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Analysis of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Identifying Information One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a captivating film about a group of men in an Oregon psychiatric hospital desperately trying to get better, well most of them at least. A variety of different mental illnesses were easily perceived from many of the patients that resided in this hospital, the majority of these illnesses seemed to be either clinical depression or a personality disorder, although two main characters presented a challenge. R.P. McMurphy, a white male that is 38 with no family spoken of, seems to be a charming, nice guy with no reason to be at the mental institution, other than the fact that he is facing a possibility of going to a work farm for statutory rape. …show more content…
Socially, Nurse Ratched was unpredictable with how she would react to different circumstances. She exerted behaviors of manipulation, especially towards Billy when she threatened to tell his mother that he had sex with a prostitute. The probable cause is that her parents, or whoever raised her, exhibited these traits and she was a product of her environment. Psychologically, Ratched loved control, which probably came from her lack of control as a child, because her parents loved to control her. Her work was diminished by the fact that she felt compelled to have control at all times and that she had little empathy for her own patients, which is a key part in helping psychiatric …show more content…
R.P. McMurphy possibly grew up in an environment that was a cause of him having Anisocial Personality Disorder, but that’s only part of it. Also, McMurphy was possibly sexually abused as a child and that is why he had a rape charge against him. In addition, he acts irritable and hostile in certain situations which leads the viewer to believe that he experienced aggressive trauma as a child or adolescent. These are some of the social aspects of McMurphy’s disorder. Psychologically, McMurphy shows a lack of anxiety when he impulsively steals the bus and when he throws the party in the mental institution. He doesn’t seem to realize the consequences of his actions; also, he does not care. McMurphy can’t seem to stay out of trouble, because he never learns from his mistake. All of these psychological difficulties are classic of Antisocial Personality
Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is a novel containing the theme of emotions being played with in order to confine and change people. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about a mental institution where a Nurse named Miss Ratched has total control over its patients. She uses her knowledge of the patients to strike fear in their minds. Chief Bromden a chronic who suffers from schizophrenia and pretends to be deaf and mute narrates the novel. From his perspective we see the rise and fall of a newly admitted patient, RP McMurphy. McMurphy used his knowledge and courage to bring changes in the ward. During his time period in the ward he sought to end the reign of the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched, also to bring the patients back on their feet. McMurphy issue with the ward and the patients on the ward can be better understood when you look at this novel through a psychoanalytic lens. By applying Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence to McMurphy’s views, it is can be seen that his ideas can bring change in the patients and they can use their
McMurphy’s initial view of the mental hospital, is that he sees it as a new opportunity to take control and become the leader of the place. This desire of his is seen almost immediately when he enters the
In the book as McMurphy progresses, he goes through many stages where he is rebellious, then docile, then rebellious again. This is due to the fact that he learns exactly what it means to be committed and what it takes to be released. Then he begins to see that all his ward mates (I don't know what you want to call them) are counting on him. becomes rebellious again. These reactions to his environments encourage McMurphy is not crazy but intelligent and quick. This is exactly the case. way a character such as McMurphy should act. In the movie, McMurphy is not only wild but rude. He tried to never be outright rude in the book. aggravating for the nurse) yet in the movie he was. He never stopped being. wild in the movie, leading you to believe that maybe in fact he is crazy.
Throughout the novel, McMurphy cheers up the other inmates by telling jokes and getting their minds off of the mental institution, yet the serious issues and problems of the institution often still prevail. During a fishing trip with everyone from the institution, the patients begin to feel awkward and out of place as they are not used to living in the real world and in a normal society. McMurphy soon realizes everyone around him is struggling to act normal and he attempts to cheer everyone up as the comedic hero. Kesey writes, “McMurphy saw how uneasy we were and tried to work us into a better mood by joking and teasing the girl, but this made us feel worse somehow. Everybody was thinking how easy it would be to return to the ward, go back and say they decided the nurse had been right; with a wind like this the sea would’ve been just too rough”(201). McMurphy initially tries to make everyone feel normal in this outside society by picking on a little girl but the inmates feel worse afterward. In some ways, McMurphy’s humor is shown as he knows it’s his job to cheer everyone up and he takes this role with pride acting as a comedic hero. Yet, the satirical aspect of the novel is more prevalent. All the patients know they will never be like anyone outside of society they see on the fishing trip because the institution has ruined their lives. Kesey writes how everyone understands it is so much easier to go back to the mental institution because they are not used anything else and they cannot act or function like normal people. In the institution, the inmates are treated inhumanely and abused by the guards so there is no possible way any of them could operate in a normal society. This idea that the institution has ruined everyone's lives so much they they cannot function in normal society pushes fits Ken Kesey’s own beliefs. Being part of Counterculture groups Kesey disagreed with
From the moment McMurphy enters the ward it is clear to all that he is different and hard to control. He’s seen as a figure the rest of the patients can look up to and he raises their hopes in taking back power from the big nurse. The other patients identify McMurphy as a leader when he first stands up to the nurse at her group therapy, saying that she has manipulated them all to become “a bunch of chickens at a pecking party”(Kesey 55). He tells the patients that they do not have to listen to Nurse Ratched and he confronts her tactics and motives. The patients see him as a leader at this point, but McMurphy does not see the need for him to be leading alone. McMurphy is a strong willed and opinionated man, so when he arrives at the ward he fails to comprehend why the men live in fear, until Harding explains it to him by
McMurphy’s evident superiority among the other patients in the hospital immediately establishes his power and authority over the other patients. From the minute he enters the ward, Bromden notes his charismatic and overbearing personality as signs of his power. “Even though I can’t see him, I know he’s no ordinary admission. I don’t hear him slide scared along the wall… he sounds like he’s way above them… he sounds big” (15-16). Instantly, McMurphy radiates power and defiance that the other patients in the ward notably admire. He boldly challenges authority and battles conformity in the ward, determined to eradicate the authoritarian governance of the institution. He proves to be a symbol of defiance and gradually begins to beat out the authority in the ward.
Nurse Ratched does not abuse authority. She only tries to keep everything in order. Nurse Ratched exclaims when the patient's escaped the ward,
Nurse Ratched uses her voice throughout the novel to intimidate the patients. She is the antagonist of the novel. The patients obsequiously follow Ratched’s command, until McMurphy comes along. They all fear that she will send them for shock therapy if they don’t obey her. Nurse Ratched is the most daunting persona of the novel, due in large part to the use of her voice.
When McMurphy first entered into the mental institution, he was under the impression that the amount of time that he would have been in jail, was the same amount of time that he would be in the ward. However, after one the attendants revealed to him that he could not control when he left, McMurphy’s main goal became to escape the ward. The problem with this is that his goal was rooted in a very selfish place because he was not focused on creating meaningful relationships with the men in the ward, rather he was focused only on escaping the ward because it would make him happy and it would benefit him. McMurphy also meets the criteria for (A2b), which states that he has impairments in interpersonal functioning, specifically in his intimacy. Early in the film you could see how McMurphy lacked the ability to have healthy intimate relationships, especially when he was found guilty for statutory rape and he proceeded to laugh about it and explain why he did not consider it rape, mainly because of the pleasure it allotted for him. In addition, in the two times we saw McMurphy with Candy, their relationship seemed to be rooted in their physical attraction which did not seem to be a healthy because McMurphy only wanted her to satisfy his
One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a movie that portrays a life story of a criminal named McMurphy who is sent to a mental institution because he believes that he himself is insane. While McMurphy is in the mental ward, he encounters other patients and changes their perception of the “real” world. Before McMurphy came to the mental ward, it was a place filled with strict rules and orders that patients had to follow; these rules were created by the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. However, once McMurphy was in the ward, everything, including the atmosphere, changed. He was the first patient to disobey Nurse Ratched. Unlike other patients who continuously obeyed Nurse Ratched, McMurphy and another patient named Charlie Cheswick decided to rebel
Nurse Ratched was head nurse of the ward. She needed to have control over everything. All of the patients feared Nurse Ratched, or as they sometimes call her, “Big Nurse.” That is everyone feared her until McMurphy. Because he refused to listen to Nurse Ratched, the “ruler” of the ward, it showed that there will be dismay between the two throughout the story.
Randle McMurphy is in a constant battle within himself, he is portrayed as a sociopath. He does not base his actions off of whether they will affect those around him, instead does as he pleases. His actions are based off of what is best for himself. McMurphy was first introduced as a savior to the ward, He soon uses the patients for his own benefit, the patients look up to him as one of their new proclaimed leader. McMurphy inspires hope into them and make them want to stand up for themselves. This give
Mcmurphy was the one who started making people laughing in the ward. When he first came into the ward he was cracking jokes and shaking everybody’s hand. (p.16)
McMurphy is an individual who is challenging and rebelling against the system's rules and practices. He eventually teaches this practice of rebellion to the other patients who begin to realize that their lives are being controlled unfairly by the mental institution. When McMurphy first arrives at the institution, all of the other patients are afraid to express their thoughts to the Big Nurse. They are afraid to exercise their thoughts freely, and they believe that the Big Nurse will punish them if they question her authority. One patient, Harding, says, "All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees...We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place" (Kesey 62).