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In the first half of the classic novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, author Ken Kesey uses many themes, symbols, and imagery to illustrate the reality of the lives of a group of mental patients. The story takes place during the 1950s in an Oregon psychiatric hospital and is narrated by a patient on the ward named Chief Bromden. When the novel’s protagonist, Randle P. McMurphy enters the confines of a mental institution from a prison farm, the rules inflicted by the Big Nurse begin to change. Chaos and disruption commence throughout the standard and regular flow of the hospital life, altering the well-established routines due to the threat that McMurphy opposes on the ward. Obviously, it becomes evident that Kesey will convey many viewpoints throughout the course of the story, however, I strongly believe that a recurring theme can be singled out. The main theme behind One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the idea of freedom and confinement and how it affects human behaviour. As aforementioned, Kesey utilizes many symbols that represent the amount of control enforced within the facility, compared to the freedom that is “the outside.” For example, McMurphy makes a bet that he can lift the control panel, a very large and heavy …show more content…
Kesey portrays laughter as a parallel to freedom through various literary symbols to exemplify how the power of laughter can free a man who is under the control of an unjust authority. As McMurphy enters the ward in the beginning of the story, Chief Bromden takes note of his boisterous laugh. He notices that his laugh is “…free and loud…sounds real [it]…it’s the first [real] laugh I’ve heard in years” (12, Kesey). This illustrates that McMurphy, even from the beginning, has the intentions to uphold his own control. Before him, no one laughed on the ward, but it is apparent that nobody will take away his ability to
Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is a novel containing the theme of emotions being played with in order to confine and change people. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about a mental institution where a Nurse named Miss Ratched has total control over its patients. She uses her knowledge of the patients to strike fear in their minds. Chief Bromden a chronic who suffers from schizophrenia and pretends to be deaf and mute narrates the novel. From his perspective we see the rise and fall of a newly admitted patient, RP McMurphy. McMurphy used his knowledge and courage to bring changes in the ward. During his time period in the ward he sought to end the reign of the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched, also to bring the patients back on their feet. McMurphy issue with the ward and the patients on the ward can be better understood when you look at this novel through a psychoanalytic lens. By applying Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence to McMurphy’s views, it is can be seen that his ideas can bring change in the patients and they can use their
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
People often find themselves as part of a collective, following society's norms and may find oneself in places where feeling constrained by the rules and will act out to be unconstrained, as a result people are branded as nuisances or troublemakers. In the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, the author Ken Kesey conveys the attempt McMurphy makes to live unconstrained by the authority of Nurse Ratched. The story is very one sided and helps create an understanding for those troublemakers who are look down on in hopes of shifting ingrained ideals. The Significance of McMurphy's struggles lies in the importance placed on individuality and liberty. If McMurphy had not opposed fear and autocratic authority of Nurse Ratched nothing would have gotten better on the ward the men would still feel fear. and unnerved by a possibility of freedom. “...Then, just as she's rolling along at her biggest and meanest, McMurphy steps out of the latrine ... holding that towel around his hips-stops her dead! ” In the novel McMurphy shows little signs like this to combat thee Nurse. His defiance of her system included
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.
Throughout the novel, McMurphy cheers up the other inmates by telling jokes and getting their minds off of the mental institution, yet the serious issues and problems of the institution often still prevail. During a fishing trip with everyone from the institution, the patients begin to feel awkward and out of place as they are not used to living in the real world and in a normal society. McMurphy soon realizes everyone around him is struggling to act normal and he attempts to cheer everyone up as the comedic hero. Kesey writes, “McMurphy saw how uneasy we were and tried to work us into a better mood by joking and teasing the girl, but this made us feel worse somehow. Everybody was thinking how easy it would be to return to the ward, go back and say they decided the nurse had been right; with a wind like this the sea would’ve been just too rough”(201). McMurphy initially tries to make everyone feel normal in this outside society by picking on a little girl but the inmates feel worse afterward. In some ways, McMurphy’s humor is shown as he knows it’s his job to cheer everyone up and he takes this role with pride acting as a comedic hero. Yet, the satirical aspect of the novel is more prevalent. All the patients know they will never be like anyone outside of society they see on the fishing trip because the institution has ruined their lives. Kesey writes how everyone understands it is so much easier to go back to the mental institution because they are not used anything else and they cannot act or function like normal people. In the institution, the inmates are treated inhumanely and abused by the guards so there is no possible way any of them could operate in a normal society. This idea that the institution has ruined everyone's lives so much they they cannot function in normal society pushes fits Ken Kesey’s own beliefs. Being part of Counterculture groups Kesey disagreed with
Kunz, Don. Mechanistic and Totemistic Symbolization in Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A Casebook on Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ed. George J. Searles. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1989.
The cartoon symbolism demonstrated in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest helps create dynamic features and traits in each character. Bromden indicates early that the ward is "Like a cartoon world, where the figures are flat and outlined in black, jerking through some kind of goofy story that might be real funny if it weren't for the cartoon figures being real guys..."( 31). Technicians in the hospital speak with voices that "are forced and too quick on the comeback to be real talk - more like cartoon comedy speech" (33). Kesey chooses to describe some of his characters as symbolic caricatures, and others as stock figures who outgrow their black outlines (Twayne). The Big Nurse remains a cartoon villain, funny in her excessive frustration and hateful in her manipulations towards the patients.
To give a bit of context to Kesey’s beliefs it is important to understand the institutionalized mental health system which was so prevalent in the 60’s. In these early years of the mental health profession, patients were often treated in large wards. It wasn’t only patients here however, others who were not “normal” would simply be grouped together for mass treatment. The problem here was that those who needed confinement, not just treatment were thrown in with these individuals (such as Mcmurphy) who ended up in the wards for reasons other than true disorder or dysfunction. Insulin shock therapy, Electro convulsive therapy, cold/hot baths, lobotomies and so many other unethical treatments with little or no empirical support for their efficacy were prevalent and used with little or no remorse. This lead to a huge uproar by the human rights community. Luckily many of these practices fell out of fashion as compassionate care began...
Freedom, Freedom, Freedom are the chirps you can hear from the patients of the ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. This novel explores a plethora of themes that are unraveled throughout the use of Kesey’s literary devices. Firstly, we can determine the antagonist of the novel, Nurse Ratched, symbolizes a man and his masculinity while she emasculates the patients of the ward from their freedom. Additionally, the inability for the patients to have freedom and change ward policy leads them to take their own life like worthless garbage which is what Nurse Ratched made them feel. Furthermore, Kesey analyzes the theme of freedom through the symbol of Nurse Ratched and the death of the patient, Cheswick. Secondly, we can conclude that Kesey’s include the religious item of a crucifix to symbolize purity and authority. Moreover, Nurse Ratched recognizes herself as a “good catholic girl” with the irony being she came straight from hell. Kesey uses the theme of religion by means of symbolic religious items and irony.
McMurphy’s evident superiority among the other patients in the hospital immediately establishes his power and authority over the other patients. From the minute he enters the ward, Bromden notes his charismatic and overbearing personality as signs of his power. “Even though I can’t see him, I know he’s no ordinary admission. I don’t hear him slide scared along the wall… he sounds like he’s way above them… he sounds big” (15-16). Instantly, McMurphy radiates power and defiance that the other patients in the ward notably admire. He boldly challenges authority and battles conformity in the ward, determined to eradicate the authoritarian governance of the institution. He proves to be a symbol of defiance and gradually begins to beat out the authority in the ward.
Inferring that Kesey kept the above child's folk tale in mind when creating these extreme character contrasts, McMurphy and his disobeying actions could be said to represent the group of people whose direction opposes that of the oppressive Miss Ratched, leaving the final direction of over the cuckoo's nest to Bromden, who eventually escapes the confines of the mental ward. Miss Ratched's hold on the ward is a strong one, as she "wields a sure power that extends in all directions on hairlike wires too small for anybody’s eye but mine [Bromden],” (30), making McMurphy's extremely independent, freedom-for-all attitude a threatening challenge to her power.... ... middle of paper ... ... The wolf had abolished the corrupt rabbit.
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!"
In the novel, Kesey suggests that a healthy expression of sexuality is a key component of sanity and that repression of sexuality leads directly to insanity. For example; by treating him like an infant and not allowing him to develop sexually, Billy Bibbet's mother causes him to lose his sanity. Missing from the halls of the mental hospital are healthy, natural expression of sexuality between two people. Perverted sexual expressions are said to take place in the ward; for example; Bromden describes the aides as "black boys in white suites committing sex acts in the hall" (p.9). The aides engage in illicit "sex acts" that nobody witnesses, and on several occasions it is suggested that they rape the patients, such as Taber. Nurse Ratched implicitly permits this to happen, symbolized by the jar of Vaseline she leaves the aides. This shows how she condones the sexual violation of the patients, because she gains control from their oppression. McMurphy's sanity is symbolized by his bold and open insertion of sexuality which gives him great confidence and individuality. This stands in contrast to what Kesey implies, ironically and tragically, represents the institution.
Ken Kesey in his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest question a lot of things that you think almost everyday. With this famous portrait of a mental institute its rebellious patients and domineering caretakers counter-culture icon Kesey is doing a whole lot more than just spinning a great yarn. He is asking us to stop and consider how what we call "normal" is forced upon each and every one of us. Stepping out of line, going against the grain, swimming upstream whatever your metaphor, there is a steep price to pay for that kind of behavior. The novel tells McMurphys tale, along with the tales of other inmates who suffer under the yoke of the authoritarian Nurse Ratched it is the story of any person who has felt suffocated and confined by our
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.