One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey is a book about an Indian named Chief who tells his experience in a mental hospital. While he was there, he met a rowdy guy who was named McMurphy. In the mental hospital, Chief acted as if he was deaf and dumb, people had always treated him that way so he stayed like that; even though he wasn’t like that. He’s been in that hospital for 10 years, traumatized by the taking of his home, the Cecilio Falls. The reason why the government shouldn’t have built the dam and taken the Indian Village is because people were already living near the falls for generations. They were taking their source of food and trade, taking their homes, taking everything away from them. But the townspeople who lived not far …show more content…
According to Chief, his father decided not to argue with the townspeople’s decision, “The way Papa finally did when he came to realize that he couldn’t beat that group from town who wanted the Government to put in the dam because of the money and the work it would bring,” (page 150). This means that people wanted the dam to be built because of the advantages and products that they can get like money, electricity and much more. They were being selfish people and didn’t care about what happened to the tribe. Not caring about the children who would be taken from their homes, the families who would have nowhere to go; homeless, without food or shelter. All they wanted was their well being, that was very cruel of them. Another example is when a woman looks for Chiefs father when he was younger, “I think if we just leave now and go back into town, and, of course, spread the word with the townspeople about the government’s plans so they understand the advantages of having a hydroelectric dam and a lake instead of a cluster of shacks beside a falls,” (Pg. 182). This shows how desperate the people were to get the dam. The woman thought that Chief was dumb and didn’t understand English and they were talking about what they were going to do with the village and convince the townspeople to build the dam. On the other hand, the Indians thought the …show more content…
McMurphy asked Chief what were the reasons why the government built the dam and what did the tribe had to give to the government, “Everything. The tribe, the village, the falls...” said Chief (Pg. 187). The reasons why the government wanted to build the dam was because they wanted to get rid of the tribe and the village, but their priority was to get the falls so they can build the dam and get supplies from it, like electricity. The government ignored the fact that the Indians were getting their food from the falls and they could trade with other tribes that come to the falls. “That’s what they said to him. He said, What can you pay for the way a man lives? He said, What can you pay for what a man is?” (Pg. 187). The falls is something sacred to the Indian tribe. It’s where they get food, it’s where they bathe, and wash their clothes. It’s where they teach their next generation to get food to sustain their families. It’s their falls, and the government is trying to bribe them with money to benefit themselves. That’s pretty unfair comparing both
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
Andrew Jackson believed that the only way to save the Natives from extinction was to remove them from their current homes and push them across the Mississippi River. “And when removal was accomplished he felt he had done the American people a great service. He felt he had followed the ‘dictates of humanity’ and saved the Indi...
In Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest there are many recurring motifs and images. One very prominent motif is laughter. Following the motif of laughter throughout the novel, it is mostly associated with McMurphy and power/control. McMurphy teaches the patients how to laugh again and with the laughter the combine loses control and the patients gain their power back.
I hated Nurse Ratched before and I sure do now. Her sneaky little schemes to turn the patients on each other make’s me furious. I’m glad McMurphy broke down the window; it’ll remind the patients that her power is limited and changeable. Although, she made McMurphy stronger than ever, even with the countless electroshock treatments. Proving his desire to remain strong in the face of tyranny. “And he'd swell up, aware that every one of those faces on Disturbed had turned toward him and was waiting, and he'd tell the nurse he regretted that he had but one life to give for his country and she could kiss his rosy red ass before he'd give up the goddam ship. Yeh!” (Kesey, 187) I agree to some extent, that without her there wouldn’t be a book, she makes the book exciting even if her methods are all but pure. Her character stands as a symbol of the oppression woman received during that time and in a way, the society in which these characters live are flipped. While on the outside woman have no rights, in the ward they are the all mighty, all knowing, powerful, controllable force. So yah, we need Nurse Ratched but I still hate her. During the course of the short novel she destroyed three men, two of which died and the other was lobotomised. “What worries me, Billy," she said - I could hear the change in her voice - "is how your mother is going to take this.” (Kesey, 231) I can’t say I enjoyed Nurse Ratched being strangled by McMurphy, but I do think she deserved it. Although, it was the end to the battle since the Nurse had won the war. By infuriating McMurphy to that point and her ability to remain calm throughout it all, she proved that McMurphy’s action didn’t faze her. She proved that rebelling is feeblish and by lobot...
Ken Kesey presents his masterpiece, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, with popular culture symbolism of the 1960s. This strategy helps paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind. Music and cartoons of the times are often referred to in the novel. These help to exaggerate the characters and the state of the mental institution.
Over the years Glen Canyon Dam has been the spark for hundreds of debates, rallies, and protests. These debates have been going on for almost forty years now. The fact is that the dam created a huge lake when it was built, this is what bothers environmentalists. This lake is called Lake Powell and thousands of people depend on its tourists for income. The lake also filled up a canyon called Glen Canyon, some people say it was the most beautiful place on earth. The anti-dam side of the debate has its basis in the fact that Lake Powell is currently covering Glen Canyon. It was very remote so few people got to witness its splendor. This is probably the reason the dam was built in the first place, ignorance.
A lot of young Native Americans were assimilated through education as they are still in adolescents and could be easily shaped into the government’s ideal citizen. In a presidential message to Congress, President Chester Arthur reaches out to reform the Indian Policy Reform by saying, “...there is reason to believe that the Indians in large numbers would be persuaded to sever their tribal relations and to engage at once in agricultural pursuits.”(Arthur, 1881) By disconnecting Native Americans from their culture, the government was able to have control over the Native Americans and how they lived their lives. This is comparative to the Eastman’s experience as he was disconnected to his tribal heritage by having his hair cut and leaving his tribe to go to an Native American industrial
The government itself said they were doing this for the survival of the Indian race and if that was the case they wouldn’t have moved them to a place they had never been, a place they didn’t know anything about, location thousands of miles away that they couldn’t survive, much less thrive in. Instead they, moved them to a dry desert like land that they did not want. The government said that they would pay for ...
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
Fred Wright, Lauren's instructor for EN 132 (Life, Language, Literature), comments, "English 132 is an introduction to English studies, in which students learn about various areas in the discipline from linguistics to the study of popular culture. For the literature and literary criticism section of the course, students read a canonical work of literature and what scholars have said about the work over the years. This year, students read One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, a classic of American literature which dates from the 1960s counterculture. Popularized in a film version starring Jack Nicholson, which the class also watched in order to discuss film studies and adaptation, the novel became notable for its sympathetic portrayal of the mentally ill. For an essay about the novel, students were asked to choose a critical approach (such as feminist, formalist, psychological, and so forth) and interpret the novel using that approach, while also considering how their interpretation fit into the ongoing scholarly dialogue about the work. Lauren chose the challenge of applying a Marxist approach to One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not only did she learn about critical approaches and how to apply one to a text, she wrote an excellent essay, which will help other readers understand the text better. In fact, if John Clark Pratt or another editor ever want to update the 1996 Viking Critical Library edition of the novel, then he or she might want to include Lauren's essay in the next edition!"
The Choctaw were told that the Americans in Washington cared little for the situation. They wanted the Choctaw moved on their own, or by military force. The Indians were believed to be ignorant savages, but they were industrious farmers, merchants, and businessmen of all types. Some were educated people, many were Christians. They even had an organized system of government and a codified body of law. Some of these people were not even Indians, some were strangers and orphans had been taken in over the years. These were people who did not deserve what they went through.
With the exception of a few tribes who were fortunate enough to retain allotments rich with natural resources, the reservation system did nothing but hurt Native Americans. It not only stripped them of their traditional ways of life but it also separated many people from their families. It has contributed to innumerable cases of disease and death and has stripped many of their identity. Many live in an emotional state of limbo because they are not truly accepted in non-Native society nor are they fully accepted within Native society. This is exactly what the U.S. government has been trying to achieve from the beginning; the continuing disruption of Native American society with an endgame of total
As Lord Acton put it in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." This is the truth that is evident both in Ken Kesey book One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. His main characters Nurse Ratched and Randal McMurphy are in a subtle underground war against each other's accumulating power, and corruptness. This idea of great men being bad men is evident in Kesey's book, my experiences, and society in general.
The Sioux Tribe, as well as various others have been struggling for recognition by the federal state government. The Sioux Tribe itself has only been just recognized since the year of 1975 since the USTDC had administered and approved the social and economical development of these people (Daniels 7). The USTDC may have approved this act, along with broadening various new programs to socially enhance the Sioux and other tribes, but would not have the power or ability in order to push past the thoughts of people who opposed the idea of accepting Native Americans into modern society. Due to the social isolationism, whether or not the Sioux Tribe would want it or not; the tribe experiences poverty and unemployment causing the people to have economical downfalls as they travel deeper into a spiraling depression. The Sioux tribe also deals with radicals who oppose any type of rights to be reserved for Native Americans, some will go as far as to push Natives, such as the Sioux tribe from their own sacred, belonging land.
According to Gordon Walker there are three concepts of justice: Distributive, which conceives justice in terms of the distribution or sharing out of goods (resources) and bads (harm and risk), Procedural, which conceives justice in terms of the way in which decisions are made, who is involved and has influence, and finally justice as recognition, which conceives justice in terms of who is given respect and who is and isn’t valued (Walker, 10-11). In this particular case study I believe that all aspects of justice need to be discussed in order to fully obtain overall environmental justice for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. For there is not one aspect of justice that is actively being represented in this case study. The three concepts of justice for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will be approached through