One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest #1

As I started reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it was interesting to me on how Kesey used the words "sick", "healthy", "sane", and "insane". The people in the hospital that he claims sane are obviously not, but in retrospect they are able to function more than they committed people. I also took into account that Chief is the narrator and he committed at the hospital. I'm not sure whether I like Chief narrating because he seems to talk in a stream of consciousness. It's difficult to analyze the full story because I seem to believe that he is the one who is the most insane. I don't understand how he can consider himself relatively "normal" when he has been pretending to be deaf so he can spy on people. Bromden sees modern society as an oppressive, mechanizing force, and he views the hospital as a repair shop for the people who do not fit into their roles as cogs in the machine. He is always comparing the hospital to a sort of factory and his daily activities produce a fog in his head. His way of interpreting the world emphasizes the social pressure to conform. Those who do not conform to the rules and conventions of society are considered defective products of the “schools, churches, and neighborhoods.” Those people are labeled mentally ill and sent for treatment. The hospital is normally defined as the place where the ill go to be cured. However, in the cases of Ellis, Ruckly, and Taber, the cure—being in the psychiatric hospital—is obviously worse than the disease. Ellis and Ruckly are considered “failures,” but Taber is considered a success. However, it is hard to tell the difference between the cured and sick patients. Taber, the cured patient, functions like a robot incapable of independent thought after he leaves the hospital; as such, he fits perfectly into society. I think the hospital can be considered an evil force that is trying to control peoples' original thoughts so all society can be one uniformed thought and action. Nurse Ratched is the dictator and has all the doctors and patients wrapped around her finger. When the slightest bit of hope of rebellion emerged in the hospital doors with McMurphey, she overpowered him and settled him down.