Power, when realized and manipulated, can become something very bad to the point where the one in power seemingly runs the weak man’s life with a cold lack of remorse from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep. In the novel, McMurphy becomes the only beacon of power and light. The patients have to struggle in a fog of paralyzing policies surrounded by a mass of Big Nur

se’s waves as they look towards McMurphy, the metaphorical lighthouse, for guidance. Near the beginning of the novel, McMurphy attempts to dive into their personalities and uncover some sense within his new found friends on the ward as he cries out to them, “you’re up against [Big Nurse] who wants to win by making you weaker instead of making [her]self stronger” (57). In other words, Big Nurse knows she cannot get any stronger than her polices have allowed her to become, thus she has to create an “army of metaphors” “enhancing” her stature to a figure of extreme unquestionable power. However, McMurphy’s desperate plea for sanity has little effect on the “insane” patients so “embellished” by the power held by Big Nurse. They see her as “a veritable angel of mercy and why just everyone knows it,” and this belief assimilates because of the “poetic” manipulation done in “therapeutic” meetings held everyday, which have created an “illusion… [that has been]…forgotten” leaving the patients to worship Big Nurse (58). Big Nurse, through the meetings, has destroyed the patient’s confidence and belief in themselves. Her status has elevated to an even higher platform of power, lowering the patients still further down the ladd

Some topics in this essay:
McMurphy Nurse, TV Nurse…against, Nurse McMurphy, According Nietzsche, World Series, Ken Kesey, “angel mercy”, mcmurphy attempts, novel mcmurphy, one’s perception, nurse mcmurphy, man’s life, nurse meetings,