In Ken Kinsey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest he has created two extremely powerful characters who seem to be in a battle for top dog throughout the book. It’s a battle between the Big Nurse who has had control over the ward for many years, and McMurphy who is the new patient in town. "She knows what they been saying, and I can see she's furious clean out of control. She's going to tear the black bastards limb from limb, she's so furious. She's swelling up, swells till her back's spitting out the white uniform and she's let her arms section out long enough to wrap around the three of them five, six times," (Kesey 4-5). From the beginning of the book you get the impression that the Nurse has complete and the utmost control. As you continue to read you realize McMurphy is really the one with all the control.
In my eyes the patients and some other doctors are afraid of the Nurse. McMurphy, they see him as a leader as the story goes on. McMurphy has more power because of the way he “gets under the skin” of the nurse and how he makes the other patents smile and follow him. “I figure, you see, buddy, to be sort of the gambling baron on this ward, deal a wicked game of blackjack. So you better take me to your leader and we’ll get it straightened out whose gonna be boss around here,” (Kesey 19). Already he is taking control of the patients. But before you know it they are looking to him as a leader and as the story continues he’s still continuing to push the nurse and bring out her worst. He`s on a mission to prove to her she does not have all the power. I have a feeling McMurphy will win this fight with his manipulating ways in the long run.
