Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Chief Bromden's Combine
Jul 29, 2008 Jennifer M. Willhite
The story narrated by Chief Bromden, in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is one that illustrates the consequences that conformity, without question, poses to individuality and free will. Set in an Oregon state mental institution, Kesey’s Nest uses that which most people fear – the mentally ill – to reflect all that has gone terribly awry with society.
The Nest is filled with amusing situations and thought provoking scenes with the pivotal character being Chief Bromden. Bromden’s obsession with the idea of the combine, and his observations of all that goes on within the milieu of the ward, demonstrates that he has the insight and clarity that is essential to see past the smoke screen that Authority so carefully implements and monitors.
Chief Bromden’s Character
Bromden is extremely calculating in his thoughts, actions and words. He has successfully convinced everyone, including the staff, that he is deaf and dumb. His character epitomizes what society would construe as an unassuming, harmless, and heavily medicated individual who is easily swayed and programmed.
However, Bromden is anything but unassuming and harmless. Despite his large stature, his fellow patients find him to be merely a fixture on the ward – a shadow. Bromden’s convincing behavior is merely laying the groundwork which makes his actions later on all the more powerful – psychologically. He waits for the spark needed which will illuminate the road to forgiveness, and a new beginning.
Since a very young age, Bromden was viewed as a minority who was thought to be anything but worthy of consideration, or acknowledgment. Early on he was completely ignored by those who considered themselves superior. But he was able to look past the superficial lives and behaviors of others to the bigger picture that surrounded them all. Though he never spoke, he was fully aware of what was actually going on.
Ignorance Does Not Equal Bliss
The residents on the ward are completely content with their structured lives. For most of them, they have always been told what to do, when to do it and have had to seek permission for the simplest things that other people take for granted. However, with McMurphy’s arrival on the ward the patients’ inherent sense of simple rights is reborn.
The men draw their strength and rebuild their confidence through McMurphy’s example. He challenges them and makes them feel as though they are all equal. They have awoken to the cruel reality that, through their unquestioning submission, they have become puppets to a higher Power that they don’t even understand. They have always naively believed that those who control the environment in which they live would do nothing to harm them.
Bromden’s Combine
During his narration, Bromden makes frequent allusions to the combine and its mechanisms. To Bromden, the structure of the ward, the medications, therapy sessions and dutiful staff are all parts of the larger whole. Without the reinforcement of such structure, and consequences for those who buck the system, the machine could not function. But Bromden realizes that the combine’s reach goes beyond the institution’s walls.
On the infamous outing, as the patients ride to their destination, they pass a school where there are children outside playing on the playground. Bromden makes the observation that the children are being programmed early. He is the only one to make any kind of connection, or feel a sort of basic human kinship to what he sees in the children; and he keeps it to himself. The children have no idea that they are being groomed for their anticipated roles in society. The observation is obviously an eerie reflection of that which goes on in the institution.
The Combine Continues to Thrive
The institution, as a microcosm of society, clearly demonstrates the role of rules, authority and the individual. As long as the patients do as they are told, observe the rules set forth and do not ask questions the unit runs smoothly. However, with the introduction of McMurphy onto the ward, this said organization starts to crumble. Bromden watches the events with fascination, and admiration, while trying desperately to maintain his silent façade.
McMurphy is the nemesis of the combine. Bromden sees what he used to be in the lively antics and sharp wit of McMurphy. He silently draws strength from McMurphy, and it isn’t until the two face the horror of what “bucking the system” brings that he chooses to expose his decades' long deception.
Ironically, when he returns to the ward the other men never question, or even seem to notice, that Bromden is communicating with them normally. The blatant, amnesic nature with which he is accepted onto the ward further illustrates the depths to which the combine’s mechanisms have affected the men.
Combine Symbolism
The use of symbolism in Kesey’s Nest may be one of the most important aspects of the work. The combine is a tool which is used to cut and level out that which it consumes. Those who are brought to the ward are brought for a reason; they are the undesirables, the ones who are not considered "normal." McMurphy's situation is a prime example of how the combine works.
In the institution, the men are made to conform. The Powers That Be consider it necessary to cut down the individual to his basic, simplistic human form. Through the use of medications and behavior modification, the men are rebuilt to the Power’s ideal of what they should be in order to be productive members of the ward and, possibly, eventually society.
All sense of free will and individual control are almost obliterated. As seen with caged animals who were once feral, the wild look in their eyes fades to a dull glaze after prolonged time in captivity. The basic sense of inherent human rights possessed by the men on the ward does not disappear, but merely lays dormant. It takes a simple spark to illuminate the memory of what was once possible and in the Nest, it is McMurphy who is the spark. In the end, it is Bromden who becomes the phoenix.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Book Cover)
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