Who Cares About The Insane Anymore?

Who Cares about the Insane Anymore?

By: David Cann

In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, there are numerous references that there are major flaws in the mental instability judiciary system. It represents a mental asylum as a dark, gloomy place where there's no chance that any of the patients can ever be cured. It speaks about the mistreatment of patients, submitting them to shock therapy, and performing lobotomies on them. Three characters that personify this are Billy, McMurphy, and the Chief.

The character that represents the uselessness of the system is Billy, a stuttering fool with no spine at all. He shows this by being a character that is inside a facility made to cure him, yet he'll never be cured. He can't be cured because one of the only things that make him "insane" is that he has no will of his own, and this attitude will never be changed. This is because of the woman in charge, Nurse Ratchet, has him so under her control, there's no chance he'll ever be able to be cured. He is so afraid of the nurse, the one who's supposed to be helping him; he even kills himself, sending the asylum into an uproar.

The main cause of all the uproars within the asylum is the protagonist, Randle Patrick McMurphy. He shows the flaws in the system first hand to the reader, and he represents hope among the asylum, and is punished for it. While in the asylum, he causes many disruptions, the most notable ones being taking the patients out fishing, and bringing prostitutes into the facility. Throughout the book, he receives shock therapy, is told to take pills (which he doesn't), and in the end receives a lobotomy. He is such a huge player in showing the flaws as he shows the very nature of the asylum. He