"One Flew East, One Flew West, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (7) - who would have thought that a simple excerpt from a children's fairy tale from ancient times could be used to summarize the interactions of society as a whole. In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the meaning of this epigraph resonates effectively throughout the story of Randle P. McMurphy, a shrewd gambler whose defiant actions shake the inner workings of a downtrodden mental institution, bringing him finally to his fatal death. fall. His story is seen through the eyes of another patient at the mental institution, Chief "Broom" Bromden, an overly large half-Indian whose narrative consists of a series of delusions and paranoia-fueled thoughts. Kesey uses One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to describe how the individuality of ordinary people is so highly repressed by those who represent authority, which requires that anyone whose behavior does not agree with what is considered the norm must essentially be neutered from such traits by any means necessary. Bromden's ever-present silence and attempt at invisibility lead to the idea that he is deaf and dumb, in stark contrast to the strong, confident and unignorable presence of the protagonist McMurphy who upon arrival immediately challenges the standards and rules instilled by the head nurse, Miss Ratched. Inferring that Kesey kept the above child folktale in mind when creating these extreme character contrasts, one might say that McMurphy and his actions of disobedience represent the group of people whose direction opposes that of the oppressive Miss Ratched , leaving the final direction of beyond the cuckoo. nursery in Bromden, which eventually escapes the confines of the psychiatric ward. Miss Ratched's hold on the department is strong, as she "wields a secure... medium of paper... also present. Consider a local police department, who polices their designated area, keeping It turns out that a person has committed a act that defies the laws established by the department, requiring some form of action to take place by the authorities, this is right when the authority turns into abuse of power and measures are taken to this effect it can be considered immoral, there is a corrupt link in the system. Miss Ratched was the corrupt link. Her hunger for power and lust for control led to the brain death of an innocent man, simply because he did not follow her standards “our existence is based on the fact that the strong become stronger by devouring the weak” (54), proving that the rabbits of the world are indeed defenseless in the face of wolves. Works Cited Kesey, Ken “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.” Harlequin, 1962. iBooks.