The Individual and The System in Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest :: One Flew Over Cuckoos Nest

The Individual and The System One Flew oer The Cuckoos Nest Many social issues and problems are explored in Ken Keseys novel One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. Perhaps the most obvious complaint against society is the treatment of the individual. This problem of the individual versus the system is a very controversial topic that has provoked slap-up questioning of the government and the methods used to treat people who are unable to conform to the governments standards. McMurphy is an individual who is challenging and rebelling against the systems rules and practices. He eventually teaches this practice of rebellion to the other(a) patients who begin to realize that their lives are being controlled unfairly by the mental institution. When McMurphy first arrives at the institution, all of the other patients are afraid to express their thoughts to the biggish Nurse. They are afraid to exercise their thoughts freely, and they believe that the Big Nurse will punish them if they que stion her authority. One patient, Harding, says, "All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees...We need a good grueling wolf like the nurse to teach us our place" (Kesey 62). This novel has a very strong theme of government rejecting those who are considered nonconformists in modern society. The government then places these nonconformists in mental institutions so it will not have to deal with them. This is societys guidance of ditching those with nonconformist attitudes so they will disappear from the world and be forgotten. According to one critic, oppressive, conformist, regulatory, civilization is the suppressor of individual freedom (Barsness 433). "He (McMurphy) hadnt let what he looked like run his life one way or the other,anymore than hed let the Combine (the characters metaphor for the government) mill him into fitting where they wanted him to fit...Hes not gonna let them torture him and manufacture him" (Kesey 153). McMurphy is symbolize d as the typical individual, while Big Nurse Ratched is symbolized as a member of the system, or the Combine. Bromden narrates, "McMurphy doesnt know it, but hes onto what I realized a long time back, that its not just the Big Nurse by herself, but its the whole Combine, the nation-wide Combine thats the really big force, and the nurse is just a high-ranking official for them" (181).