McMurphy bursts on the well-ordered, claustrophobic scene of the psychiatric ward like a psychological bombshell. Streetwise, smart, aggressive, vigorous, he challenges the status quo — the "way things are" — from day one. He introduces himself to everyone in the ward, shaking hands and filling the silence with loud laughter. The attraction of the psychiatric hospital for him was the idea of enjoying better meals and an easier lifestyle. This is not exactly what he finds. McMurphy immediately engages in a long, hopeless, and endless battle with Big Nurse, a classic control freak. What McMurphy has brought to the ward is a touch of normalcy. What Nurse Ratched wants is a group of docile and quiet men who do not upset or question how she has ordered things. The more successful McMurphy is at upsetting the status quo, the more intense the battle becomes between him and Nurse Ratched. He also demands in group therapy meetings that democracy reign and that Nurse Ratched loosen up some of the ties that bind the residents to a senseless, rigid schedule that only serves to dehumanize them. What starts as a rollicking rebellion against authority becomes a tragedy. McMurphy is repeatedly subjected to electric shock therapy. He manages to joke about it and to gather the strength to organize a fishing expedition for some of the men. His final challenge is a party at night in the ward that turns into a fiasco. The drunken orgy, complete with prostitutes, is McMurphy's demise. Big Nurse finally pulls the plug and sends him for psychosurgery. He returns, lobotomized, as a human vegetable. All the lights in this bright mind and brave personality have been extinguished. His energizing influence on the residents lives on, however. Several leave to go home after McMurphy's demise as their leader, and Chief Bromden escapes from the ward and heads for the country. Despite his final degradation to a vegetative state, he wins the fight for freedom that he has fought so bravely. But the rewards are not his. They belong to his fellow patients.
The main action of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest consists of McMurphy's struggles against the strict rules of Big Nurse Ratched. Her ward at the hospital is a society in itself, for it has its own laws and punishments, both for the inmates and for the orderlies and nurses who watch over them. McMurphy challenges the rules from the time he arrives, from upsetting the supposedly "democratic" procedure of group therapy to brushing his teeth before the appointed time. By having McMurphy question and ridicule Nurse Ratched's ludicrous, controlling rules, Kesey portrays the individual's struggle against a conformist society as a noble, meaningful task. McMurphy's fight within the small world of the hospital can also be extended to the outside world. During the time Kesey was writing the novel, society emphasized conformity as a means of upholding law and order. Through the portrayal of one individual's meaningful fight against a small society, Kesey brought into question the standards of his own society at large.
The fog is one of the major symbols in the novel. It is what Chief sees around him, a thick cloudy fog. This is symbolic of the fear and paranoia placed inside of him by society rejecting him and the fear Nurse Ratched imposes on her ward. Chief also enjoys the ‘invisibility’ the fog gives him; this is representative of his withdrawn character. When McMurphy arrives at the ward he helps Chief see through the fog and makes the fog ‘disappear’ from Chief’s mind and makes him aware of himself and strength his character.
The constant reference to machinery dehumanises the patients. It makes the patients seem a mass rather than unique and individual people. Nurse Ratched is describes in term of both being a machine of great strength and operating a powerful machine that she uses to impose he fear over the ward. This is representational of the control in the ward and her love for precision and order. Society wants to regulate and control the individuals by using institutions. These are referred to as ‘misfits’ being processed by the machine. The control panel is a machine that is symbolic of courage, confidence and determination to fight society’s control. McMurphy TRIED using the control panel as a method of escaping. Even though he failed he had at least tried, whereas the other patients are too frightened to do anything of the sort or an action that would get The Big Nurse outraged.
On the other hand to dehumanising symbol; there is the laughter that humanises the patients, it is spontaneous. McMurphy’s laughter is the first thing that Chief notices as it reminds him of another individual who fought against society, his father. The fishing trip which was full of spontaneous laughter, was a way for the patients to become human. They forgot the paranoia, the fear created by the machines and The Big Nurse. McMurphy’s hand is also something that seems human in the novel. The hand reflects his character and the broad range of life experience and his strength. When he arrives he seems out of place, a human in a world of robots, he is compassionate and generous. But even though his hand may seem innocent, it his hands that later de-humanises and becomes a weapon against the nurse.