Mass Hysteria
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Today when we think of mental illness, we have a much more relaxed point of view. Disorders such as depression and bipolar and even schizophrenia are fairly well known and most of us probably even know someone who had been diagnosed with some form of a mental disorder, 50 years ago, things were much different. In his first novel, One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey takes us inside what an insane asylum was like during the late 50s and 60s America at the time that this novel was written was experiencing some of the worst turmoil in our countrys history. From the Vietnam War to excess drug use and the civil rights movements the country was struggling to find its self as were the people who lived there. I will give you a brief overview of the novel and some of the main characters and what I feel are the important analytical aspects of Keseys writings. I will take a look at some important themes of the novel and how they can be translated today. I will discuss the effect of the different disorders in this novel to their characters and how it affected their behavior.
The novel is narrated by Chief Bromden, a half-Indian who has been a patient at the Oregon psychiatric hospital for ten years, longer than any of the other patients. He suffers from hallucinations and severe delusions that clog his worldview. He fears most of all a thing he refers to as “the Combine,” a corporation type thing that controls everything in society and forces people to conform to the certain society norm. He pretends to be deaf and dumb, almost to make himself appear invisible, which was difficult being that he was 67. The hospital is run by a woman by the name of Nurse Ratched, the novels antagonist, who Chief refers to as “the Big Nurse.” She is a former army nurse and runs her ward with an iron fist. Everything she does is in a particular, organized, almost mechanical fashion, and if a patient rebels or tries to disagree with her or any of her staff he would be sent to receive electroshock treatments and sometimes even a lobotomy. He lips and nails are an odd orange color and almost chrome. She has four black orderlies who is seems sole purpose is to make life miserable for the patients in the ward. Kesey states that she chooses her staff based on their cruelty and how well they are at making the patients in the ward continue to be submissive. This all changed with arrival of the new patient, Mr. McMurphy. Randal McMurphy, the novels protagonist arrives at the ward after choosing the plead insanity instead of spending six months on a work farm, Chief senses something about him is different compared to all the other residents. McMurphy describes himself as a “gambling fool,” with uncontrollable sexual urges. (Kesey, 1962) He has been diagnosed as a psychopath, but seems quite sane compared to the people hes around. He is introduced to some