Every American has grown up with these words, lived by these words, and thusly, accepted them as a given: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This sentence has made its place in the United States Constitution as well, and there are variations of this all over the world—“liberté, egalité, fraternité” (liberty, equality, fraternity) in France, “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” (unity, justice, and freedom) in Germany, and many more. Not having to curtail speech, have every move checked, or suppress individuality are gifts, often taken for granted in today’s society. People go about their day, not having a second thought about choosing when to smoke a cigarette or being able to play a game of cards with friends without fighting for it. But in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, personal freedom, a sense of self, and individuality are withheld from the patients in an Oregon insane asylum. The asylum itself is symbolic of society and how it pressures people to act a certain way, and portrays how deviating even slightly from the label “normal” is cause for being confined. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, characters such as Chief Bromden and Dale Harding are prime examples for how society manipulates differences into weaknesses, and only with the aid of Randle McMurphy are they able to reassert themselves and defy society’s conformity.
Chief Bromden is the narrator of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and although in the beginning he appears to readers as physically formidable, he is a docile and unusually subdued man. He is a staggeringly tall N...
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...he would not have wanted to be an example, a trophy to Nurse Ratched and suffocates him (Kesey 270). Even then, he serves as the impelling force that makes Chief leave the Combine and its oppression for good.
Society can be an antagonist or an ally, depending on the individual and the circumstances. This is shown indefinitely in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Differences like Chief Bromden’s race and Dale Harding’s sexual orientation were turned into weaknesses, and only with Randle McMurphy’s courage and perseverance were they overcome. However, it came at a cost. McMurphy died for this cause. Billy Bibbit and Cheswick were casualties along the way. So, readers must ask themselves the question that Chief’s father asked: “What can you pay for the way a man lives? What can you pay for what a man is?”
Works Cited
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Take for example, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. There is no doubt in my mind that the mental institution that comprises the primary setting of the narrative is intended as a metaphor of societal oppression. This symbolic novel relays the story of an inmate standing up against the powerful forces that operate a psychiatric hospital, but it represents much more than just a classic case of “man versus the establishment”. The questions raised by Kesey are almost as chilling as his descriptive tales of inmate abuse. Kesey compelled me to ponder just how thin the line is that separates insanity from sanity, and treatment from control. Representing a heroic struggle of personality against an institution of mindless conformity, I found “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to be one powerful piece of literature.
The author, Ken Kessey, in his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, depicts how cruel and dehumanizing oppression can be. Kessey’s purpose is to reveal that there are better ways to live than to let others control every aspect of a person’s life. He adopts a reflective tone and by using the techniques of imagery and symbolism, he encourages readers, especially those who may see or face oppression on a regular basis, to realize how atrocious it can be and even take action against it.
In my opinion the main theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is conformity. The patients at this mental institution, or at least the one in the Big Nurse’s ward, find themselves on a rough situation where not following standards costs them many privileges being taken away. The standards that the Combine sets are what makes the patients so afraid of a change and simply conform hopelessly to what they have since anything out of the ordinary would get them in trouble. Such conformity is what Mc Murphy can not stand and makes him bring life back to the ward by fighting Miss Ratched and creating a new environment for the patients. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest represents a rebellion against the conformity implied in today’s society.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental institution in the Pacific Northwest. The narrator of the novel is Chief Bromden, also known as Chief Broom, a catatonic half-Indian man whom everybody thinks is deaf and dumb. He often suffers from hallucinations in which he feels that the room is filled with fog. The institution is dominated by Nurse Ratched (Big Nurse), a cold, precise woman with calculated gestures and a calm, mechanical manner. When the story begins, a new patient, Randall Patrick McMurphy, arrives at the ward. He is a self-professed 'gambling fool' who has just come from a work farm at Pendleton. He introduces himself to the other men on the ward, including Dale Harding, the president of the patient's council, and Billy Bibbit, a thirty-year old man who stutters and appears very young. Nurse Ratched immediately pegs McMurphy as a manipulator.
What makes an outcast in society? A stutter, an addiction, being gay or a mental illness? In this novel, “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” By Ken Kesey, explores this topic of conformity and individuality. R.P McMurphy is the main character and he wins the struggle between him and the nurse over this issue. McMurphy wins this war because he alleviates the stress of being ‘odd’ in the ward for the patients, he also demonstrated that being upset with the rules of the ward is okay and it was their right and lastly, McMurphy leaves a legacy as a reminder of his values and lessons.
Throughout history many great ideas have come from those who defy the boundaries set out by others. In order to achieve personal desires individuals had to think outside obvious standards. No longer do people cower in fear of their sexuality, no longer is planetary exploration impossible, this generation “marches out of step”(pg 73) defying past standards set out by previous generations. Boundaries have always been laid out by others, describing what is right and wrong, what is impossible and unrealistic. Individuals with the ability to elude conformity are able to set new standards and ditch the term impossible. In Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” characters were subjected into conformity, however those that evade submission are able to realize their personal desires and as a result set a precedent for those that come after.
Ken Kesey in his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest question a lot of things that you think almost everyday. With this famous portrait of a mental institute its rebellious patients and domineering caretakers counter-culture icon Kesey is doing a whole lot more than just spinning a great yarn. He is asking us to stop and consider how what we call "normal" is forced upon each and every one of us. Stepping out of line, going against the grain, swimming upstream whatever your metaphor, there is a steep price to pay for that kind of behavior. The novel tells McMurphys tale, along with the tales of other inmates who suffer under the yoke of the authoritarian Nurse Ratched it is the story of any person who has felt suffocated and confined by our
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Dead Poet Society explore the struggle for independence through characters who are subject to an environment in which they are rewarded for their conformity. Dead Poet Society outlines the complications of young students at Welton Academy after a respected English teacher named Mr. Keating inspires them to seize the day. However, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest explore the events that transpire in a mental institute after an exceedingly ‘difficult’ patient arrives and the impact this has on Chief Bromden. Both texts critically explore the struggle for independence.
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest Cuckoos Nest There is much strength associated with both speech and silence. One can use either to their advantage in a power struggle. In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Randle Patrick McMurphy and Nurse Ratched employ the power of speech, and Chief Bromden uses the power of silence until the end of the novel when he gains the power of speech. These cases prove that the greatest power is not held in speech or silence alone, but in the effective combination of the two. Many people believe verbal communication to be a very powerful way of expressing themselves.
An exceptionally tall, Native American, Chief Bromden, trapped in the Oregon psychiatric ward, suffers from the psychological condition of paranoid schizophrenia. This fictional character in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest struggles with extreme mental illness, but he also falls victim to the choking grasp of society, which worsens Bromden’s condition. Paranoid schizophrenia is a rare mental illness that leads to heavy delusions and hallucinations among other, less serious, symptoms. Through the love and compassion that Bromden’s inmate, Randle Patrick McMurphy, gives Chief Bromden, he is able to briefly overcome paranoid schizophrenia and escape the dehumanizing psychiatric ward that he is held prisoner in.
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...
In different societies that exist in the world and literature, either be it real-life or fictional, each society has certain guidelines and aspects it has to follow in order to be successful. In each of these societies, people and characters respond to these aspects either optimistically or pessimistically depending on how the regulations affect him or her. In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the narrator of the novel, Chief Bromden, brilliantly illustrates the fictional society he exists in and how the conventions of his society affects him and how he responds to them. Throughout the novel, the oppressive and inhuman society created by Nurse Ratched causes Chief Bromden to have a transition in character from being docile
1950’s society is all about conformity. All differences should be shoved down, or corrected, and you should fit the cookie-cutter image of the “Perfect American.” Anyone who does not fit this mold is shunned, treated cruelly, and considered defective. The psych ward in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is full of people who don’t meet these expectations in one way or another. These people are treated as if they can not think for themselves, can not carry out simple tasks on their own, and are incapable of functioning independently. Ken Kesey’s novel should be regarded as a lesson, a reminder, for us to treat all people, like people.
Chief Bromden is a six foot seven tall Native American (half) who feels very small and weak even though by physical description, he is very big and strong. Chief does not have enough self-confidence and he is not independent. That is what makes him so small and weak. When Randle McMurphy, the new inmate in the asylum comes in, Chief is reminded of what his father used to be: strong, independent, confident and big. "He talks a little the way papa used to, voice loud and full of hell " (16) McMurphy helps Chief gains back his self-confidence and teaches him to be independent.
In Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Kesey makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: the effects of sexual repression, woman as castrators, and the pressures we face from society to conform. Through these points, Kesey encourages the reader to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the reader realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as "crazy."