Nurse Ratched Vs. Mac

        When reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey's one thing I couldn't help, but notice was the power struggle between the Big Nurse (Nurse Ratched) and Mac (McMurphy). Nurse Ratched is clearly the more powerful of the two. This is proven in the fact that she has control over all the patients. Nurse Ratched has the capability of instilling fear in the patients; due to this the patients feel forced not speak out against her even if they do not agree with her. Most of the patients feel that it is better to set aside your pride and agree rather than become one of Nurse Ratched's targets. Nurse Ratched is the most powerful, because she also got the staff to keep quiet and agree with her way of thinking. Mac only has slight control over the men of the ward; where Nurse Ratched has control of the whole ward. This was proven when Nurse Ratched called the meeting to see if she could get Mac sent to the disturbed section of the ward due to his behavior. "Miss Ratched, as most of you know, called this get-together. She phoned me before the Therapeutic Community meeting and said that in her opinion Mcmurphy was due to constitue a disturbance on the ward." (p.153).
        Compared to the Nurse Mac is more therapeutic to the men. Mac helps the men to laugh and stand up from themselves. By teaching them how to stand up for themselves Mac is helping with building up their self esteem. Many of them have little to no self esteem and pride, because of the nurse and the black boys always belittling them. With the black boys beating them and taking them to get "treatments" the patients on the ward feel as though they are broken beyond repair; they believe no amount of treatments or medication will help them. Mac teaches them that if they never try they may never feel better and don't stand a chance of getting out of the ward; he is trying to teach them if you don't try you won't know the outcome. Mac shows this when he is trying to pick up the extremely heavy control panel and is unsuccessful. "He stops at the door and looks back at everybody standing around. 'But I tried, though,' he says. 'Goddammit, I sure as hell did that much, now, didn't I?'" (p.125).