Inside the Cuckoo's Nest

1351 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: One flew over the cuckoo's nest movie analysis

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a film directed by Czech Milos Forman in 1975. Using potent elements of fiction--characters, conflict, and symbolism--Forman illustrates the counterculture of the 1960’s. This film depicts American society as an insane asylum that demands conformity from its citizens. The film begins with a conniving convict being assigned to the asylum. R. P. McMurphy is sent to the asylum to be evaluated by the doctors and to determine whether or not he is mentally ill. He is unaware that he will be supervised by an emasculating woman named Nurse Mildred Ratched who watches the patients’ every motion from her nurse’s station.

R.P. McMurphy is a lively, rebellious, and rational patient that has recently been escorted into the insane asylum. Once in the bin, Randle becomes the self-proclaimed champion of the rights of the other ward patients, his adversary being Nurse Ratched (New York Times). He scrutinizes the asylum and the patients deciding that he needs to lighten the atmosphere. According to Filmsite, Movie Review McMurphy encourages the patients to participate in activities that will heighten their spirits and change their monotonous routines. McMurphy decides to challenge Nurse Ratched when he notices that the patients of the ward are overly organized and controlled through a rigid set of authoritarian rules and regulations that McMurphy questions: “God Almighty, she’s got you guys comin’ or goin’. What do you think she is, some kind of champ or somethin’?”--- “I bet in one week, I can put a bug so far up her ass, she don’t know whether to s—t or wind her wrist watch” (OFOTCN). Entertainment Weekly implies that McMurphy is unwilling to surrender to Nurse Ratched’s belittling power and rebels against corr...

... middle of paper ...

...ok place in America all have one thing in common with the film: they are filled with people who have had enough and had a leader willing to take leadership towards making that change. McMurphy represents that leader as his sacrifice made way for the others to find freedom.

Works Cited

Canby, Vincent. "nytimes.com." The New York Times. 20 November 1975. The New York Times Company. 5 April 2012.

“Filmsite Movie Review: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”. Filmsite.org. American Movie Classics Company. 2012. Web 12 March 2012.

Movie Reviews: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Rogerebert.com. Chicago Sun-Times

Media Company. Web 3 April 2012.

Nashawaty, Chris. “Cuckoo’s Nest Turns 35.” Entertainment Weekly 1120/1121 (2010): 128. MAS Ultra School Edition. Web. 5 Apr. 2012

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Dir. Milos Forman. Warner Brothers, 1975 Film.

Show More
Related

  • 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

  • Summary and Analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    4131 Words  | 9 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Is Mcmurphy Transformation In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1348 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Milos Forman, the character of Randle McMurphy is portrayed as being a reckless and carefree man who eventually becomes a symbol of strength and determination in the mental hospital that the film takes place in. This film shows how an individual that can start off with an insignificant and unimportant purpose, but then becomes improved by the environment that they are placed in that they establish ambitions and aspirations that radically impact both themselves and others around them.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1919 Words  | 4 Pages

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental institution in the Pacific Northwest. The narrator of the novel is Chief Bromden, also known as Chief Broom, a catatonic half-Indian man whom everybody thinks is deaf and dumb. He often suffers from hallucinations in which he feels that the room is filled with fog. The institution is dominated by Nurse Ratched (Big Nurse), a cold, precise woman with calculated gestures and a calm, mechanical manner. When the story begins, a new patient, Randall Patrick McMurphy, arrives at the ward. He is a self-professed 'gambling fool' who has just come from a work farm at Pendleton. He introduces himself to the other men on the ward, including Dale Harding, the president of the patient's council, and Billy Bibbit, a thirty-year old man who stutters and appears very young. Nurse Ratched immediately pegs McMurphy as a manipulator.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    As medical advances are being made, it makes the treating of diseases easier and easier. Mental hospitals have changed the way the treat a patient’s illness considerably compared to the hospital described in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Quote Analysis

    3070 Words  | 7 Pages

    From the moment McMurphy enters the ward it is clear to all that he is different and hard to control. He’s seen as a figure the rest of the patients can look up to and he raises their hopes in taking back power from the big nurse. The other patients identify McMurphy as a leader when he first stands up to the nurse at her group therapy, saying that she has manipulated them all to become “a bunch of chickens at a pecking party”(Kesey 55). He tells the patients that they do not have to listen to Nurse Ratched and he confronts her tactics and motives. The patients see him as a leader at this point, but McMurphy does not see the need for him to be leading alone. McMurphy is a strong willed and opinionated man, so when he arrives at the ward he fails to comprehend why the men live in fear, until Harding explains it to him by

    Read More

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before R.P. McMurphy arrives, the ward is your basic average mental institution. Men line up to receive their medication, they do puzzles and play cards, and the evil head nurse and her muscle, a group of big black fellows, carry patients off to be shaved or for electroshock therapy. The people can't do anything about it, though. After all, some of them are vegetables, and according to society they're all nuts. Then one fateful day, McMurphy blows in and breathes some fresh air into the ward. He's loud, he cracks jokes, and, as he said of himself, "I'm a gambling fool…and whenever I meet with a deck of cards I lays…my money…down." Nobody was sure whether he was crazy or he was just acting like it to get out of the work camp he transferred from. Soon enough people realized that either way, he had it out for Nurse Ratched.

    Read More

  • one flew over the cuckoos nest

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    McMurphy’s influence on the other patients steadily grows as he singlehandedly instigates reform in the hospital. Each minor triumph he accomplishes steadily undermines and threatens Nurse Ratched’s tyrannical rule. His most notable victory over Nurse Ratched occurs when he changes the schedule in the...

    Read More

  • Cuckoo's Nest Freedom Theme

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the idea of what it is like to be free or confined and most importantly on what basis can one define what does freedom stands for, in the view of any individual. One of the novel’s most important feature is that the psych ward, Nurse Ratched, and all the other people looking after the patients in the asylum who are portrayed as tools of “sanity” in the novel are, in fact, insane in their own way. For them the meaning of freedom should be unknown to the patients and they shall be the one confining them to the boundaries of freedom as known by them. This question of what should be the judging aspect of freedom and confinement becomes more relevant with the arrival of Randle McMurphy to the ward, a highly likely gambler who with all the possibility may have faked psychosis and pretended to be mentally unstable to get relocated to the asylum from a work camp. . The most easily noticable themes is that of freedom and confinement discussed through the characters in the novel. Many types of freedoms are addressed ranging from the substantial and concrete to the conscious and implicit. The setting mainly takes place in a mental asylum on a locked ward which curbs the characters’ freedom physically. The characters are constantly pushed and degraded by the antagonist Ms. Ratched which

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the novel he is very loud and is known for his unwavering ability to speak his mind and confront those that oppose him. Nurse Ratched uses her voice throughout the novel to intimidate the patients. She is the antagonist of the novel. The patients obsequiously follow Ratched’s command, until McMurphy comes along. They all fear that she will send them to shock therapy if they don’t obey her.

    Read More

  • The Lucifer Effect In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's N

    595 Words  | 2 Pages

    One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest takes place in a ward of a mental institution. The biggest conflict throughout the film is the fight for power, which is a reoccurring theme. If you’ve ever seen the film you probably thought to yourself there is a very corrupt ruling system in place. If you know anything about The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo then you begin to realize the evil elements shown in the film.

    Read More

  • Cuckoo's Nest Randle Mcmurphy Character Analysis

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    Randle McMurphy is in a constant battle within himself, he is portrayed as a sociopath. He does not base his actions off of whether they will affect those around him, instead does as he pleases. His actions are based off of what is best for himself. McMurphy was first introduced as a savior to the ward, He soon uses the patients for his own benefit, the patients look up to him as one of their new proclaimed leader. McMurphy inspires hope into them and make them want to stand up for themselves. This give

    Read More

  • one flew over the cuckoos nest

    587 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey the use of Christ imagery is overall effective. One of the first images was the fishing trip planned by McMurphy because only twelve people went and Jesus took twelve disciples with him on a fishing trip. Billy Bibbits turning on McMurphy near the end by admitting that he was involved in McMurphys plan was like Judas admitting he participated with Jesus. Towards the end of the story McMurphy is a martyr just like Jesus because the patients aren’t free until he dies. Those are a few examples of how Kesey uses Christ imagery in his book.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: 3 Points

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Kesey makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: the effects of sexual repression, woman as castrators, and the pressures we face from society to conform. Through these points, Kesey encourages the reader to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the reader realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as "crazy."

    Read More

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    An exceptionally tall, Native American, Chief Bromden, trapped in the Oregon psychiatric ward, suffers from the psychological condition of paranoid schizophrenia. This fictional character in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest struggles with extreme mental illness, but he also falls victim to the choking grasp of society, which worsens Bromden’s condition. Paranoid schizophrenia is a rare mental illness that leads to heavy delusions and hallucinations among other, less serious, symptoms. Through the love and compassion that Bromden’s inmate, Randle Patrick McMurphy, gives Chief Bromden, he is able to briefly overcome paranoid schizophrenia and escape the dehumanizing psychiatric ward that he is held prisoner in.

    Read More

More about Inside the Cuckoo's Nest

Open Document