One flew over the cuckoos nest - Narrator essay

by aryaaruhotmailcom (student)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Narrator Essay

A prose in which the writer uses a memorable narrative technique is “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey. The story is told by Chief Bromden, a patient in a psychiatric ward who has severe paranoia giving him a distorted perception of reality. The head nurse in the ward, Nurse Ratched, is an extremely controlling and oppressing character who manipulates the patients and keeps them and the ward in a rigorous routine. Initially the ward is run as if it was a prison, but from the minute the brazen and outspoken McMurphy sets foot on the ward it is clear that he is going to cause havoc and help to change things in the ward.

In the beginning of the novel, the Chief explains that he has fooled everyone in the ward including the Nurse into thinking that he is deaf and dumb. This gives the Chief, and the readers, a privileged viewpoint of the events in the novel. A scene in which this is particularly relevant is in the staff meeting:

“The staff always let me clean the room because they didn’t think I could hear.”

In the ward, the staff always discuss private matters in the staff meeting and because the Chief stays in the room, he hears all the secrets. In this staff meeting, the Nurse makes it clear that she doesn’t like McMurphy or his motives. We also gain insight into the fact that there is a clear struggle for power between the Nurse and McMurphy and that the Nurse feels that her power is being threatened by McMurphy’s arrival at the ward. The narrator’s unique viewpoint into this scene is essential to the readers overall understanding of the events taking place in the ward and this makes Chief Bromden’s narration memorable.

The theme of oppression is prevalent throughout the play and it is particularly emphasised by the narration of the novel. The chief uses various images to convey the controlling nature of the Nurse and her obsession with having full power over the patients. When the chief describes Nurse Ratched, he often uses imagery that has connotations of machinery:

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“She’s carrying her woven wicker bag...I can see inside it; there’s no compact or lipstick or woman stuff, she’s got that bag full of a thousand parts she aims to use in her duties today – wheels and gears, cogs polished to a hard glitter, tiny pills that gleam like porcelain, needles, forceps, watchmakers pliers, rolls of copper wire...”

Due to the fact that the Chief is in the ward, we can assume that his mental condition may not be very stable and that the facts he narrates may not be very accurate. We know that the nurse does not actually have these things in her bag and that it is simply a figment of the chief’s imagination and the fact that he sees things in a much exaggerated way. He paranoia also causes him to suspect all of the nurse’s actions. It is clear, however, that the nurse behaves in a very mechanical and machine-like way and by showing no emotion she has no sympathy towards the patients either. This imagery used by the chief is very memorable and is effective in conveying the nurse’s oppression in the ward.

The chief’s paranoia also causes him to fear and despise any authority including the society which he sees as a giant machine known as “the combine” and he sees the same machine at work in the hospital. This also reinforces the idea that the ward is a microcosm of society. The machine-like Combine tries to make machines out of everything, including humans. Bromden dreams that the hospital workers are killing Blastic, one of the patients referred to as a Vegetable. When they cut him up, there is nothing human inside him. Instead, Bromden sees:

“a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece of wire and glass”

The turning of people into machines is a significant idea in this novel and also the idea that the combine decides who is sane and who isn’t. People who have been “processed” by society no longer have any ability to understand anything that doesn’t fit what they have been programmed to hear. He describes their thought-processes in terms of machines which reinforces the machine imagery used to describe the nurse earlier on. He says that the combine makes people conform to a regulated norm and anyone who doesn’t fit the description is deemed as mentally incapable and forced to conform in order to learn how to live in society. The chief point of view comes across strongly throughout the story and this makes this narrative memorable and effective in conveying the ideas put forward.

Chief Bromden’s transition from narrator to character is very important in this novel also as it symbolises the overcoming of oppression. In the start of the play, the chief is introduced as paranoid, bullied, and surrounded much of the time by a hallucinated fog that shows both his medicated state and his self defence mechanism that he uses to block out events in the real world. Also, he believes that he is extremely weak, even though he used to be immensely strong and he has no self confidence.

McMurphy is so bold and brash and disregarding of the Combine system, that he gives Chief hope that fitting into society is not what life is for. Eventually, Chief reveals that he can talk and hear just fine which is the turning point in the chiefs character because after this he takes part in the action a lot more instead of merely observing. Chief tries to protect McMurphy when he gets into a fight with the black boys. And he tries to protect McMurphy again when they go to the Disturbed ward and are given electroshock therapy.

Ultimately, he fails to protect the man he has come to see as a Christ-like saviour as McMurphy is lobotomized. Yet in the end, when McMurphy finally returns to the ward as a vegetable, the chief smothers McMurphy as he knows that he would have not wanted to live in such a pitiful state. Because of McMurphy, Chief finally has the courage to break free from the hospital and he escapes and there is a strong sense of liberation.

Overall the Chief’s unique narrative style in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” contributes to the play being very memorable overall.