What is insanity? One might ask. Dictionaries around the world define insanity as “the condition of someone who is senseless and extremely foolish.” This declares that insane people are those who challenge the rules of society and do not fit in with the “normal way of life.” What really is normal? In a world where teenage pregnancy isn't considered to be as abnormal as someone talking to themselves, it is hard to determine.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an amazingly written book that brings the readers attention to such issues. The men in the ward are well equipped with knowledge. They are not physically unhealthy, just socially challenged. It is the average people that devalue the life of another and make someone feel less than whole. While in the ward the men's “conditions” are worsened due to variety of medical treatments. Few brave souls have interrogated the numerous definitions of words such as “insane,” “sick,” “sane,” and “healthy”… Ken Kesey is one of them.
Insane people are usually viewed as brainless deficient people who are not aware of the world around them. Only a few men in the ward are like that. Many of these men are the “Vegetables” who are made that way due to electric shock therapy and lobotomy. The rest of the men's way of thinking and their understanding of the Combine's tactics are well thought out and critically analyzed. McMurphy maneuvers around the Big Nurse's rules is genius. He is even able to outsmart the doctor, who has proven his worth to society by gaining an enhanced education.
McMurphy is able to induce the doctor into standing his grounds when the nurse apposes his plans. He does this in many situations including getting permission to go on the fishing trip. Many of the men in the ward are a lot sharper than the people in society considered to be smarter then them. The Chief who is thought to be “dumb and deaf” is actually very clever. He did not choose not to speak but the people around him chose not to hear him. His daily routine of acting deaf was brought on due to many childhood experiences, where he was not accepted by society because of the person he was.
The men have untypical but intelligent reasons as to why they are the way they are. All the reasons to the men's problems however were brought on due to their distinctive ways and beliefs. It is unfortunate that mankind can label certain people as not good enough or too abnormal for society.
Many of the men in the hospital voluntarily took themselves out of society, some were however committed. Billy Babbit, Chief Bromden, and Harding all have one thing in common. They were all brought into the mental institution because of how society treated them. When you are told certain things for long periods of time the thought is engraved into your head and you eventually start to believe the accusations. McMurphy coming in made the guys really believe that they were not crazy just outcasts of society. They were no different then “the average idiot walking the street.”
Billy Babbit is in the ward voluntarily. He is there due to numerous suicide attempts which were brought on by his stuttering which is not a very well celebrated trait in society. Harding is also in the ward voluntarily and is one of the most educated men in the ward. He seems to be in the mental institution due to his troubles which were brought on by his sexuality. He appears to be homosexual which is not a preferred sexuality status for men even today.
McMurphy is in the mental institution not because he is insane but because he is a criminal. He does not belong in a mental institution. People seem to be more reluctant to mentally ill people then killers. The members of the ward's insanity were brought on due to how the average dunce treats people with a sense of individualism.
The men's individualism's are abolished through various medical procedures and discussions. These men who are thought to be sick are fixed to be sane or what is considered sane through the rules of society. They are forced to either give in or become like the rest of the men in society or through various medical procedures become Vegetables. McMurphy was one of the men that were forced into becoming a Vegetable. Santa Clause (a former member of the ward) was “fixed” and let out into the Outside World. He gave in and gave up his sense of character. Is being normal, healthy, and sane really about giving up who you are?
Although you may like to think not, unfortunately in Nurse Ratched's ward it is. Although some of the men are released they had to give up who they were in order to do so. Individualism is a celebrated thing, but only to a certain point. Unfortunately you are not being individual and doing what you want if you are following the standards of other people. Doing something that isn't considered normal…now that's individual. Unfortunately, in the mental ward you can either be dead but still respiring or become someone you are not.
Death to most people sounds like a better choice, but shouldn't be. People should be able to be individual and be as they are as long as they are not harming anyone. Most of the people in Nurse Ratched's ward were not harming anyone but were considered insane which is a sad thing. Few brave souls have interrogated the numerous definitions of words such as “insane,” “sick,” “sane,” and “healthy”.
Ken Kesey is one of them. He showed that individualism of many very sane people is considered to be abnormal and insane. Some of the smartest men in the country were living in the ward. If a man is able to outsmart a doctor he definitely is not insane or unhealthy. Due to people in society many in the ward brought themselves there voluntarily, not knowing it was just going to add to worsen their “conditions.” The same people that caused their “conditions” through following the rules of society are asked to fix them.
