Cuckoo's Nest Blog #1

Nurse Ratched is the villain of the novel. Bromden notes that Ratched has two natures; her sweet side that the patients see, and her "hideous true self" that comes out only when things don't go her way and no patients are around to witness her reversion back to her actual nature (5). Doctors who have worked with her often back out of the job after only a few weeks or months, saying, "'Since I started on that ward with that woman I feel like my veins are running ammonia, I shiver all the time, my kids won't sit in my lap, my wife won't sleep with me" (29). After only six hours of being admitted to the ward, McMurphy remarks to Harding that "she's big as a damn barn and tough as knife metal. She fooled me with that kindly little old mother bit for maybe three minutes when I came in this morning, but no longer" (60). Ratched is depicted as cold and calculating behind a mask of motherly sincerity, secretly possessing a strong need to be in control and to straighten out what she considers anomalies in her system. Ratched's uncaring and dismissive demeanor towards her patients prevents them from getting the adequate therapy they need, meaning that she acts as a force against "good" within the novel. This is what identifies Nurse Ratched as the most clear villain in the story thus far.

McMurphy would fall into the category of antihero. He is hard and crass in contrast to the softer, more diluted personalities of the other ward patients. His past appears shady; he is first introduced as a gambler, and during a group session is revealed to have a long string of past incarcerations for various crimes: "drunkenness, assault and battery, disturbing the peace, repeated gambling, and one arrest - for rape" (45). He is the first to openly say that Nurse Ratched is a "ball-pecker" and vocally question her motives toward the patients (60). His harsh demeanor and questionable history prevent him from playing the role of hero, but his clear opposition to the villain, the Big Nurse, combined with his brash nature, makes him the antihero. Despite that he doesn't quite personify the "good" nature of a traditional hero, the audience can clearly see that he is on the side of the ward patients and opposes the manipulative habits of the Big Nurse, which prevents him from being the villain.

The final role of hero is left to Chief Bromden, our deaf and muted narrator. Bromden's disabilities and caged-in attitude are revealed to simply be ploys that allow him to observe events broadly as well as inconspicuously (24). We have relatively little information about Bromden at this point, much like we lacked information about the hero in The Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway. What makes Bromden the hero, however, despite our lack of knowledge about him, is his silent but clear opposition to Nurse Ratched's tyrannical reign over the ward, and the fact that he lacks the more brusque qualities of the antihero, McMurphy. He displays acute awareness of how the hospital operates and the dark undercurrents that run within it. This knowledge, coupled with his softer personality, make him the most clear choice for hero at this point in the novel.