signifies her electricity over everyone. Another period, Chief has a flashback of seeing a dog hunting down a chicken, and this individual believes that “the chicken safe so long as he will keep still” (Kesey 7), and Chief, like the bird, “hid” (Kesey 7) in the broom closet and tries to “keep still¦” (Kesey 7) when the aids are searching for him. Doctor Ratched (the dog) frightens Chief (the bird) into silence and hiding, and this fear the Nurse plus the aids induce in the guys helps these to maintain her dominance inside the ward. She also utilizes this kind of fear to conform the patients. McMurphy helps the boys to open up about how Doctor Ratched can be described as “bitch” (Kesey 62), which also means woman dog. Harding, along with the additional men, almost all understand that Health professional Ratched is similar to a dog, a creature who preys upon others. When put in this structure of power, it was predetermined that Doctor Ratched would always be over them, plus the only method to avert these constrictions would be to disengage themselves from the ward.
McMurphy struggles to ultimately beat Nurse Ratched, but he is able to inspire the other men. The men figure out how to accept that Nurse Ratched will always be just like a dog, and since rabbits they must hide, although McMurphy educates them that if they become more like birds, they can easily avoid predators. Once McMurphy has a lobotomy, most of the guys withdraw themselves from the ward. Only a few stay in the ward to see how it changes McMurphy, one being Main. When Primary sees McMurphy, he determines to suffocate him in order that he doesn’t have to live since nothing but synonymous with Nurse Ratched’s power. That same night time, Chief as well finds the skills to lift the -panel that also McMurphy didn’t want to lift and escape in the ward. Him being able to lift the -panel, in a sense, is a symbol of that he could be carrying on McMurphy’s musical legacy for him since he could be no longer able to. The fight for freedom is definitely one that can not be fought only, even the superb need someone to fight along-side of them, and in addition they need anyone to continue to concern the system also after they are gone.
