One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is about the happenings at an insane asylum. Nurse Ratched, the antagonist, dominates all until one day a new patient walks in: Mr. Randal McMurphy. He goes against the system and acts normally, which is deemed totally unnatural by the asylum. One main theme is consistent throughout the novel: society, represented by the Nurse and the asylum, suppresses the natural impulses of the patients, as exemplified by the rambunctious McMurphy.

"The ward door opened, and the black boys wheeled in this Gurney with a chart at the bottom that said in heavy black letters, MC MURPHY, RANDLE P. POST-OPERATIVE. And below this was written in ink, LOBOTOMY" (p. 307). This passage reveals the theme of societal suppression because of the effect on the patients. Because McMurphy was considered a leader to the patients, having to...