In the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the patients on the ward view the outside world and society as a machine called the combine which sorts through people and picks out those who do not fit in. Those people who do not belong end up on the ward. On the ward, Randall Patrick McMurphy leads a fight for freedom in a society strictly set up to restrict that freedom. He leads a rebellion on the ward and tries to get all of the men to join him. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest extends Thoreau’s idea from “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience” that society is just a machine individuals must rebel against when it is unjust. McMurphy extends this idea by showing that not only must people rebel, but that the fight for power will always result in chaos, but once power is controlled, chaos is then eliminated. At the end of part 2 in the novel, McMurphy’s rebellion is in full swing. After another disagreement with Nurse Ratched, McMurphy shatters the glass of the nursing station (Kesey 201). The shattering of the glass represents control on the ward diminishing and chaos coming into full swing. As the novel progresses, the amount of chaos on the ward increases and McMurphy struggles with a conflict of the heart. He struggles deciding between remaining a non-combatant on the ward to gain his own freedom or to fight authority and be selfless for the men. His struggle proves it is possible to single-handedly defeat society and this is why McMurphy passes on the fight.
Another character who passes on the fight is Walter Lee: