Research Paper On One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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The Never Ending Cukoo’s Nest Conformity is a major concept in almost every work of literature; in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest, Kesey portrays a psychiatric ward and the clash between the mentally unstable patients and the head nurse of the ward. One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest drew immediate attention to metal illness in 1963, and still continues to appear in society by means of articles, lectures, and art with audiences of varying ages alluding to characters, themes, and concepts from the novel. Aware of the many misconceptions of mental illness, many programs provide education to children to teach them the importance of positively intertwining the mentally ill with society. “Beyond the Cukoo’s Nest” is an educational resource …show more content…

In his research, Wahl used the film One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest and measured the difference of his students attitudes toward mental illness before watching the movie and after. Results prior to the movie show no significant differences in attitudes towards mental illness, but after results strongly skewed towards the negative outlook on mental illness. Domino then showed a documentary of real life mental hospitals juxtaposing One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest to students who had watched One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest and those who had not. “Those who watched the movie opinions still skewed significantly towards negative attitudes, but those who had just seen the documentary were skewed towards the positive side. Thus showing the impact of the film, that is fictional severely impacted individuals to not trust reality of mental hospitals depicted in the documentary” (Wahl 348-349). This research concluded that the impact of Kesey’s novel significantly impacted the public’s opinion of mental health, and even in caused lasting impressions that were barely swayed after receiving factual information pertaining to mental

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