One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey in the 1950s explains how the subjugation of freedom is expressed by the Native American narrator on how control and freedom was experienced in that era. Freedom was limited to the characters in this book. There were limitations of freedom to the characters in the locked portion of the ward in the mental hospital. The characters were picked on and degraded by Nurse Ratched who played on their freedoms, both mental and physical who used her unique bullying to mentally tear on them and using her “black boys” watchmen applying physical torment to them, despite making them feel that they have the freedom to be comfortable. Nurse Ratched displays the kind, generous nurse who will throw out the power she possesses without touching the men she has control over, but still is able to make them bow to her demands—until McMurphy arrives.
To show how the subjugation of freedom was used in that era, Kesey uses a 6’7” Native American as the narrator to show that period. Chief Bromden, who is called Chief Broom by the attendants, is a mute Indian who mops up in the area where he is confined and is consistently teased by the black workers who watch over him and the other patients. They believe, as well as the other inmates, that he is mute (deaf and dumb before political correctness), because he never talks. He chooses not to speak, because he was always being ignored and because of his fear of Nurse Ratched. He has been in the institution the longest. McMurphy, who I will write about later, helps him to speak and challenges Nurse Ratched and her obedient workers.
Nurse Ratched is the “overseer” of the male inmates in the locked down section of the mental institution. The way she is able to get her “black boys” to do what she wants, shows how the subjugation of freedom she has to use her so-called sexuality to convince the workers to abide by her demands. It appears that the workers dare not go against her, due to...