How are people enslaved and by what means do they attempt to free themselves? - A reflection on "Blade Runner" and "Cuckoo's Nest"

Although Nurse Ratched doesn’t seem to be enslaved to herself or the reader at first glance, in fact one would think that she is the main enslaver, though not being wrong with that statement, it is wrong to assume that Ratched can’t be enslaved just because she has a position of enslaving others. It is the very thing of her being the one that enslaves people that enslaves her as she is subsumed herself by her institution. Nurse Ratched’s enslavement comes about from her obsession, her obsession to be in complete control and have everything running perfectly through her eyes, though her obsession has been taken to the extremes, to the point where it has engulfed her completely and everything that she sees and breathes is to do with this obsession, which also begs another question, how sane is Nurse Ratched. Ratched becomes free, not out of choice as she doesn’t know that she is a slave but through the actions of others. When almost everyone involved with the ward, excluding the chronics, somehow leave the ward be it through death, escape, resignation or however, Nurse Ratched is freed. She is freed because having no people to enslave she is not a slave herself, Ratched’s freedom is a good thing  as hopefully when she is freed she will be able to take a step back and look at what she had done whilst being a slave and possibly she will be able to change her ways in the future.

Mcmurphy, like Broom is also enslaved by many things, his reputation, the actual institution, the combine and the nurse. although from the beginning of the novel McMurphy doesn’t see himself as a slave, he is and he doesn’t realise it  until the nurse tells him that he is committed and this completely changes McMurphy from being the big, masculine person who challenges everything the ward has that can be challenged to a little quivering mess who keeps quiet and sucks up to Ratched. This is the only time that we see McMurphy’s reputation change out of his own free will. So McMurphy is a slave to his reputation, a good type of slavery, not only for him but for the rest of the ward, barring Nurse Ratched and the black boys, as this form of slavery changed the for the better. The freedom form this slavery is a negative freedom for when McMurphy lets his reputation down and realises that he is a slave to Ratched which is worse than being a slave to your own reputation, so in gaining one freedom McMurphy is then enslaved again by something worse. McMurphy’s main enslaver, the ward and the nurse is the worst thing McMurphy can be enslaved by as it is the hardest thing to become free of as he is completely under the nurses control, and this thought is always in the back of his mind, McMurphy frees himself form this in the most negative way, death. Before McMurphy had his tragic realisation of being committed he seemed free, so therefore it is possible to say that McMurphy is only a slave if he believes he is.

In Bladerunner Deckard is enslaved by his lack of ability to show his emotion. He is freed when he falls in love.