Anaguano 1
Brandon Anaguano Forbidden Books Sharon Holmes March 22, 2019 One Flew Over the Child’s Shelf Picture a man gripping at the throat of another human being. Picture him barking his orders and reaping the free will of the other so as to impose his selfish will upon him. This is tyranny, and it comes in many more forms than just this. It takes various forms and ranges in severity. This tyranny manifests in a certain nurse named Ratched who runs a mental ward in Oregon during the 1950s in the book One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. The book is told in the perspective of “Chief” Bromden, a schizophrenic patient who is under Ratched’s heel in the ward. He has lived there for years in fear of Ratched and a system known as the “combine” until a new patient named R.P. McMurphy is introduced to the ward. McMurphy doesn’t consider himself mentally ill and claims that he is merely in the ward to avoid going to prison. As such, McMurphy starts to pose a threat to Ratched’s authority, through various actions such as proposing schedule changes to watch the world series, gambling, telling people to break the rules and even sneaking the men outside to go on a fishing trip. Bromden befriends McMurphy and reveals that he is not deaf like he has been posing as for all the years he has been on the ward. He starts to gain support and realizes that he can stand up to Ratched when a fellow patient named Cheswick commits suicide. One night, McMurphy snuck two prostitutes into the ward and provided everyone with alcohol and