“When the fog clears to where I can see, I’m sitting in the day room.” (Kesey 14). Children have high imaginations; they see life in a different perspective. The eyes of a child see things different than an adult. They see the good in things, the innocent facts of life. Now if a mental patient were to be defined or described, they would most likely be described in a derogatory manner. However, they also are like children. So oblivious to the world around them, they are set with rules and people to watch over them. They can't be left on their own; they depend on another to help them survive. Sometimes mental patients can be worked with and taught how to take care of themselves, this is similar to childhood and growing up.
In the mental hospital "Big Nurse" would play the role of their mother because she is their caretaker. The patients are her children, and the staff would be the people who influence their life and upbringing to make them the people they become. Now in a "normal family" these children would eventually leave home and fly away from the nest creating new lives for themselves. However in the mental hospital, these patients aren't leaving anytime soon. The patients in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" aren't really getting the care they need. They are there for rehabilitation, yet they feel like they are prisoners, unaware of what it truly going on.
Their imagination sores and searches for explanation as to why they are there. They act in a child manner, this is apparent in "Group Therapy" when they all yell over each other (Kesey 49). They whine and complain just as little kids do and their attention span is generally hanging by a thread. Their patience is usually very thin and limited this is apparent by their actions, "Pete shook his arm loose, "I'm tired," he warned."(51). They are never told what medication they are taking or what is being done to them. So like children, they make up stories to fill the void of the unknown. Even though, in society they are considered "mental" they are so comparable to children. The people in mental hospitals should be treated like people, not cattle where they're separated into certain groups and herded into a specific area. These people have knowledge if someone would just allow them to use it. I believe that some of these people aren’t crazy. They just aren’t given the chance to prove it yet. An example of this is the Chief, he sees life differently, but doesn’t everyone? And for that matter he really hasn’t shown any signs of craziness. Just because he thought process is different.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. New York: Penguin Books, 1962. Print.
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I agree with you, some of these patients are not crazy but how would the caretakers know that. They wouldn't, this is because the patients are never given the chance to prove themselves. If the caretakers treated the patients hoe they should be treated and actually "cared" about their health and recovery. They would have a lot less patients in their ward. For example, Chief Broom, even though they think he is deaf they do not even get a interperter or anything for him so that he is able to understand. But maybe if the nurses tried to communicate with him and soend time with him to really understand his problems they might get him to be close enough to tell them he can really hear. That way he would be one step closer yo being on his own. The nurses will not do that though, and this way none of the patients will get the help they need.
ReplyDeleteTori Fisher