Nurse Ratched and Big Brother use all the power that they have to keep control of society. In 1984, control is kept by manipulation and fear. Big Brother is God-like and a symbol of power to the citizens of Oceania. Posters are seen everywhere saying, “Big Brother is Watching You” (Orwell, 3). This is to remind the citizens that every move they make and thought they have is being monitored. Big Brother replaces the love of all things in people's lives. They are expected to be loyal to him above all else, and even betray their own families in honor of him. If society is not loyal to him there will be consequences, like vaporization. Society can not be loyal to him by rebelling or committing ‘thought crimes’. The fact that the Thought Police …show more content…
Big Brother is never seen and does not really exist, but he is used as the method of control by the government to maintain the power they desire over the citizens of Oceania. Comparing this to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched similarly uses manipulation and fear to control the ward. She does not hesitate to do what it takes to maintain control of the ward. Nurse Ratched uses intimidation and humiliates, and debases the men in the therapeutic meetings to keep herself in a position of control. In their daily group meetings, she will often pick out one man and make him feel so uncomfortable and force him to tell his life story, even if he has never done anything wrong. She will then make fear grow within them by asking leading questions, twisting their words and never shows any sympathy to what they are saying. By doing this, Nurse Ratched is ensuring that she keeps complete control and power over the group. At one point in the novel, when everyone starts shouting their secrets, Chief Bromden says, “It was better than she'd …show more content…
They will continue the torture until you obey and agree with what the Party wants them to believe. Similarly, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched’s idea of ‘fixing’ the patient is by torture or turning them into vegetables by lobotomy. Again, this is a way to dehumanize the patients so that they cannot rebel. Dehumanization is described when Bromden says, "The ward is a factory for the combine. It's for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods and in the schools and in the churches, the hospital is. When a completed product goes back out into society, all fixed up and good as new, better than new sometimes, it brings joy to the Big Nurse's heart; something that came in all twisted and different is now a functioning, adjusted component, a credit to the whole outfit and a marvel to behold" (Kesey, 40). The patients are treated as defects of society and not humans. She believes her job is complete when a patient is sent out into the world after being ‘fixed’. She is the cause of two deaths by trying to ‘fix’ patients, like McMurphy when she turns him into a