Analysis Of 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

883 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: One flew over the cuckoos nest character analysis

Dinkins 1 Heather Dinkins Ms. Hunniford English 111-93 19 February 2014 Randle McMurphy: The Inspiration One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is an inspiring story of patients in a mental ward overcoming its oppressive nature with the help of a new arrival named Randle McMurphy. As Randle exposes the corrupt nature of the ward through manipulation and rebellion, medicated and conformed patients as well as myself begin to question the legitimacy of mental illness and the necessity of ward practices. This novel, told from the point of view of the perceived "deaf and dumb" Chief Bromden, places an ample emphasis on observation. Bromden, who in reality is not deaf or dumb, watches the goings-on of the ward from a safe distance. Being admitted to the ward ten years earlier, Bromden has watched patients arrive and leave roboticized and mechanized under the "teachings" of the head nurse, Ms. Ratched. It is only with the arrival of the falsely insane McMurphy that Ms. Ratched's meticulously run ward is turned upside down. Making an initial impression as a happy-go-lucky "gambling fool," McMurphy serves as an inspirational figure throughout the course of the novel. McMurphy, too, realizes the importance of observation; however, unlike Chief Bromden, Randle has no problem making his presence known as he quickly learns the interworkings of the ward. It is not long before McMurphy's sarcastic, devil-may-care attitude stirs up trouble for the head nurse and her minions as he inspires acts of rebellion from the rest of the patients. Collective protest earns them a look at the World Series, bribery, a party on the ward and the loss of virginity for Billy, a fellow patient. Even Bromden is inspired to rebel as he joins Randle in a brawl... ... middle of paper ... ...ng this novel, I am certain that I am correct in that. For someone else to disregard your own free will due to perceived madness is madness in and of itself. Viewing clips of the popular movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, there were multiple scenes that made me cringe. On scene in particular, showing the horrendous effects of electro-shock therapy, or ECT, on Randle McMurphy's iconic personality, I realized that this is a practice still conducted today and one that I find extremely undesirable. It is said that ECT is "a relatively safe and effective procedure, providing relief from serious psychiatric symptoms;" however, how far is too far (Seiner, Morales, and Bolton)? While the story presents the optimistic view that people may not be as crazy as you think, it also raises startling questions regarding the unethical treatment of institutionalized individuals.

Show More
Related

  • Emotions In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.

    Read More

  • Weakening the Combine in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    When norms of society are unfair and seem set in stone, rebellion is bound to occur, ultimately bringing about change in the community. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest demonstrates the conflict of individuals who have to survive in an environment where they are pressured to cooperate. The hospital's atmosphere suppresses the patients' individuality through authority figures that mold the patients into their visions of perfection. The ward staff's ability to overpower the patients' free will is not questioned until a man named Randal McMurphy is committed to the mental institute. He rebels against what he perceives as a rigid, dehumanizing, and uncompassionate environment. His exposure of the flaws in the hospital's perfunctory rituals permits the other patients to form opinions and consequently their personalities surface. The patient's new behavior clashes with the medical personnel's main goal-to turn them into 'perfect' robots, creating havoc on the ward.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Manipulation Essay

    409 Words  | 1 Pages

    When it comes to manipulation many view it as a negative aspect in life. Although people view it as a negative aspect, they continue to manipulate words and actions to get what they want. Ken Kesey applied manipulation in the book to reveal the positive and negative sides of manipulation. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a controversial novel that describes the inner workings of a mental institution.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Character Analysis

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the main characters, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy struggle for power over the ward. Throughout the novel, McMurphy grew from questioning rules to disobeying them completely. In comparison, Nurse Ratched went from verbally emasculating the inmates to physically traumatizing them and destroying their self-esteem. At various moments within the novel, McMurphy has more power, and during others Nurse Ratched seems victorious. McMurphy gains control by appealing to the ward’s inmates with confidence and hope, while Nurse Ratched gains control by emasculating them, and making them feel self conscious. Furthermore, McMurphy has the support of his fellow inmates, while Nurse Ratched uses the rules of the ward, and the government to her advantage. Although Nurse Ratched lobotomizes McMurphy, his beliefs and influence carries on within the rest of the patients. Therefore, this novel suggests that despite Nurse Ratched’s power over the ward, McMurphy’s Impact lives on.

    Read More

  • Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    The theme of this story “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” according to Daniel Woods is “Power is the predominant theme of Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest': who holds power, who doesn't, who wants it, who loses it, how it is used to intimidate and manipulate and for what purposes, and, most especially, how it is disrupted and subverted, challenged, denied and assumed” (http://www.gradesaver.com/ClassicNotes/Titles/cuckoosnest/essays/essay1.html). No, it is not McMurphy who flew over the Cuckoo’s nest, or Harding, or Taber. It wasn’t Martini or Cheswick, or Bibbit, Chief Bromden or Bancini. The journey of crazies that flew over the Cuckoo’s nest was in the asylum, but they were not patients. The mad people in this scenario were paid to be mad. Nurse Ratched, Dr. John Spivey and other staff, like Washington, were salaried each day to come into the asylum and impose dreadful doses of mental (and sometimes physical) hurt on the so-called "nuts" whose lives consisted of white hallways and white floors. McMurphy lost his life because he saw the reality in the asylum, the Cuckoo’s nest. He lost his life because he had not yet been in long enough to grow resistant to the brutal treatment that he received. He lost his life because he figured out who the real nuts were and, unlike the other inmates, McMurphy still knew enough of fairness to comprehend and want to remove the dreadful unfairness being done to the powerless patients inside the asylum.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Ken Kesey One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    631 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although some parents believe Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is sending the wrong message to their children, the message is positive and can help their children better understand mental institutions and also teaches them that everyone deserves freedom.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1950’s, mental hospitals weren’t what they are now. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, he shows how people in mental hospitals were treated at that time all through the eyes of an Indian man named Chief Bromden. Ken Kesey uses his personal experiences to add settings and even characters to show this in his writing. His life is clearly seen by McMurphy’s problem with authority which goes perfectly with his own and by the setting of a mental hospital, which Kesey once worked in.

    Read More

  • Essay On One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    2040 Words  | 5 Pages

    Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ed. John Clark Pratt. New York: Viking-Penguin, 1996. Print. Viking Critical Library.

    Read More

  • Ethical Issues In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    76 Words  | 1 Pages

    One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, filmed in 1975, based on the 1962 novel of the same name, tell a story about the lack of autonomy for mental health patients due to rigid rules of conformity, manipulation and authority. The Institutionalised Mental Hospital is where the patients are mainly governed through a paternalistic and/or authoritative approach which results in a general lack of autonomy in the film. This leads to the following ethical problems such

    Read More

  • Criticism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rules rule. Without things like stoplights and driving etiquette, we’d be one disaster-prone society. When we are in kindergarten, we learn how to color inside the lines and paint by the numbers, because we might be told that pretty pictures are those that are neat and tidy. We have terms like “good” and “sane” and “insane” because these words help us keep our lives organized and mess-free. No need to debate it or get into messy arguments. But One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest challenges all of that. It makes us look at who makes the rules. Now we want to know: who defines what behavior is "sane" or "insane"? McMurphy helps us realize just how arbitrary "sanity" can be, especially when the poster child of sanity happens to be the one and only Nurse Ratched. So just what does it mean to be "sane" or

    Read More

  • The Individual and The System in Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    479 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many social issues and problems are explored in Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Perhaps the most obvious complaint against society is the treatment of the individual. This problem of the individual versus the system is a very controversial topic that has provoked great questioning of the government and the methods used to treat people who are unable to conform to the government's standards.

    Read More

  • Symbols In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1685 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a story about a band of patients in a mental ward who struggle to find their identity and get away from the wretched Nurse. As audiences read about the tale, many common events and items seen throughout the story actually represent symbols for the bigger themes of the story. Symbols like the fishing trip, Nurse, and electroshock therapy all emphasize the bigger themes of the story.

    Read More

  • Critique of the Film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is considered one of the greatest films in American films and was directed by Milos Forman. The film, which adapted from Ken Kesey’s popular novel by the same name, was filmed in the Oregon State Hospital which is a real mental institution. The perspective through which the film is presented from indicates a theme of allegory where rebellion is pitted against tyrannical authority coupled with a quest to maintain the status quo of in-mates and the established authority. Via the keen eyes for details, the film unfolds the matriarchal leadership of tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched who keeps the mentally disturbed men in line. The new in-mate Randall Patrick McMurphy is fun-loving and likes scuffles resolved as opposed to Big Nurse Ratched which brings out conflict in the plot. The film is a classic and intellectual attainment of the director who delves in the psychiatric ward and presents interesting facts and reality that desires change and embracing of new attitudes. The strongly brings out characters with stage presence, themes of rebellion and oppression, as well as build on compelling social commentary (Constanzo 1839).

    Read More

  • Style and Setting in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... the Acutes, away from Nurse Ratched’s eye. He also changes the ward into a kind of party zone, and promotes gambling and other forms of entertainment. All these changes to scenery allow the patients to get rid of some of Nurse Ratched’s dominance, and become less fearful of her. In fact, the Chief changes so much because of McMurphy’s influence that he is able to escape from the ward in the end.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

Open Document