Machinery and Man

In the First 3 Chapters of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the protagonist, Chief Bromden, frequently refers to people as machines, "machines with flaws beat in that can't be repaired" (16). At first this seemed to emphasize Chief Bromden's insanity, some sort of inability to accept the individuality of humanity. However over the weekend I continued to consider Chief Bromden's situation, and the more that I thought about it, the more it seemed as if perhaps he really is not that so far off in describing people as machines, especially those that he comes in contact with. When you think about it, a strong majority of the patients in the mental hospital have had their humanity beat out of them. Unable to think for themselves and longer such as Ellis, nailed to a wall drooling all over the floor or Ruckly, who spends his life staring at an old photograph (16, 17). Without any real personalities, what do people become? Once they have lost their personalities people lose their individuality, they do not think anymore, they simply do as they are told. In my opinion, Chief Bromden's description of these people as machines really is not far off, they now simply do as they are told, under the control of the hospital staff. Speaking of staff, I have noticed they seem somewhat robotic as well. Thus far the staff have seemed entirely unemotional, cruel and ruthless as they slowly attempt to “fix” their patients. The only expression of any sort of emotion we have seen thus far has been by the head nurse, who experiences some sort of “overload” when she sees some of the staff misbehaving. As the staff submits to their protocols and work on their patients the become far less human, they do not care about the effect on their patients, they simply turn a blind eye to the morality issues which their work provokes. Chief Bromden is surrounded by people who lack expression of emotion, his fellow patients have lost their humanity while the staff have abandoned theirs. He has become trapped in a world where true humanity no longer exists, only a hollow shell of what once was.