Personal Reaction to Ken Kesey's Characters

Throughout Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, there is a development of the characters McMurphy and Big Nurse, and the war the ensues between them.

Big Nurse runs everything around the ward like a machine. She makes sure it's done right, and doesn't seem to care about the patients. Everyone listens to her; what she says is law. The patients certainly don't questions her, nor do the other staff members. Big Nurse ultimately rules, and has the most power.

Then McMurphy gets brought in, and starts changing the way things work around the ward. He doesn't put up with Big Nurse's rules like everyone else, but rather challenges them continuously. He talks back and questions Big Nurse's methods of therapy and how she runs it all.

Big Nurse's therapy sessions emasculate the men and makes them feel bad about themselves. McMurphy refers to it as a "bunch of chickens at a peckin' party" (Kesey 55). He basically means that Big Nurse is pecking at their private parts, or trying to make them less manly, so that she can continue to control them without any problems.

McMurphy, on the other hand, treats the men much better. He talks to them as if there is nothing wrong. He takes them on fishing trips that make them truly happy and plays card games with them that boosts their morale. Chief even describes the laughter on the fishing trip as "a laughter that rang out on the water in ever-widening circles, farther and farther, until it crashed up on beaches all over the coast, on beaches all over all coasts, in wave after wave after wave" (Kesey 212). They've never experienced such fun while being in the ward until McMurphy came along.

McMurphy is definitely more therapeutic for the men. He makes them feel normal, not belittled like Big Nurse makes them feel. He actually tries to boost their happiness and enjoyment in life, which makes them feel all-around better. Big Nurse, it seems, tries to make the men feel worse. She talks down to them, doesn't let them do anything that would make them remotely happy, and makes them feel useless, especially in therapy. The men feel better with McMurphy, it's easily seen.

As for who's more powerful, it's hard to say. While Big Nurse has her staff that she's trained to listen to her and can control very easily, McMurphy manages to get under her skin and make her frazzled so that he's able to help the men more. Big Nurse has her staff, but McMurphy has himself, which ultimately wins, in my opinion. The only way he was beat was by cheating on Big Nurse's part. I feel as though McMurphy was more powerful, though.