A friend
once told me a story (a true story, said he, though I never verified it myself)
about an experiment held in prison, which would prove that you could only see
one's original character when you put him/her into absolute power. Put someone
nice and kind to be a prison warden, with absolute power, for a period of time,
and see if his personality wouldn't change after that. This story came back to
me while reading this book.
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is
about a psychiatric hospital ward ruled by a dictatorial Head Nurse. It was
told from the point of view of 'Chief' Bromden, a half Native-American who
pretended to be deaf and dumb. Nurse Ratched ruled the ward iron-handedly. Despite
of having no credibility in mental health, she decided what's best for the
patient's health, just to make them docile. Everyone (the patients) knew that
they were treated unjustly, but nobody dared to oppose her. The punishment of
disobediences was electroshock therapy, which was a common practice in 1960s as
a cure to mental disorders.
Then one day came a new Admission into the ward, an ex-con man named Randle
McMurphy. He's rebellious; and from the beginning he resisted Nurse Ratched's
authority. He began by annoying her; then gradually resisted her rules or
instructions. Soon he became a hero and inspiration for the other patients. The
fight is now up between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched; but can the patients really
fight against the authority?
One Flew is all about abusive power.
It's not just about corrupt leaders, but, as Chief Bromden calls it, the Combine – meaning the wider part of the
society. Ken Kesey has interestingly picked insanity for his story. What is
insanity? Who decides what is sane and what’s not? Aren't we all created by
God, and are, thus, equal, though different and unique? We often label others
who do not act, think, or react as our standard, as insane. We don't want to
deal with them, or to be burdened by them, so we put them into asylums
"for their own sake".
What struck me most of this book, is the fact that most of the patients are as
normal as we are. Some were committed, but some came there involuntarily. Involuntarily! They were rejected by the
society because they were out of the standard, and therefore must be thrown out
of our presence – or, in Chief Bromden's case, because he is off a different
race. We talk a lot about xenophobia now, but I think it has always been human
race's weakness from the beginning.
In short, this is a very disturbing book. It forced you to realise the real
problem of our society – is it not we, our family, who have created it in the
first place? Then the solution must have been by changing our point of views,
instead of changing others' to fit ours.
The patients in McMurphy's ward were lucky they had someone as brave as him.
One man might not have succeeded in overthrowing a powerful authority, but his
actions would not be in vain; it might encourage and inspire others to not let
anyone else controlling our lives. I also loved the way Kesey put a tiny spark
of hope by Chief Bromden's ending. He really deserves it, because his case is,
I think, the greatest injustice of all the others.
This book is not really a perfect reading for opening a new year, but The Classics Club Spin #CCSpin has chosen it for me, so I must relent. However, far from
regretting it, I'm grateful to have read and been inspired by it.
4,5 to 5
