In effect to the numerous themes and plethora of symbols, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, was a very profound and insightful book that represented the culture Kesey was living in when he wrote the novel, “it became a favorite of the counter culture of the sixties” (Forrey 316-17). A key symbol that was a result of McMurphy and Nurse’s fighting was definitely the appearing and disappearing of “the fog”. When Chief Bromden explains the fights between Randle and Nurse Ratched, he speaks of a fog that clouds his vision, and adds drama and suspense to the heated battles, “whenever the Big Nurse seems in indisputable control, the fog machine churns out its misty, scary, safe, and scary again” (Martin 314-316). Then acting accordingly with McMurphy, the “good guy”, “when McMurphy wins a skirmish, the fog disappears and the Chief sees clearly”

Nurse Ratched, although crazy, does not lose control because she is “grimly sadistic [and] under her fixed smile,... she holds the winning card” (Peden 209). The “winning card” is a reference to the control she has over his release and his life. Unfortunately Randle realized too late that his constant defiance toward the system and Big Nurse was all futile, because Nurse Ratched knew no matter how much he tried to ruin the system, in the end she would win. Both parties won the victory. Nurse Ratched won because she finally got the upper hand toward McMurphy, “he is subsequently lobotomized to demonstrate to the ward the futility of resistance”

This explanation reveals McMurphy’s strength and mental toughness towards reality, where Big Nurse’s perception is both demented and false. These qualities were the impetus behind the emergence of the patient’s new found confidence and individualism, “McMurphy teaches them to think for themselves which results in a complete destruction of the system as it was” (Cooper). Randle taught the men to think for themselves by implementing everything that Big Nurse disagreed and banned from the hospital. He organized the fishing trip with the patients; he brought whores to the hospital, placed gambling into practice, and above all defied Big Nurse. McMurphy clearly showed defiance toward the system and Big Nurse, but through his sexual innuendos within his

The patients love that McMurphy "got the nurse's goat the way he said he would." McMurphy becomes more bold and aggressive, even asking Nurse Ratched the measurements on those breasts she does her best to conceal. However, Nurse Ratched does not lose control again.

Some topics in this essay:
Nurse Ratched, Randle McMurphy, Envying McMurphy’s, Chief Bromden, Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse McMurphy, Chief Bromden’s, Indian” Martin, Nurse Ratched’s, McMurphy Christ, nurse ratched, randle mcmurphy, martin 314-16, chief bromden, flew cuckoo’s, matriarchal society, flew cuckoo’s nest, mental institutions, forrey 316-17, kesey 1, cuckoo’s nest, bromden’s view world, defiance system nurse,