One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
             One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is a novel written about the tyrannical control of a government-operated mental institution, and the struggle for freedom and self-confidence. The restrictions which are placed on the men are great, yet it only takes the influence of one man, Randle Patrick McMurphy, to overcome the power of the institution, and ultimately free his ward mates from the power of control.
             As the novel begins the reader is introduced to Big Chief, or Chief Bromden, as he is known, who has been an inmate of the ward for 15 years. Bromden is the narrator of the novel and introduces the reader to the struggle for freedom among the inmates inside the ward.
             The ward of the institution is separated between two types of individuals: the acutes and the chronics. The acutes are the individuals who still have a chance to "be fixed" (Kesey 19) and return to the outside world where as the chronics "are in for good" (19) and have no chance of leaving the ward. The inmates are under the control of Nurse Ratched, who runs the ward and controls their every thought and movement. She follows the same routine everyday, "She'll spend the day sitting at her desk and looking out her window and making notes on what goes on for the next eight hours" (10). This gives the reader a sense of how she monitors everything that happens on the ward. Big Nurse
             needs to be in control at all times in order to feel as though she has power over the inmates, never anticipating that her "system" would be threatened.
             Randle Patrick McMurphy, the new acute on the ward, instantly establishes himself to the other inmates, and threatens the control of Big Nurse. He has visible scars on his hands and face, which indicate that he is a tough working man, who plays by his own rules. Upon entering the ward he begins looking for the leader of the ...