How does nurse ratched manipulate the men

In literary terms, Nurse Ratched is a flat character, which means she encounters no changes whatsoever throughout the book. She begins as a scheming, manipulative agent of the Combine and remains so at the novel's conclusion. Her depiction resembles the villains of comic books and one-reel film serials in that she asserts arbitrary control simply because she can.

Much of Ratched's character is evident in her name. McMurphy pronounces it "Rat-shed" during an early section of the novel, indicating that she possesses rodent-like qualities of working quietly, quickly, and to the disadvantage of her victims.

The reader is reminded that rats were the carriers of the Black Plague during the Middle Ages, and Ratched infects the hospital's orderlies, student nurses, public relations personnel, and patients with her irrational desire for order.

The name Ratched is also a pun of "ratchet," which is a both a verb and a noun for a device that uses a twisting motion to tighten bolts into place. Chief Bromden realizes that conformity and external pressure do not just happen in the ward; they also happen outside of the ward.

No matter where one is, one will always face societal expectations. Nurse Ratched is just one of the many people that are trying to control the patients.

The diction of "Combine" further embodies uniformity as the word "combine" usually means a conglomeration of things or people. Nurse Ratched, similar to outside rulers, try to unify the patients into one so they will not develop radical and individualistic thoughts.

However, Nurse Ratched is enraged when she is not able to subjugate McMurphy, the epitome of audacious freedom and convention from the norm. McMurphy defies the conformity of the ward as he seeks ways to obtain what he wants, such as watching the World Series and taking out twelve men for a fishing trip. The battle between conformity and nonconformity reflects the transformation of the s American society to the s.

During the s, when many sought order and peace, therefore contributing to the homogeny of society. However, as America became entangled in the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and women's rights, many seeked to deviate from the orders of the White House, which constantly lost the trust of the American people.

Thus, Ken Kesey cleverly incorporates the themes of American society into the novel in order to share his belief that individualism should be valued over conformity, similar to how in the end, it is McMurphy who topples and weakens Nurse Ratched. The idea of machinery versus nature is a prominent theme that Chief Bromden recognizes during his time in the hospital. Chief describes how "the ward is a factory for the Combine" 40 , which shows how the ward and the hospital as a whole are both representations of machinery present in society.

Chief says to himself, "I say he's just another robot for the Combine and might be better off. Chief Bromden finally has a new perspective on this situation when he looks out the window of the hospital and says, "I could hear a car speed up out of a turn.. I watched the dog and the car making for the same spot of pavement" This description implies that the car kills the dog, symbolically portraying how machinery overpowers nature.

The car, representing machinery, is a dominating force overpowering the dog, representing nature. This domination of machinery over nature can connect back to the hospital and the patients, in which Nurse Ratched and the hospital are the machinery that are stronger and more powerful than the patients. The patients cannot do anything to stop from being affected by the hospital, implying how nature will naturally succumb to machinery's power and control.

The fog is also a representation of machinery since Chief believes that the fog originates from a fog machine. When Chief is surrounded by fog, he says, "they're at the fog machine again but they haven't got it turned up full; it's not so think but what I can see if I strain real hard" From Chief's description, the fog limits his vision, making it hard for him to distinguish reality from imagination.

The fact that the fog machine distorts his perception of reality is yet another way machinery is affecting the patients. Distortion of reality allows the ward to have more control over the patients since they cannot tell what is real and what is not. This shows the control the hospital has over its patients, portraying machinery's domination to nature.

Themes Domineering Manipulation: Nurse Ratched manipulates the patients in many ways in order to preserve her control. Furthermore, Nurse Ratched " doesn't accuse. She merely needs to insinuate, insinuate anything" Her way of manipulating the men is by insinuation, which she does throughout the novel, manipulating them into feeling shame and poorly of themselves. One specific moment she does this is when she finds Billy Bibbit in bed with Candy, a prostitute.

Instead of being entirely angry, she instead says, "'What worries me, Billy,' she said--I could hear a change in her voice--'is how your poor mother is going to take this'" By bringing up Billy's mother, she insinuates the guilt he should feel rather than openly reprimanding him for his bad behavior. The only thing Billy wants is to make his mother proud, so when Nurse Ratched mentions that his mother will be ashamed, Billy is also ashamed.

She manipulates Billy into feeling shame for his action, providing her more power and showing the rest of the patients what she is capable of doing. Immediately afterward, Billy commits suicide by slitting his throat. Although it is her fault for Billy to want to end his life, she finds a way to manipulate McMurphy into thinking it is his fault by castigating, " Playing with human lives--gambling with human lives--as if you thought yourself to be a God' " She tries to put the blame on him so that the patients can see how everything McMurphy does is for the benefit of himself, not others.

These two characters also go head to head with the power of deceptive manipulation as their weapons. Nurse Ratchet is the boss of the ward, in which the events of the novel take place. What she really uses this excuse for is to run her ward as mechanically and robotic-ally calculated as she can so all her patients will stay sick, immasculized, in her clutches and best of all not fight back.

One method of her manipulation techniques is her smile. Her smile allows her to appear that what ever she makes so good and therapeutic for the patients, making it harder for them to oppose and even make it seem shes on their side. Another method of manipulation used by Nurse Ratched is her group meetings, her snitch book, threats of lobotomy, and the shock shop.

The log book is a book which she has devised to aid her oppression. If someone hears something interesting about another patient in the log book, the patient puts down what he heard and signs his name, and the next day he gets to sleep in.

That triggered something, some acoustic device in the walls, rigged to turn on at just the sound of those words coming from her mouth. The acutes stiffened. Their mouths opened in unison. Her sweeping eyes stopped on the first man along the wall. Oh, god, forgive me, I stoned her to death and said my neighbor did it. The shock shop and lobotomy are are closely related punishment. She uses this to manipulate her patients into doing what she wants, under fear of going through this.

They gave McMurphy three more treatments that week. As quick as he started coming out of one, getting the click back in his wink, Miss Ratched would Arrive with the Doctor and they would ask him if he felt like he was ready to come around and face up to his problems and come back to the ward for a cure. Then stand up and take a couple bows to those guys grinning at him while the nurse led the doctor into the station to phone over to the Main Building and authorize another treatment.

Consequently, something more drastic had to be done, and Nurse Ratched used her most devious weapon and had McMurphy undergo a lobotomy operation, eventually manipulation him in the end, so he too would conform. McMurphy is the other character who uses manipulation, only not for the conformity of the ward, or keeping the patients emasculated and demoralized so that they need stay in the ward for further help, but rather for the good of the patients, and maybe a buck or two on the side along with a good time.

The first example of McMurphy manipulating people is the world series. Since the world series is on at a time that the scheduled T. Watching time is not, he tried to rally, manipulate the patients to vote against the Nurse.

He failed to rally the other patients because nobody was on his side. After that he learns to manipulate the patients on their personalities, and how they act. This shows when he is short a person for his fishing trip, and tries manipulate and succeeds George to come based on his personality and past employment.

George was very shy. Bromden was out digging the red worms for bait.