One Who Flew the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, is a complex piece of work that incorporates numerous themes. One of the most notable and easily addressed themes of this novel is the theme of freedom and its restrictions enforced on the book's characters. The novel speaks to various forms of freedom that range from implied and perceived to real and tangible. The story primarily takes place in a mental hospital on a ward that is locked down. This restriction limits the physical freedom of the characters in the ward. Also, the characters are constantly subjected to coercion and degraded by the antagonist character Nurse Ratched also referred to as the Big Nurse; limiting the male patients' mental freedom. There is also an underlying theme of sexual oppression pushed on the characters by Nurse Ratched. The main character McMurphy constantly fights against the sexual repression throughout the book. Each individual subjugation, on its own, excluding the others, may have been tolerable but combined they weigh heavy on the men, to the point that they become broken and the complete lack of freedom becomes normal and is comfortable. Generally speaking mental hospitals are utilized as safe havens for individuals who pose a risk to both themselves and others. They provide these troubled persons with a safe location that will keep them from harming others while obtaining proper treatment. From the descriptions provided in the book of the patients they do not come across as individuals who would pose any type of risk to the safety of themselves or anyone else. They seem to be socially inept and unable to operate in social situations because of eccentricities and slight quirks. Them being held in a mental ward where they are kept locked up, their activities are meticulously regulated on a time-table and their movements restricted to a single day room, does not seem to be befitting of their problems.
