One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, takes place primarily in a psychiatric hospital ward in Oregon controlled by Nurse Ratched according to a precise schedule and strict rules. The narrator, Chief Bromden, describes many patients in this room, all of whom have different problems and reasons for being there. Among the characteristics of patients, each person has a unique defense mechanism, which they use to protect themselves from their problems outside of society. Each individual's way of protecting themselves can be considered intentional or unconscious. Three characters who play important roles in this story, Chief Bromden, Dale Harding, and Billy Bibbit, each highlight their defense mechanisms while in the room. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayAt several points in the story, Chief Bromden tells the reader that the room is "scrambled" to some extent. Chief, a paranoid schizophrenic patient, believes his hallucinations of the cloud room are real and does not understand how something he can see could be in his imagination. According to the chef, the fog is created by a machine and obscures the room by entering through the air vents. Bromden tells us that the fog images he generates come from his years in the army during World War II. Machines similar to the one believed to be kept in the room had been used while Chief was in Europe to produce fog over Allied airfields so that German bombers would have difficulty seeing their targets. The comparison is made that the leader's fog protects him from reality, as it had protected him from enemies and danger during the war. The leader recognizes that if he remains still and silent when the room is "fogged", he can be protected from the outside world, which has treated him cruelly in the past. This is evident when McMurphy is admitted to the ward and begins demanding reforms and changes to the Big Nurse's schedule and rules. At this point, Chief is disturbed by the thought of reality and describes the fog as being thicker. "These days they're doing it more and more. I think they're doing it because of McMurphy" (118), Chief says. As Chief becomes more comfortable with McMurphy's presence, the thickness of the fog and the frequency with which it appears decreases. We see this in the chapter after McMurphy gathers the men to watch the empty television during the World Series: "we let McMurphy lure us out of the fog" (130), the leader says. Eventually, when McMurphy helps Chief regain his confidence and "return to his old size", Chief knows that he no longer needs to be protected from outside society, and the fog leaves him for good. Dale Harding, another patient who plays an important role in this story, uses his intellect as a defense mechanism. When McMurphy enters the ward, the chief describes the conversation between Harding and McMurphy, in which Harding provides important information about the ward and its patients. Through this conversation and the fact that Harding is the president of the Patients' Council, we learn that Harding is taking leadership among the other patients. The reader quickly learns that Harding cannot exercise such leadership outside the parish, where his controlling wife, Vera, leads him to believe that he is incompetent. He is disturbed and confused by the fact that other men are interested in his wife, who responds to men with the same attitude they show her. Harding needs.