Authority Figures

There are two types of people: those who sit back and play by the rules, and those who rise up and challenge the rules. Authoritarian methods are often used to control people’s freedom, actions, and maintain order among a population. Most people believe authoritarian techniques will keep people in check because they are afraid of what will happen if they break the rules that hold control over them. However, there will always be people who choose to oppose regimes despite knowing there are implications for disregarding the standards at hand. People will constantly be inclined to have power over those who they deem have a lower authority position than them. There will always be someone somewhere that will go against rules implemented on a particular group because they refuse to have their freedom controlled. These thoughts can eventually spread to those around them that can prove to be worrisome to the oppressors, but sometimes there are people who are only familiar with the option of sitting back, unable to stand up to authority figures and mandatory structures in their lives.

In in book, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” American novelist Ken Kesey writes about a mental hospital where it doesn’t seem possible for its patients to return to the outside world due to their “craziness” when hope unexpectedly sparks in the patients’ hearts when a new patient arrives with a different aura from what they know and changes the atmosphere around them. The story portrays the ward as a cruel and authoritarian place, where characters such as “Nurse Ratched” (aka, Big Nurse) maintains her persistent authority by overpowering the patients emotionally and psychologically, leaving the ward dead and quiet. Throughout the book, we constantly hear about: Chief Bromden, one of the ward’s longest patients who pretends to be deaf and dumb and the narrator, and Randle Patrick McMurphy, a new patient who fakes having a mental disorder believing the ward would be a better place and encourages the other patients to question the environment and authority they face, characters that are the main focus of the novel and lead the readers to question what is the real approach one should take when in an oppressed society.

On multiple occasions, Kesey writes about the ways McMurphy opposes the rules and guidelines set mainly by Nurse Ratched, showing how troublesome he can be in the course of disrupting the quiet and dead ward she built. However, at the same time, Bromden shows concern and worry when he notices McMurphy is getting in Nurse Ratched’s head.

When McMurphy proposes their TV time be switched to see the world series, he falls angry towards the other patients not voting because they were “…acting too cagey–too chicken shit, he called it” because no one said a thing (103). Billy, another patient, said “…I just don’t think a vote wu-wu-would do any good” and others agree (107). McMurphy doesn’t let this get to him. Their conversation switches to what McMurphy would do to get out of the ward and says “..I guess I could knock the mesh outta one of these windows with a chair…” (107) but Cheswick, another patient, told him “…we were given a demonstration about these screens. A technician picked up a chair…and beat the screen till the chair was no more…Didn’t hardly dent the screen” (108).

McMurphy kept changing the objects with what he would use to break the windows, one after the other when the other patients kept telling him they wouldn’t work, until he brought up “that big control panel…” (108). The patients didn’t believe he could move it because it was extremely heavy. But when McMurphy tried to move the control panel, Bromden narrates, “…for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think…he might do it” (110). He wasn’t successful at making it move a great deal. McMurphy then starts to leave but then “…stops at the door and looks back at everybody…” and says, “But I tried, though…I sure as hell did that much…” (110). The other patients were left in thought.

At the next meeting, McMurphy brings up the suggestion to be revoted on. When ready to vote, the patient’s hands went up, “first one, then another…right down the line…raising not just for watching TV, but against the Big Nurse, against her trying to send McMurphy to Disturbed” (121). McMurphy got the majority of the votes by getting Bromden to raise his hand too. When the time came to watch TV, he and the other patients sat in front of the TV despite Nurse Ratched getting worked up wanting the patients to “…Stop this. Stop!” (125). Bromden states that McMurphy “…knows there’s no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who’s trying to make it hard for you than by acting like you’re not bothered” (103). McMurphy revealed how authoritarian regimes could be challenged through a patient who recognized the unhealthy control other patients’ were under that weren’t helping them get better, and making an impact with his actions.

When considering authority figures and mandatory structures of my life, this was a moment from the novel I resonated with. Throughout my life I’ve constantly seen how people stand up for what they believe in, and though it doesn’t include standing up for others, I consider this to be a similar situation. Reading how McMurphy is aware of the oppressive structure in the ward while making several attempts to convince the patient’s to realize the unjust environment they’re living in and go against it, convinces me that at times people need to challenge the rules that prevent them from being themselves. In contrast, Bromden continuously claims that this oppression can make a negative impact on them. He states, “That’s what McMurphy can’t understand, us wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at,” and is something I can understand (112). I’m not one to stand up to authority figures from the fear of making situations worse.

Requests I’ve made apart from wanting to do various activities in the past have been denied multiple times, that I’ve come to be comfortable with not asking or contradicting anything asked of me. I felt that asking for something, even though I already knew the answer was useless. People say one never knows if their parents or whomever they might address for reconsideration there’s a possibility they can change their mind. However, when receiving the same responses and the same reactions when I wanted something more or something to change, I grew tired of asking and eventually decided it was easier to follow the rules and not question anything.

When faced with authoritarian environments and demands, there are multiple ways to go against them. In the long run, we should consider how we go about those situations and consider if they are worth going against. There will be moments when it’s better to comply than to rebel when giving thought to what truly affects us and how much. Even so, we must not be blind to those who try to control us or others just because they believe they can. In the ward, Bromden was one of the many patients that didn’t dare to go against Nurse Ratched because of the implications she had bestowed on them. What they needed to liven up was someone like McMurphy who stood up for what was wrong and wasn’t afraid of going against anybody who seeks to control those they deem don’t have much effect over them.

It’s disappointing to know how cruel people can be towards others who don’t give them a reason to be. People that have had difficult experiences and been rejected time over time will learn and adapt the act of accepting anything they are presented with without question. Even so, there are also other people who won’t allow themselves to be blind to the unjust rules and implications they are expected to meet just to make someone else satisfied. At times, there will be people who will help others they see being taken advantage of, but we cannot expect for someone to always appear and help us with our problems. We should learn how to realize when we are being controlled and find ways to prevent that from happening, but who said it would be easy?