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Comparing one flew over the cuckoo's nest book to movie
What did Ken Kesey want the reader to think about in One Flew Oer the Cuckoos Nest
Comparing one flew over the cuckoo's nest book to movie
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In today’s world it is very common for novels to get turned into films. With this comes a few problems. It is very hard to transform the powerful words onto the screen because the same words that have so much meaning behind them are not expressed the same through acting. Also, every detail that’s included in the novel cannot be included in the film which takes away from the overall story. An example of this happening is the story “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. The novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is better than the filmed version of the story because the point of view, key scenes, and important symbolism that is not included in the film.
To start off, the most noticeable difference between the film and the novel is the story's
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Without these key scenes it takes away from the story. One example of this is when Chief Bromden talks about his life before he was in the ward. He talks a lot about his tribe and how they had to give their land up to the combine. The filmed version completely disregards all of it which gives the audience a lack of understanding of who Chief, who is a very key person in the story, really is. Another example of this happening is the time leading up to McMurphy taking electroshock therapy. In the novel after they get back from their fishing trip they all have to go into the washroom to get cleaned up. George is giving them a hard time so Nurse Ratched orders Washington to take care of the situation. Washington’s behavior towards George upsets McMurphy and Chief Bromden and him take action, sending them to the Disturbed Ward where they receive electroshock therapy. In the filmed version Nurse Ratched sends Chief Bromden, Cheswick, and McMurphy to the Disturbed Ward after McMurphy breaks the nurses window with the help of Chief. The lack of detail in the filmed version is very poor compared to what the novel has to offer. To sum it up, the scenes in the film compared to the novel are very poor and takes away from the overall
I chose the subject about “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” written by Ken Kesey in 1962 for my research paper because my mother told me years ago of the accompanying film and how interesting it is. Two years ago a friend of mine came back from his exchange programme in the United States of America. He told me that he and his theatre group there had performed this novel. He was and still is very enthusiastic about the theme and about the way it is written. Although I started reading the novel, I didn’t manage to finish it till the day we had to choose our subjects at school. When I saw this subject on the list, which we were given by our English teacher Mr Schäfer, I was interested immediately. So I chose it.
This essay will be exploring the text One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey and the film Dead poet’s society written by Tom Schulman. The essay will show how the authors use over exaggerated wildcard characters such as McMurphy and Keating. The use of different settings such as an insane asylum and an all-boys institution. And Lastly the use of fore shading to show how the authors can use different texts to present similar ideas in different ways.
Conformity has been the target of many works of literature even before Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye spewed angst about everyone around him being a “phony.” To many people, there are forces in the social order that shape others to fit a certain mold, and one who does not fit the mold will be considered an outcast by society. During the 1960’s, rebellion was a shared act among the majority, including authors and artists; this was due to the conflict in the East as well as the Civil Rights movement. To these people, the government was a criminal, even a machine perhaps, which threatened one’s individuality. This provides some historical context on the background of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Ken Kesey, the author, worked in a mental hospital, and he realized that society simply regarded the patients as being “too different” and thus cast them out. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey utilizes both blatant and subtle devices to send his message to the world: there should be an uprising against a society that forces conformity upon everyone.
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!"
Ken Kesey’s tragicomedy One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has more in common with Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 than seen at first glance. Both follow the plights of characters in a perilous setting trying to prove or disprove their own sanity. The difference comes from their characters, tone and themes.In One Flew Over Randle McMurphy transfers into a ward run by an over controlling megalomaniac known as Nurse Ratched. Over the story, McMurphy attempts to give the inmates their freedom back by returning to them their manhood in a variety of coming of age activities while also battling for autonomy from the overwhelming control of the Big Nurse Ratched. In Catch-22 the main character Yossarian tries to prove his own insanity while fighting in the air
The main difference between the book and the film consists of the author’s perspective of who told the story. Chief Bromden, a Columbian Indian, suffers from schizophrenia. Just like all the characters in the book Chief, plays an important role and through most of the story, he plays the role of observer. The audience knows more about his life now and the past than any other character in the novel. The audience also discovered that the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the title comes from the nursery rhyme that Chief Indian grandmother taught him.
One of the reasons Rick was excited on finding the Toad was because the Toad happened to be considered special to Wilbur Mercer. “Wilbur Mercer is the messianic figure of Mercerism, a religion that encourages fusion with other humans in order to share in suffering and persecution. By fusing with Mercer, humanity is able to draw on the power of the collective in order to survive.” (gradesaver.com) The empathy box was a means of “fusing” with Wilbur Mercer and it was first introduced into the story in chapter 2. John Isadore, a character in the story, is in his apartment and feels lonely and choses to use his empathy box. During his fusion, Isadore is described as feeling community as he works with Wilbur Mercer, climbing up towards the top of this hill which has no end in sight. “This fusion of their mentalities oriented their attention on the hill, the climb, the need to ascend.” (Dick, 22) This experience that
The last big hoorah before Murphy gets lobotomized is the party scene. There are plenty different scenes in the movie that are very different than the book. The scene before the big party is one of those scenes. This scene is important in both the film and the novel because it shows how and why the party started. Both scenes contained candy and her friend coming through the window with bottles of liquor. Mr. Turkle wanted more then just the liquor in both scenes, he wanted a girl as well. Also the two girls that came to the ward came through the window in a loud manner. The ward was lit up in both scenes but not in the same way. Each scene has some similarities form the film and novel, and this scene has very few.
“The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak” (Kesey 60).
In Ken Kesey's, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” the main character, Chief Bromden, is stuck in a mental institution and is labeled as a vegetable, meaning that he will never be “fit” enough to leave the institution and conform back into society. The novel focuses on Bromden’s internal struggle to accept Randle McMurphy’s rebellious actions toward Nurse Ratched and McMurphy’s urge for the patients to break free from the nurse’s tyranny over the ward. Sia’s song, “Breathe Me” can relate to what Bromden experiences throughout the entire novel regarding to loneliness and and a lack of self-confidence. The lyrics, “Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found” resemble Bromden’s condition because his mental illness, schizophrenia, causes him to imagine fog that supposedly protects him from the insanity in the ward.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a classic American film based off the book by the same name by Ken Kessey. This critically acclaimed movie, directed by Milos Forman and starring award-wining actors Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, looks inside of a mental ward during the 1970’s that shows the viewer a greater metaphor for society’s suppression of natural instinct (IMDB). A recurrent theme of sexuality in relation to societal conformity is seen through character development and interaction of McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, the main setting location, and the use of particular props.
Stark contrasts exist between the description of the characters and emotional content between the book and the movie. This may be mainly due to the limited length of the movie. In the movie, Rat Kiley who is telling the story seems gentler. In the book they make it seem like everything Rat says is exaggerated, but the movie does not stress that fact. “Among the men in Alpha Company, Rat had a reputation for exaggeration and overstatement, a compulsion to rev up the facts, and for most of us it was normal procedure to discount sixty or seventy percent of anything he had to say” (O’Brien 89). Also, the movie emphasizes the fact that Rat Kiley fell in love with Mary Anne Bell. He himself says he loved her towards the end of the movie. A character that people may tend to have sympathy for is Mark Fossie. In the book, one may not feel for Fossie. The movie shows the character having more feeling especially after he couldn’t find Mary Anne. A third character that is portrayed differently in the movie than in the book is Mary Anne, who is the main female character of the chapter. The movie stressed the fact that Mary Anne wanted to learn more about the Vietnamese way of life. There was a scene in the movie where Mary Anne spent time with the Vietnamese soldiers learning their language and how to cook their food. They also show her going ...
Although we do have our different perceptions about the novel and the story within it, these perceptions are, more or less, similar to each other. As these only vary so much from each other, they can still be a considerably veritable basis of comparison for the two versions of this story, the versions focused on being the novel and the the film. When comparing between our variations, we can compare the changes to see “how much of written work’s plot and characterization has been translated into the new medium, how comprehensive and intelligent an understanding of the original (its strengths, its weaknesses) underlies the translation” (Hunter 159). But when comparing the two we have to remember that “To understand adaptation, for example, we must begin by understanding books and movies are separate and never should be confused with each other,” (Crane 15) so even though the story is similar and the film pulls many elements from the novel, they are still two separate
As all movies are created based on a book, there always seems to be changes and conflicting ideas. However, they still have the same main idea to the story line. The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey and the movie directed by Miloš Forman deal with the main idea of society's control of natural impulses. The author/director want to prove that this control can be overcome. Although the movie and the book are very different from each other, they still have their similarities.
In the novel, no one gets caught, but the movie tries to show what happens in real life by showing James of the Glens getting interviewed and arrested. None of this happens in the novel, instead in the novel James only provides them shelter and information and doesn’t get captured whatsoever. In the movie, James has a daughter who plays an important role in rescuing James from getting hung. In the book, James does not have a daughter and doesn’t need one since he doesn’t get captured, so doesn’t need rescuing. Instead, it is just Davie and Alan trying to escape. That is one of the reasons I preferred the novel. However, even though there were many differences, there were plenty of similarities as well. For example, in the novel when Alan and Davie are climbing the mountain they get captured by Clooney and his gang. They think they’re done for but then they discover it was just Clooney. In the movie this happens the same way, except, in the movie after Alan and Davie get captured they think Clooney is a kannibal. Another similarity is that Alan and Clooney play cards all night. In the novel, while Alan and Clooney are playing cards Alan uses Davie’s money and loses it all. This happens the same in the movie, except in the novel there is no description of them playing cards. In the movie you can see them playing cards. In conclusion, there were lots of differences and similarities between the film and the