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Insane vs Sane in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Online Essay

Insane vs Sane in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Should anyone in a mental institution automatically be considered insane? Or is the fact that a person who holds a position of authority makes them sane? Seems like throughout One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey explains the how sanity conforms to the authority. Although in reality, the authority is the one that acts out insanely through the novel.

When we are introduced to the patients of the ward which we all pretty much assumed that this group is a bunch of crazy psychos. After all they are living in a mental institution. One of those would be Chief Bromden, narrator of the story. He is a tall Native American man who does not speak, and hallucinates with fog. For Chief the fog ...

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every single rule Nurse Ratched has put for the other patients. McMurphy claims to be mentally sane, and he explains the only reason he is in the ward is so that he could get out of being in jail. Throughout the novel McMurphy tries to show the acutes in the ward that they do not have to listen and obey what Nurse Ratched is telling them do. McMurphy’s actions of going against everything show his lucid understanding of what’s going on unlike the other acutes in the ward. This sanity in McMurphy uses against Nurse Ratched soon fades away as the novel continues.

We can see that Nurse Ratched is trying to get all the patients to conform to her ways, and if not the have to pay in cruel and painful punishment. It is obvious to us that the real insane person here is the Nurse, but this situation it does not matter because she is the one with the authority. Nurse Ratched and the whole system of power she is a part of also force on to question the concepts of sick versus healthy ...

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Insane vs Sane in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. (2013, March 8). Retrieved February 2, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Insane-vs-Sane-One-Flew-over/102375

"Insane vs Sane in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 8 Mar. 2013. Web. 2 Feb. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Insane-vs-Sane-One-Flew-over/102375>

"Insane vs Sane in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest." Essayworld.com. March 8, 2013. Accessed February 2, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Insane-vs-Sane-One-Flew-over/102375.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 3/8/2013 07:19:42 PM
Submitted By: mayracansigno
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1020
Pages: 4

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