“She said she was seventeen, doc, and she was plenty willing’
Here we see that McMurphy, unlike many of the other patients at the ward, is very open about his sexual desires, especially about his past experience of rape. McMurphy's refusal to keep quiet about actions that other patients would attempt to hide reflects the idea of following the rules and keep order in society, therefore making him stand out from the rest, and challenging the society which he is in conflict with.
On the other hand, Ms. Ratched attempts to hide any evidence of her sexuality, mainly to prevent showing any weakness to the patients; maintaining the representation of a machine rather than a equal human being:
“There’s no compact or lipstick or woman stuff… Wheels and gears, cogs polished to a hard glitter, tiny pills that gleam like porcelain, needles, forceps, watchmakers’ pliers, rolls of copper wire…”
Rather than giving Ms. Ratched the stereotypical image of a nurse during the war time, Kesey presents her as a machine rather than a feminine woman. Kesey does this to make the society that runs the ward seem heartless and not caring about the patients, and therefore making the reader agree with Bromden’s opinions. By giving Ms. Ratched the description and characteristics of a machine, it makes her distant from the other feminine nurses in the ward, and presents her in conflict with societies impressions of nurses and the stereotypes which accompany them.
A main theme shown in ‘Regeneration’ is the theme of madness, as it is central to the environment of the novel and the characters found in Craiglockhart .Many of the soldiers at Craiglockhart War Hospital are haunted from experiences from the war which have led them to madness, which Rivers and other psychiatrists struggle to cure, because the range of symptoms is so wide-spread. Throughout the novel, Rivers begins to question the idea of madness and begins to challenge the assumptions of his society:
“Breakdown was nothing to be ashamed of, that horror and fear were inevitable responses to the trauma of war”
Rivers uses these words to assure himself and his patients that they should not feel they are doing anything unnatural. However, he wonders whether it truly was madness for these men to break down in the face of such horror and death, or mad for helping patients, just to send them back to war again. By contemplating the ethics of his actions in Craiglockhart hospital, he finds himself in conflict with the status quo of the surrounding society.
Laughter is a major motif which appears throughout ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’. McMurphy's laughter feels very unusual in the ward to the other patients, as all other laughter and positive emotions have been smothered by the power of The Combine. McMurphy's notices that none of them are able to laugh; they can only smile and snicker behind their hands. When noticing the unusual laughter from McMurphy, Bromden recalls when his father and relatives would use laughter as a means of insulting the government to show them that they would not let themselves be controlled by them:
“I forget sometimes what laughter can do.”
McMurphy states that nobody in the ward is able to prevent themselves from being controlled by The Combine if they are not able to laugh allowed. This is another demonstration of McMurphy being in conflict with society, as he is presented as the only apparent character rebelling against the pressure society is placing on the patients.
Another motif in ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ is size. Throughout the novel, we notice that Bromden measures size by the amount of power and authority they exert, rather than the characters’ actual size. For example, Bromden, though he is six feet seven inches tall, feels much smaller and weaker then the staff in The Combine:
“I used to be big, but not no more.”
Here we see the effects that The Combine has had on Bromden’s confidence, through the negative declarative ‘but not no more’. Even though Bromden is much taller then any of the staff, and therefore could physically overpower them, because of the strict attitude of Ms. Ratched and the Black Boys, they are able to manipulate Bromden into believing he is weak in comparison.
Emasculation is a motif which appears in the ‘Regeneration’. Emasculation signals the powerlessness that soldiers feel when confronted with the shocking reality of war. Although they try to do the manly thing by enlisting in the war and fighting for their country, they must face society's judgment that it is decidedly unmanly to suffer a breakdown. One main example of emasculation is when Mr. Prior comes to visit, and describes an incident which happened to his son when he was younger:
“Got the shit kicked out of him. And the next day. And the next… I’ve had enough of this. So the next time he come in blubbing I give him a backhander and shoved him out the door”
Here we see that Prior was not only bullied by other children, but at certain times also physically abused by his own father. Whilst this effect may have made Prior want to join the army to show his masculinity, his fear of death and of his parents mirror his pusillanimous attitude, which he reveals to River’s whilst at Craiglockhart. Because of his fear of death and troubled mind caused by his cowardice, Prior finds himself in conflict with society which pressurises him with the expectations he struggles to live up to.
In ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, the individual in conflict with society can be also shown through the personality and actions of the characters. Chief Bromden, for example, acts deaf and dumb as to avoid the ruthlessness of ‘The Combine’. Although he is passive throughout the majority of the novel compared to McMurphy, Bromden’s attitude towards the society of the asylum shows him to be an individual in conflict:
“I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”
This is the first instant where the reader learns that Bromden is the narrator, who finds himself plagued by the actions of the Black Boys and The Combine. He states that even though he is extremely opinionative, the reader should not judge him, as it is because of the horrors of the society that he constantly goes against the actions of the ward. From what we have been told already, we are able to deduce that there are more events which present Bromden in conflict with ‘The Combine’.
McMurphy’s actions also present him as different compared with other characters in the ward. When McMurphy is taken to get electroshock treatment, he lies down voluntarily on the cross-shaped table:
“Anointest my head with conductant. Do I get a crown of thorns?”
Here we see that McMurphy is extremely determined to show the other patients that if they put belief in themselves, they could overpower the conflicting ‘Combine’. To do this, McMurphy sacrifices himself and the chance to escape, to save the other patients. This is highly symbolic of Jesus’ final act, in which he sacrifices himself In order to show that he will never bow down and give up his beliefs. McMurphy is presented as the only person in the ward willing to stand up to The Combine throughout the majority of the novel. However, nearer the end, McMurphy’s actions change the attitudes of the other patients, changing it from an individual in conflict with society to many.
In ‘Regeneration’, Dr. Rivers is much like Chief Bromden; although he does not agree with the concept of the war, which had turned from a defensive war to a war of aggression, he was bound to service the patients back to health so that they could be re-placed back into the war. Rivers finds himself identifying with Jesus and the scripture from Luke’s Gospel after being told the story of Prior’s life in the war and how he ended up in Craiglockhart:
“Ye will surely say unto me this proverb. Physician heal thyself.”
Barker's reference to the Gospel quotation presents Rivers feeling plagued by his emotions Prior’s war story, showing the grotesque nature the men go through on the front line. Rivers struggles to force himself not to think about the story, not wanting to have to take leave because of his mental state. Rivers knows that his job is to look after the patients and help them recover, but because he himself is having troubles agreeing with the beliefs, he is not sure if he is able to also help them. Rivers’ confused emotions show him to be an individual in conflict with society, being the only doctor in Craiglockhart to consider the patients feelings and siding with them over attitudes towards the war.
Overall, Kesey and Barker use different themes, motifs and characterisation to best show the individual in conflict with society. Both ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Regeneration’ compare in the sense that the society which the characters live pressurise individuals to fall in line with the stereotypes and rules that they set. However, where as in ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ this is shown through the themes of sexuality and the motifs of laughter and size, ‘Regeneration’ shows the individual rising against the beliefs of society through the theme of madness and the motif of emasculation.
