Cuckoo's Nest Theme

985 Words2 Pages

The fundamental theme in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest involves society's destruction of individuality. People who refuse to conform to the social standards face ridicule and judgment. Kesey develops this theme through his use of mechanical imagery, metaphors, and symbolism. The novel takes place in a mental hospital, the narrator, Chief is a patient in the ward who suffers from vivid hallucinates. When McMurphy, a spirited character arrives at the ward he begins to question the humility of the hospital, his criticisms of the hospital spark a rebellion amongst the other patients. McMurphy teaches the others to think and speak as individuals and to be themselves despite others judgements. As Nurse Ratched sees the usually powerless patients find power in numbers she decides their leader, McMurphy must be eliminated if she wants to maintain control. She eventually has McMurphy lobotomized leaving him in a vegetable state. In the end Chief runs away from the hospital deciding to no longer live his life under the oppressive rule of doctors and nurses. After being inspired by McMurphy’s free thinking ways Chief decides that living a life dictated by society is not a quality life.
Throughout the novel Chief continually describes the people and things around him being machines, these machines however are not real. Chief gives a disclaimer very early on “But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen”(Kesey 8) acknowledging that the machines he describes could be results of his hallucinations. However these hallucinations are extremely relevant and should not be discounted. “Hallucinations provide metaphorical insight into the hidden realities of the hospital and should not be overlooked simply because they did n...

... middle of paper ...

...to do your thing, not unless it happens to be their thing, too. It's a laugh, Goober, a fake. Don't disturb the universe, Goober, no matter what the posters say” (Cormier). Jerry is stating that it is better to fit in and conform than to rebel. Don’t disturb the flow of society. Interrupt its progress and get destroyed by its mechanical properties. Jerry and McMurphy were both different, they never fit in with others around them. In the end Jerry and McMurphy paid ultimate the price.
If you disturb the way society works you must face the consequences. The combine wants everyone to fit in and play a specific part. Power figures like Nurse Ratched are there to enforce the rules. Society could stop this destruction but taking a stand against the machine is difficult when done alone. In conclusion the destructive tendencies of society is a tragic part of everyday life.

Show More
Related

  • Chief Bromden's Role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    621 Words  | 2 Pages

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, is an unforgettable novel about the lifestyle and journeys of patients in a mental facility. Although all of the main characters contribute distinct attributes to the story, Chief Bromden contributes the most. The author speaks through Chief instilling his beliefs on his readers. In Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the narrator, Chief Bromden, portrays Kesey’s views on society and insanity by filling the role of the ego, showing that society’s expectations and pressures are the main cause of mental instability.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • McMurphy, Rebel with a Cause in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    2201 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ken Kesey's experiences in a mental institution urged him to tell the story of such a ward. We are told this story through the eyes of a huge red Indian who everyone believes to be deaf and dumb named Chief in his novel "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". Chief is a patient in an Oregon psychiatric hospital on the ward of Mrs Ratched. she is the symbol of authority throughout the text. This ward forms the backdrop for the rest of the story. The men on the ward are resigned to their regime dictated by this tyrant who is referred to as 'the Big Nurse', until McMurphy arrives to disrupt it. He makes the men realise that it is possible to think for themselves, which results in a complete destruction of the system as it was. Randle P. McMurphy, a wrongly committed mental patient with a lust for life. The qualities that garner McMurphy respect and admiration from his fellow patients are also responsible for his tragic downfall. These qualities include his temper, which leads to his being deemed "disturbed," his stubbornness, which results in his receiving numerous painful disciplinary treatments, and finally his free spirit, which leads to his death. Despite McMurphy being a noble man, in the end, these characteristics hurt him more than they help him. He forms the basis to my study of rebellion.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Social Isolation In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1899 Words  | 4 Pages

    In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there is much controversy and bias present throughout the characters in the Combine. The patients have been rejected and forgotten about by society and left to rot with the antithesis of femininity: Nurse Ratched. But even Ratched isn’t immune to the scrutiny of the outside world, and she has to claw her way into power and constantly fight to keep it. With his own experiences and the societal ideals of the 1960’s, Ken Kesey displays how society isolates and ostracizes those who do not follow the social norms or viewed as inferior to the white american males.

    Read More

  • Symbols and Symbolism in Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • one flew over the cuckoos nest

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    Author Ken Kesey effectively reflects on the social climate of the 1960s in his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. By creating a fictitious mental institution, he creates an accurate and eye-opening mirror image of repressive modern day society. While it’s both a microcosm and exaggeration of modern day society, Kesey stresses society’s obsession with conformity, while demonstrating that those individuals who reject societal pressure and conformity are simply deemed insane. However, Kesey infuses the power of the individual in his portrayal of the charismatic outlaw Randall McMurphy, and proves that it only takes one to defeat the restrictions of a repressive society. McMurphy’s evident superiority among the other patients in the hospital immediately established his power and authority over the other patients.

    Read More

  • Imagery In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    360 Words  | 1 Pages

    Amidst extreme attempts from Nurse Ratched and Randall Patrick McMurphy to gain and maintain total control of the ward, Ken Kesey implements specific vivid imagery, as well as intentional instances of exaggerated word choice, to make these attempts clear to readers during part two of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The men on the ward have felt for some time that Nurse Ratched is oppressing their rights as humans, and now with McMurphy on the ward, “the guys started letting fly at everything that had ever happened on the ward they didn’t like” (145). These complaints are mostly exaggerated, as one suggests that Ratched wants “seven buddies” to go with a patient when he “goes into the latrine to relieve [himself]” (145). This request, although

    Read More

  • Essay On One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    2040 Words  | 5 Pages

    While McMurphy tries to bring about equality between the patients and head nurse, she holds onto her self-proclaimed right to exact power over her charges because of her money, education, and, ultimately, sanity. The patients represent the working-class by providing Ratched, the manufacturer, with the “products” from which she profits—their deranged minds. The patients can even be viewed as products themselves after shock therapy treatments and lobotomies leave them without personality. The negative effects of the hospital’s organizational structure are numerous. The men feel worthless, abused, and manipulated, much like the proletariat who endured horrendous working conditions and rarely saw the fruits of their labor during the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom and United States in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century (“Industrial Revolution” 630).

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Transcendentalism

    1791 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” The father of transcendentalism, Emerson believed that people who resist change to be what is most natural, themselves, are the true heroes of the world. Ken Kesey, another popular writer, wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in a similar spirit. His novel takes place on the ward of a controlling army nurse at an Oregon mental institution in the late 1950s. The storyline mainly follows the interactions between Nurse Ratched, a manipulating representation of society, and Randle Patrick McMurphy, a patient, gambler, and renegade. Kesey echoes the transcendentalists and romantics in his work by

    Read More

  • Ken Kessy's One Flew Over The Cuckoo

    1917 Words  | 4 Pages

    Accordingly, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a tragic portrayal of a working-class hero's moral ascension and the implications for contemporary American males of that messianic encounter with society's limitations upon personal freedom.” (Baurecht, William C.). People were bullied by others for being different, for example Bromden was very quiet at the start, but by the end he started to open up. Once McMurphy had arrived, he showed others that they didn’t need to listen to the Big Nurse because she was just trying to control them. He had made it much more enjoyable for the patients who felt miserable. The environment in the mental hospital was not the greatest as Bromden states, “The things I’ve had to clean up in these meetings nobody’d believe; horrible things, poison manufactured right out of skin pores and acids in the air strong enough to melt a man, I’ve seen it.” (Pg. 131, Kesey). This related to the prison system in our society because the police do not treat the prisoners fairly just because they are different from others. The police even beat the people in the prison if they see anyone dong something they don’t like. Just because they made a mistake doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a second chance to learn and improve. The nurse had taken advantage of her power and tortured who ever came in her way and did not

    Read More

  • Theme Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    story is about a young boy, who is tries to cope with having a disabled brother named, Doodle. The brother becomes overwhelmed by pride, and pushes Doodle too hard which ultimately leads to Doodkeś demise.The theme of the story is that when overcome with the feeling of pride, it may cause to make decisions that can follow them throughout life leaving one with constant guilt. In the first two paragraphs the cost of pride is hinted at by symbols that reflect Doodle’s death. These symbols include, the season of an ending summer, an empty oriole nest, and the grindstone.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

    1212 Words  | 3 Pages

    “People don't want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in.” This quote by Ken Kesey embodies his view of society in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest. He depicts the modern society through Nurse Ratched, a strong authoritarian figure, who embellishes the nature of society. She is notorious in her endeavors to control the men and pressures them to conform to society that is challenged by McMurphy, who brings the men out of the fog. Through the Combine and the Nurse, Kesey’s highlights several major ideas about society. He illustrates the repressive nature of society that causes men to conform to boundaries. Furthermore, he depicts how society rejects those

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Themes

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores themes of oppression and conformity; these themes are challenged by the character R.P McMurphy, a new admission to the mental institute who challenges the major authority in the institute; nurse Ratched. Similarly in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight these themes are again challenged by the anarchist or villain simply known as the “Joker”, who wants to give Gotham a “higher class of criminal” (Nolan). The Joker challenges Batman a vigilante who is also known as the “Dark Knight of Gotham” (Nolan). Throughout both The Dark Knight and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest both the Joker and McMurphy respectively are described as people who manipulates others and disrupt the peace. In contrast,

    Read More

  • Theme Of Individualism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest remarkably demonstrates the individual’s battle to maintain a sense of uniqueness from society. In the novel, McMurphy fought to save the patients of the asylum from the efforts of Nurse Ratched (society) to take their self-respect and force them to sacrifice their individuality. Life is full of contradictions and people who maliciously force ideas upon others of what is normal and acceptable. While McMurphy won the battle against Nurse Ratched, it was not the war; society still threatened the world in Kesey’s novel as it threatens the world of dreams and possibilities

    Read More

  • Theme Of Microcosm In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1525 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 1950’s, a time of oppression and confinement. A time when people were ignorant of their own situations and were manipulated by those in power. Ken Kesey’s novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, represents an asylum as a microcosm of the 50’s society. It shows how the patients are oppressed by the rules of Nurse Ratched. The patients are unable to stand up for themselves due them fearing and in some ways relying on Nurse Ratched. Eventually, a hero, McMurphy comes to the asylum and free the patients from Nurse Ratched’s grasps. In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Ken Kesey uses the ward as a microcosm of the 50’s society. Kesey confronts the negative impacts of such a society with the use of allegories throughout the novel, he shows how society takes away takes away freedom, the ability to make decisions and how those in power benefit from this.

    Read More

More about Cuckoo's Nest Theme

Open Document