Lit Log #1 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I have never liked being in highly controlled environments. When I was younger I went to this Christian school and I was constantly getting into trouble, I hated the uniforms, restrictive rules, and the physical abuse. While reading about the ward I was always thinking about the connection with that school. Although I was there for a short two years it was something that I remember vividly. The principal reminds me a lot of Nurse Ratched, she would have favorites and she would use physical forms of discipline when someone did something she didn’t like.

I have always been able to push back against systems I think are restrictive towards me. Not only at school but in the real world as well and as McMurphy helped me realize that the ward is an oppressive system I have made the similarities with what I’ve recently done. It has been a long time since I’ve spoken about systemically oppressive systems but I have found a voice speaking for the people of Palestine. In 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movement was in full effect my mother told me I wasn’t allowed to speak up because it was too dangerous. Recently, I went to a sit-in at UPenn to advocate for the people of Palestine although my activism may have been interpreted differently in the same way as how Bromden first saw McMurphy. As we, as a class looked deeper into McMurphy as a character I realized that I also have the same views and reactions when it comes to being dictated to. Like McMurphy, I also have a tendency to try and get people on board to do what’s right. The system that is happening in the book is oppressive and I think that’s why McMurphy is determined to make the other patients see that because as we discussed in class, people can be comfortable and complicit in their own oppression.

At first, I found McMurphy’s fallback suspicious because he was adamant about taking down Nure Ratched but I realize he’s trying to play the game of the ward. In class, we talked about the difference between influence and manipulation and now I think that McMurphy is trying to influence the other patients to break free from the oppressive systems Nurse Ratched has implemented on the ward. When McMurphy and Harding talk about Nurse Ratched, we can clearly see that in the beginning there’s a disagreement about her character McMurphy calls her a bitch and Harding refers to her as an angel. The way that Bromden describes the ward and Nure Ratched he talks about how the fate of the patients is solely up to her and the other doctors no matter how good or bad the outcome might be for the patients. When McMurphy stops trying to get a rise out of Ratched he establishes that he has to manipulate the system to his advantage in order to escape. McMurphy is strong about his feelings toward Nurse Ratched he doesn’t feel like he’s insane like the ward claims he is.