In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey there is a power struggle between two characters; McMurphy and Big Nurse. McMurphy wants equal power for everyone in the ward, while Big Nurse wants herself to have all the power. In Terms of power Ken Kesey portrays McMurphy as communist. He also portrays big nurse as a capitalist. A communist is one who wants one single class. A Capitalist is one who wants many classes and ultimately one class that is most powerful. Through out the book one sees the power struggle and eventually learn that neither capitalism nor communism will work in the ward. Ken Kesey conveys in his book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, that a socialist society is the ideal way to govern people.
Big Nurse is a power hungry woman who had all of the power in the ward and wanted it this way. A perfect example of this is when she messes with Billy Bibbit. Billy bibbit is a stutterer who is in the ward. One day McMurphy decides he will have a party in the ward and invites his friends who are whores. Billy was a grown man and found one of the whores to be interesting. After a while they go off and have sex. Later in the mourning big nurse finds billy with the whore. He seems to be temporarily cured of his stuttering problem when he first talks. Then big nurse says, "What worries me Billy. is how your poor mother is going to take this."p. 189 After she says this he horribly regrets what he has done and starts stuttering even worse than before. Eventually he slits his own throat. Big Nurse is to blame for Billy's death. He was an adult and fine with what happened until big nurse decided that she had to have control. She didn't like that they had a party and she needed to do something about. she had to exemplify that she had control. She killed Billy and blamed it on McMurphy. The Murder represents power. Billy took her power and gave it to himself. The Big Nurse did not like this so she used her power to kill him so he could not defy.