The Universal Theme of Madness

Who  has the right to define what is normal and what is not?  Uncle Tom's Cabin as well as many other novels, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest analyze this subject. Eva (Uncle  Tom's Cabin) for instance, to us is seemly the only sane one in the story as she is not racist, but to her society she is rather crazy. On the other hand, Chief Bromden (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) gives the impression that he is mad and therefore is in a medical ward, when in fact he perfectly would conform our society.  

Eva is a young white girl that seems perfectly normal. She lives in the south and her family owns various black slaves, however she is different in the sense that she treats those slaves as equals. Eva gives them care, support and love. For example, she helps Topsy (a rebellious slave) and even says "I love you, because you haven’t had any father, or mother, or friends; – because you’ve been a poor, abused child! I love you, and I want you to be good." (Pg.321) During that time, slavery in the south was widely approved of. Therefore, when Eva expresses love so explicitly to her slaves, she is considered mad. To her society she is someone with rebellious opinions, but to us she is the one of only sane characters the novel exhibits. In contrast, Chief Bromden from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the same. Here, Chief Bromden is the only sane one in a society of people we perceive as  insane. He has to act like he is deaf and mute in order to conform that society, because what normal would be to us, to them wouldn't be accepted. 

This leads us to believe that for all we know, society has imposed over us the idea of what fits into the range of "normal" and what doesn't. We base our definitions of what is "okay" depending on society. Here we see three different societies: ours, Eva's and Chief Bromden's. Each has a different definition of normal and acceptable, thus society defines what is normal and acceptable. Normal and okay is subjective, we each have our own definition of it, and no one should be able to judge our different definitions on it.