Self-suppression is Death

Since its publication in 1962, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has had a long-lasting legacy spanning decades with a message that still resonates with people today. 

The book focuses greatly on the importance of free self expression and how it is an integral part of our humanity. It is this particular theme that this analysis will focus on. The hospital in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest can be read as a microcosm of the world that Ken Kesey, the author, observed where people who deviated from societal norms were shunned and hidden away. Similar to real life, the blame largely cannot be placed on the patients. Their only crime is that they do not neatly fit into the arbitrary rules that society has set for them. The problem is more of the system that they live within, a system that condemns any divergence from the status quo. The book mirrors the burgeoning civil rights movement of the sixties. It is still a severe indictment of social expectations that suffocated people who diverged from what was considered typical, capturing the rebellious spirit that was beginning to emerge. 

“The Combine”

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the narrator views society as under the strict control of an entity known as “The Combine”. It is an oppressive mechanical machine that punishes those that do not adhere to societal standards. The ward therefore is like an extension of the Combine and Chief Bromden describes it as a “Factory for the Combine”. The aim of the Combine is essentially to beat down these people to the point where they lose all individuality and are mindlessly subservient to the system that they live under. According to the Chief, the ward is not a place of sympathy for sick individuals in need of help but rather a place that punishes people who are seen as atypical until they are deemed fit to go back into normal society. The only ‘success’ we are told of is a patient called Taber, who is set free by the nurse after being lobotomised. Through this, we can see that the Combine will only accept sameness over anything that would mark a person as an individual and will take extreme measures to achieve this. Additionally, the word “Combine” itself evokes images of uniformity enforcing that the ultimate goal is to conform and be part of society without standing out. 

This idea is further emphasised by the people within the ward and the way that they are described. The “Black Boys” who are hospital orderlies are first introduced to us as if they are one singular entity, and it is not until later in the book that we are introduced to them as individuals, but even then they are often not referred to by name, stripping them of even the most basic part of a person's identity. Furthermore the head nurse, Nurse Ratched, is also without a name for the first few pages as she is first introduced as the “Big Nurse” which drums up images of “Big Brother” from George Orwell’s 1984. This helps to establish her as this almost omnipresent force casting her watchful eye over the ward at all times. Additionally, the term “Big Nurse” takes away any kind of humanity she might have with our first impression of her being a person who will swiftly discipline anyone who acts out of order. Further descriptions of the nurse appear to emphasise this  lack of any kind of personal identity or humanity. The colour of her lips and fingers are described as being “Like the tip of a soldering iron” and her face is like an “expensive baby doll”. These images tell the reader that, rather than her being her own person, she is instead something manufactured and artificial to be as effective and practical as possible. This point is reiterated by the fact that she seems to carry no personal belongings like a makeup compact or a lipstick; rather, she only possesses objects that serve purely practical uses in her job. As someone that is often seen as the ideal, this demonstrates that those that give up everything, even their own identity or individuality for the sake of practicality and comply in everything they do to the system they live under, are the ones who are praised and are in control. 

However, we can see that there is a flaw in the system that has been created. The people that run it are human like the people that they try to suppress. Most evident in the way that Nurse Ratched attempts to hide her “big and womanly” breasts. Breasts are feminine features that are often related to things like sexuality, with those that choose to show off these breasts perhaps being more sexually free and liberated compared to those that cover them up. The fact that she desperately tries to hide these, yet fails, shows that, despite the fact that her having breasts is a completely natural thing, she feels compelled to hide them, reflecting that in order to comply you must suppress some of the most natural aspects of being a human like sexual desire. It is a flaw because she wants to appear inhuman and cold, yet her breasts, a symbol of her suppressed sexuality, give her away. Her conservative stance on sexuality is reinforced repeatedly throughout the novel such as toward the end where she shames a patient for having sex with a prostitute and is in stark comparison to McMurphy’s sexual liberty. Ultimately, Nurse Ratched reflects a society that advocates for people to be prudish and traditional, clashing with the beginnings of the sexual revolution of the sixties. 

A System of Hate and Shame 

The effects of this system of suppression, built off hate and fear, are dire. The way the ward keeps people under control and by extension how the Combine controls people is through a system of hate. The outside world hates the patients within the ward and looks at them with a fear that could only stem from a sense of disdain; the staff within the ward are taught to hate as much as they can,being thrown out by nurse Ratched if they “don’t hate enough”; and the patients are taught by both the ward and the rest of society to hate themselves and their peers for things out of their control. They are denied the very human ability to truly love anything without shame, and can’t even bring themselves to laugh, with McMurphy’s arrival being the first real laugh they’ve heard in years demonstrating how cruelly inhuman it is to live this way.

While the entire ward suffers from the effects of this system, the characters that exemplify this the best are the characters of Dale Harding and Billy Bibbit. At the start, both suffer from the inability to be confident in themselves and are discouraged from doing so through shame. One of the most effective ways they are shamed is through Nurse Ratched’s group therapy sessions, where the nurse repeatedly puts their inadequacies on display, while simultaneously shunning them for these inadequacies by masquerading as treatment. In these sessions, both Harding and Bibbit are criticised for their inability to succeed with women. Harding is unable to satisfy his wife sexually with Nurse Ratched’s notes stating that he may “give her reason to seek further sexual attention.” His inability to perform sexually is largely implied to be because he is a homosexual. Billy, on the other hand, is humiliated because of his failed attempt to ask a girl he liked to marry him, driving him to attempt suicide. These are implied to be the main reasons why they are in the hospital. In Harding's case, it’s because he is unable to perform the way society believes a man should, creating a self loathing within him as he desperately tries and fails to meet these standards. Billy also fails to meet these standards and hates himself for it, turning to self harm and, in extreme cases, attempted suicide as a way to cope. His main struggle is with his suffocating mother who keeps him sheltered and unable to develop into a man despite the fact that he is over thirty years old. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as I have previously stated, the ability for a character to express themselves (especially sexually) is a good way to measure how confident they are in their identity and how free they are within.

 However, during these therapy sessions which McMurphy aptly dubs “pecking parties”, they are metaphorically castrated. The nurse is even deemed a “ball cutter”. Through this metaphorical castration, we can see that, although they are shamed for not being able to perform sexually, they are simultaneously punished for expressing themselves in sexual ways. This “ball cutting” robs the patients of one of the most basic parts of themselves. It strips them of both their masculinity and sexuality as well as being an invasion of their privacy, leaving them hopeless and exposed making it easier for  the Combine to press down even harder until they mold to their standards. 

The patients loathe themselves, and in the ward, that self loathing festers even further. Harding, a man described as effeminate with beautiful hands that look like they have been “carved from soap”, despises his appearance and his hands especially because they are an outward symbol of his homosexuality. He constantly tries to control his hands, trapping them in between his knees or armpits as he feels as they make him less of a man. Whenever he traps them and talks, he appears jerky and uncomfortable which greatly contrasts to how, when he is unaware of how they move and lets them “glide around in front of him free as two white birds”, the way his hands move and his appearance are repeatedly described as almost impossibly beautiful. This represents how, under this system of hate, it comes off as extremely unnatural and almost grotesque when people are taught to suppress aspects of themselves that have been deemed unsavoury, which in Harding's case is his homosexuality. However, whenever a person's sexuality and identity is allowed to be free, it can be gorgeous to witness. They are forced to fit within a mold that is unnatural to them, and the power of this is that, because the shame comes from both external and internal sources, as long as that seed of hatred is planted within someone, they can convince themselves that the most natural aspects of being a human are something to be ashamed of and hidden away, which is why Harding admits himself to the hospital. He cannot cope with society's pressures and admits himself in hopes of being able to hide away his queerness, but we can see that this is impossible. Despite how he tries to appear masculine and powerful, partaking in what are deemed as manly activities he is unable to make it appear like it comes naturally to him and his true self still slips out every now and then. 

Billy Bibbit is a tragic example of what this oppressive system can do to someone. Billy is a soft sensitive man with an extreme stutter, a manifestation of the way his mother suffocates him and stunts his growth. His stutter represents how extreme oppression and the inability to spread his wings has left him unable to fully express himself and his needs and his wants. He is deeply troubled and yearns to live a normal life, yet he does not have the courage to take his life into his own hands and live it the way he wants to. His mother looms over him, watching his every move which is possible as her and Nurse Ratched are old friends. This represents the constant watchful eye of society that restricts people from achieving their full potential to the point where they believe it’s impossible for them to ever reach a life that they dream of. A particularly depressing demonstration of this is in the second half of the book where McMurphy confronts the acutes for choosing to live in the ward instead of trying to live their lives in the world. This causes Billy to break and go on a tirade on why they all choose to stay within the ward. He wishes to live a normal life stating “you think I wouldn’t like a con-convertible and a guh-guh-girlfriend?  But did you ever have people l-l-laughing at you?” This is a particularly revealing moment. The self-admitted patients do not choose to live this way out of enjoyment , but rather they choose to live this way because they have been beaten down by the world for being different and having an identity that is shunned by other people, resulting in them subjecting themselves to a mental hospital because at least it shields them from having to face their fears directly and be humiliated out in the real world. 

It is this humiliation and shame that eventually kills Billy. During the fishing trip that twelve patients go on, he meets Candy, a prostitute and friend of McMurphy. At the end he secures a date with her and they meet again when McMurphy throws a party at the hospital. During this, the other patients convince Billy to have sex with Candy. Through this act, he reclaims his sexuality and masculinity that have been forcefully repressed for so long, freeing himself from the Nurse Ratched’s metaphorical castration. However, the next morning, Nurse Ratched confronts Billy and threatens to tell his mother about the whole ordeal. This absolutely shatters his built up shaky self confidence and causes him to crumble and betray the other patients, reverting back to a timid and shy boy pleading for her not to tell his mother about his sex with Candy. Shortly after, Billy commits suicide unable to bear the weight of his betrayal or his mothers disapproval. His death symbolises the extreme cruelty of the Combine and its suppression of freedom, reflecting the suffocating society that Kesey lived in. He shows the effects of such a society with Harding and shows how in extreme cases such as Billy’s the repression of someone’s identity and core parts of themselves like their right to sexual expression can lead to suicide as they are. It emphasises how cruel it is that, rather than supporting him, he is shamed for behaving in a way they believe he shouldn’t, weaponising humiliation to crush him. 

Hope is Not Lost

One of the special things about McMurphy is that while McMurphy pushes each of the patients to become more confident in who they are as a person and to not suppress the most basic aspects of themselves as the rest of the world forces them to he also demonstrates the importance of community The key to overcoming oppressive systems is not only through being confident enough to believe in yourself but also having confidence in your peers and their ability to fully realise themselves for it i s through this that will we finally be able to achieve an ounce of freedom. 

McMurphy refuses to surrender the core aspects of what makes him as a person fit within a socially acceptable mold and this is what makes him such a threat to the combine and Nurse Ratched and it is ultimately because of this that they lobotomise him forcefully taking away his agency and removing any semblance of what the old McMurphy used to be. Yet his legacy is lasting and it is why McMurphy and what he means can be so dangerous to the delicate system that has been built. 

In contrast to the other patients McMurphy actually takes real actions against the nurse slowly showing to the patients that she can be overcome and that she is not in fact all powerful as they thought she was. Although this triumph may not be immediate often the victory is not just in the big successes but also just the act of trying itself. Best demonstrated in the scene where McMurphy attempts to lift up a large water fountain to smash a window but fails. “But I tried, though, he says Goddamnit, I sure as hell did that much, didn’t I?” Showing to all the patients that despite all their passive complaining nothing will ever change if they never actually attempt to make it happen. If they never even attempt to accept who they are and continue living in spite of the difficulties that may come with that they will be forced to wallow in self pity for the rest of their lives. 

Throughout the book he engages with each of the patients attempting to bring them out of their shell. He is somewhat of a Jesus like figure in the book acting as a mentor to his peers and slowly tearing down the oppressive and all powerful grip that Nurse Ratched has on each of them. The culmination of all of this comes in the form of the fishing trip that he takes 12 of the patients on. In a particularly moving exchange the night before the trip we see the narrator Chief Bromden speak for the first time to McMurphy. A milestone event in the book as we see Bromden finally regaining his voice. Bromden's struggles reflect that of the native american who has been perpetually overlooked and silenced by their white peers who steal and throw them out of their own land. Bromden’s charade of being mute and deaf is not just a survival tactic but also something that was imposed on him by the white people around him that don’t even bother to listen to anything that he has to say. McMurphy is the only one that actively takes the time out of his day to listen and engage with him as much as he does with the other white patients. Bromden regaining his voice is representative of him taking the first steps in reclaiming his identity and his confidence. 

The fishing trip is also arguably the most important event to happen within the book. It is the first and mostly only time we see any of the patients outside the ward and is also the first time we see them truly and wholeheartedly laugh. Laughter was something that had been quietly taken away from everyone in the ward and the return of it signals the restoration of their humanity. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to lose your laugh is to lose part of your personhood and your ability to cope with the hardships of the world. Laughter is necessary because it is an integral part of being human, one of the most obvious signs of happiness but also because laughing can make you forget all your hardships for a short moment. It gives you the opportunity to turn a sad situation into something humorous even if it is fleeting. “He won’t let the pain blot out the humour no more’n he’ll let the humour blot out the pain.” It’s one of the most poignant quotes in the book because while One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest shows us a potential way to achieve a better future it still acknowledges that life is ultimately still difficult especially if you are a part of a marginalised group like many of the patients in the ward are.  

McMurphy’s last stand against Ratched is the thing that sends the whole system she's so meticulously built crumbling down. After the suicide of Billy Bibbit McMurphy strangles Nurse Ratched tearing away her shirt and exposing her breasts in the process. “The two nippled circles started from her chest and swelled out and out, bigger than anybody had ever imagined, warm and pink in the light.” The language used here juxtaposes the often cold and artificial words to describe her previously like how her skin was originally compared to enamel and her face was like that of a baby doll. The reveal of her breasts finally exposes her humanity, completely removing her ability to remain as this impersonal doll-like figure. Because the facade has been broken, Ratched's power starts to fade and her ‘defects’ are out in the open for everyone to see. We can see now that the people at the top running the world at the very top are as flawed and as human as we are. They are not impenetrable robotic beings that are impossibly perfect but instead individuals made of flesh and blood like the rest of us. While the reclamation of their humanity and identity is a victory for those who have been suppressed for those at the top like Nurse Ratched it is their downfall as there is no longer a barrier between them separating who is “better” and who is “worse. 

Even though McMurphy is effectively helpless in the story after his lobotomisation his mark still remains and the damage he has done to the world Ratched created is irreparable. The weakening of her voice due to McMurphy’s strangulation represents her loosening grip over the patients. What was once her most valuable asset has been largely taken away from her even after McMurphy is gone. His ideology still lives on in each of the people he befriended during his stay. The only reason why Nurse Ratched is unable to seize back power is because the patients there no longer believe that they are incapable of living out in the real world. In spite of the hardship they may face, living a real life is something worth trying. They may differ from what is considered to be a typical person but it doesn’t necessarily make them sick or any less deserving of a fulfilling life. The rebellion against the status quo and social norms that is so central to Kesey’s one flew over the cuckoo’s nest were later reflected in civil rights movements that continued on or started in the 60s in America as different marginalised groups began to fight for the better life they thought they deserved like black civil rights movement, the gay rights movement and second wave feminism which began to blossom in the late 60s. 

In Kesey’s world, it is imperative for everyone to have an equal shot at life regardless of who they are and what issues they may have. Oppressive society will try to crush you and make you feel ashamed and you may feel hopeless, but you must always remember that strict systems who punish anyone that dares to go against it can be toppled and that they cannot fully take away the most basic parts of what makes you a person no matter how hard they try. The first step to salvation is accepting who you are as a person entirely and without shame.