McMurphy vs. Nurse Ratched

In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, two characters are predominant in the power struggle over the hospital ward. These two characters are Nurse Ratched, overseer of the men, and Randle McMurphy, a patient in the ward unlike any they've seen in a long time. Throughout the book, each character tries to convey their dominance, or flex their muscles, to show the ward who has more control.

Before McMurphy arrives to the ward, Big Nurse has total control. McMurphy explains her control by saying, "The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin’ at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers. But usually a couple of the flock gets spotted in the fracas, then it’s their turn. And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death, and more and more. Oh, a peckin’ party can wipe out the whole flock in a matter of a few hours, buddy, I seen it. A mighty awesome sight" (Kesey 55). Big Nurse's therapy sections aren't very therapeutic. Rather, she uses these times to emaculate the men, and that does not help them. McMurphy takes on his own form of therapy session by taking the men on a fishing trip. In doing so, he made people like George feel needed, and for Chief, "I smelt the air and felt the four cans of beer I'd drunk shorting out dozens of control leads down inside me: all aroung, the chrome sides of the swells flickered and flashed in the sun" (209). McMurhpy's tactics were much more therapeutic than anything Nurse Ratched could do for these men, because McMurphy made them feel like men.

The battle for power and authority in the ward is a constant theme throughought the book. It ends with a series of powerful plays to win total control. When McMurphy strangles Big Nurse it is though that he won, because he has scarred and changed her forever. However, she comes back swinging when she orders a labotamy on McMurphy. This appears to be the final straw. A labotamy would ruin McMurphy and give Ratched control over him, and the entire ward once more. But when Chief suffocates McMurphy in his sleep, it probes the question of who really won. I feel as though McMurphy won because in the end, he is in a better place where she can't control him, she has a constant reminder around her neck of his effect on her, and her most loyal patient, Chief, went against her by killing McMurphy so he wouldn't have to live in misery.