Compare And Contrast One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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As any movie production of a novel, the One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest film lacked many details, which is due to the point of view of the film compared to the point of view of the novel and due to the task of fitting a novel into a two hour production. This made the movie straight to the point, unlike the novel, and in consequence, the development of the characters was not well portrayed. It is clear that the Chief, the narrator and one of the most important characters in the novel, undergoes a major development throughout the novel as McMurphy, the protagonist, lifted him from his insecurities and deaf and dumb pretense to a sense of confidence and “big stature.” The film adaptation of the novel is unable to include certain scenes that were …show more content…

One scene especially filled the gap to why the Chief acted deaf and dumb and that was the scene where he was in his village in Columbia. White people approached the village and mocked the conditions in which the Native Americans lived. When the Chief would speak up to say that he believes the village is “lots cooler” (Kesey 164), he was ignored and the white people would continue to mock the living condition of the village as if he could not understand what they are saying. This was the first time in which he felt small mentally and was treated as though he was actually deaf and dumb. This scene is critical in defining the Chief’s character because it lays the foundation to Chief’s mental state. The only mention of the Chief’s background in the film was towards the end in which the Chief tells McMurphy that the last time he saw his father, his father was wasting away to alcohol. The filmmakers added in this scene to provide a hint to the viewers as to why the Chief acts deaf and dumb, but because there is no additional content that supports the Chief’s mental state, it is difficult to grasp Chief’s condition. Therefore, this scene is rendered as pointless to the portrayal of the Chief in the film. Because the film did not include enough scenes in which the Chief describes his background, it is difficult for a viewer to understand the Chief’s mental condition fully, which consequentially impairs the development of the Chief and his role as an important character throughout the

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