Dr. Bledsoe contrasts the Big Nurse by gaining power through acting in total submission to the white people so that he can gain power from within their trust range and the Big Nurse does not need to be submissive to the Combine or the head people at the hospital. She is the ultimate leader since even the head doctor does not hold "the power of hiring and firing" and "that power goes to the supervisor, and the supervisor is a woman, a dear old friend of Miss Ratched's," and Harding believes that the patients are "victims of a matriarchy," and even the male head doctor is "just as helpless against it as [they] are." (Kesey 61)
An interesting parallel between Nurse Ratched and Dr. Bledsoe is that they are both minorities, even though one is with gender and one is with race, yet those minorities do not hold them back from gaining control of the system in which they are affiliated. Dr. Bledsoe manipulates his power in a different manner than the Big Nurse, since he admits that he "even pretends to please" the "big white folk," and he claims that "even those [he] controls more than they control [him]", so he maintains the source of power for the college. (Ellison 142)
Yet another parallel between the two power situations is the literal or metaphorical image of a control panel as the means from which the two power-holders manipulate their subjects. The Big Nurse has a literal control panel from which she toys with the patients in a mechanical way but Dr. Bledose claims that he's "at the controls" of the "power set-up" in his situation. (Ellison 142) Similarly to how the Big Nurse, and naturally the Combine, desire for every patient to be fit into a nondescript mold in which personality is stripped from each man, Dr. Bledsoe strongly wishes to produce cookie-cutter molds of the ideal submissive black man, since that is what the white people desire and he wants them to continue to trust him. Dr. Bledsoe makes it clear that the rich white donors are just the puppet leaders and he is really the man behind the puppets that is directing their actions, and he claims that "when you buck against me, you're bucking against power, rich white folk's power, the nation's power-which means government power,"thereby insinuating that through his eyes,his position actually holds the absolute rule. (Ellison 142)
Even though the Big Nurse and Dr. Bledsoe appear to the outside eye to have different power over their specific domains, they similarly maintain their power over their subjects and both authors make it clear that these figures have the ultimate power because they are at the 'control panel' of the situations and no matter who is the figurehead leader, these two leaders have unquestionable control over their individual spheres of influence.
I agree with Paige's analysis of the Big Nurse and her relation to Dr. Bledsoe. Both are in high positions of power, and both manipulate others to keep that power. On page 142, when Bledsoe is talking about the "control pannel" and the "power set up", he also says "This is a power set up son, and Im at the controls. You think about that. You buck against me your bucking against power..." This quote reminds me of the Big Nurse and McMurphy's relationship. McMurphy would always "buck against" the Big Nurse and her power, so beause she was at the control pannel, she could do with him what she wanted, such as punish him, like Dr. Bledsoe is punishing the invisible man for defying his power.
ReplyDeleteThis rant that Dr. Bledsoe is giving reminds me of what the Big Nurse was always thinking. She knew that she was in control and in power and had the reighns on these men's lives. Yet, in the case of Dr. Bledsoe and the Invisible Man, the students know that Bledsoe impacts their lives, but does not know that he has as as much power as the white people do.