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Chris Ambrosio
Form V English
Mr. Kolade
September 29th 2014
No ‘I’ in the Cuckoo’s Nest
Before a new baby is even born, his personality will be determined. No two people are the same
,
and no two people even have the chemical makeup to be similar (aside from twins).
This personal identity is carried with him throughout his entire life and will help predetermine what his life will be like. This idea is exemplified throughout Ken Kesey’s novel,
One Flew
Over the Cuckoos Nest. Kesey does not spend a large amount of time describing the characters, however , he takes his time displaying the social inability of the patients.
Rather than depicting the patients as the stereotypical insane members of society who belong in an asylum, Kesey portrays the patients as fairly normal guys who appear to be victims of society. In other words
,
they are not the hunters, they are the hunted
, for the patients are like a ragdoll to the rest of the world.
On the contrary, the protagonist, Randle McMurphy, comes into the ward sane and immediately assumes the position of the hunter. He anticipated the patients to be off the wall crazy, yet he was surprised when he saw the patients as normal, but “small.” Being the clear opposite of the patients, McMurphy’s bravado and effortless ability to make people laugh assumes his position as a leader. In order for the patients to develop into leaders themselves, they need to undergo a period of individualism, which Kesey indicates through
Mcmurphy’s
influence over the ward, which essentially models society.

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The community created by the totalitarian rule of Nurse Ratched, the head nurse in the ward, changes the moment McMurphy walks in. He asserts his dominance by cracking jokes and acting “big.” In the eyes of one of the ward’s chronics, someone who appears to be incurable, McMurphy is “big.”
This chronic goes by the name Chief due to his Native American background and is only able to talk once McMurphy edges him on. Chief does not think of
McMurphy
as “big” in the sense of fat or strong, but big in the sense of his presence amongst the patients and employees. With his “bigness,” he questions the patients’ sanity; McMurphy does not understand why the patients are in the ward.
Similar to magnets, the patients gravitate to McMurphy in order to find a leader. For example, once McMurphy decides to suck up to
Nurse Ratched, he starts to lose interest in challenging her. Eventually his change in heart will affect Cheswick, one of the patients who heavily relies on McMurphy’s leadership. A specific example of this occurs when Cheswick rants at Nurse Ratched for not giving him all of his cigarettes, he exclaims, “I ain’t no little kid to have cigarettes kept from me like cookies! We want something done about it, ain’t that right, Mack?’ and waited for McMurphy to back him up, all he got was silence.” (Kesey 96).
Perplexed and disappointed, Cheswick goes on to drown in the following scene. It is unclear whether or not Cheswick commits suicide, regardless, the death of Cheswick emphasizes McMurphy's impact on the patients’ physical and mental health.
This event instigates a downward spiral in the story that will eventually lead to McMurphy’s strong comeback to challenge the Big Nurse’s authority through the fishing trip and the party.
With these events in mind, the reader will start to notice an evolution in the patients’ idea of maturity, but not a complete change quite yet.

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The patients get a taste of this change as soon as McMurphy walks into the ward. He does not see how they are crazy at all, and as a result he says, “
You boys don’t look so crazy to me . . .
Which one of you claims to be the craziest? Which one is the biggest loony? Who’s the bull goose loony here?” (Kesey 15).
This disconnect between McMurphy and the other patients will set the tone for the