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Ken Kesey's argument for one flew over the cuckoo's nest
What are the 4 most important parts in one flew over the cuckoo’s nest by ken kesey
The influence of One Flew over the cuckoo's nest
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QUESTION
Was Forman compelled to change the point of view in his adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest?
ANSWER
Forman was compelled to change the point of view in adapting the book into a film.
REASONING
A. In the book Chief Bromden’s thoughts go from stark reality and understanding to dreams and visions which would be difficult for an audience to follow.
B. The confusion created by the Chief’s switches from reality to fantasy is possible in literary form due to the amount of detail and analysis, which can be put down on paper. However, this is impossible for a director to capture the same understanding and depth in a two-hour film.
C. Chief Bromden’s thoughts and hallucinations, which are the narration in the book, are erratic and crazy when not compared and elaborated. In a film, it is not always possible to clarify on the type of details found in the book.
D. There is not enough time nor is it possible to elucidate into the amount of detail which Ken Kesey goes into in the book. This is due to the fact that Chief Bromden starts out playing deaf and dumb and even when he does begin to talk it is not in great amounts or details. In order to capture the heart of the story a director would have to use a broader narration, which a diverse audience could understand.
E. A book allows for great amounts of details due to the depth of words and the imagery they can evoke in a readers mind. There is not enough time in a film for all the detail of a book to come out and explain every single character to an audience, which needs to be constantly entertained to keep their focus.
CITATIONS
This is an autobiographical reference to how Ken Kesey came to write One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and the processes, which made it realistic and fantastical at the same time.
“But also at the same time Bromden is an unreliable witness he is also an extremely reliable one. We feel he tells us the truth about McMurphy; in fact, he tells it with such penetration and insight that it has a consistent and coherent shape and meaning for us. The combination of hallucination and truth in the narration is a notable stylistic accomplishment. Fact and fantasy alternate, but the reader has no difficulty distinguishing one from the other, and thus they successfully complement each other.
The novel that Kesey wrote is focused on how Bromden’s past memories should not let him down, but to gather his strength and let go of the past to start anew. Kesey builds up the encouragement through the help on McMurphy in order for Bromden to face reality with the hallucinations, to Nurse Ratched’s authorities, and the use of symbolism.
Bromden, the narrator, always vies himself as small, even though he’s actually a large person. To him, McMurphy is big, which he says metaphorically. In the passage, McMurphy makes the patients big: “It started slow and pumped itself full, swelling the men bigger and bigger. I watched, part of them, laughing with them- and somehow not with them. I was off the boat, blown up off the water and skating the wind with those black birds, high above myself…” (Kesey 249-250). People who are small are weak and powerless, like Bromden and the patient’s, scared and willing to submit to power. Meanwhile, people who are big, like McMurphy, are confident and not afraid. McMurphy made the men “bigger”, more powerful, just by laughing and giving them confidence. All in all, the metaphor and contrast between being big and small reveal how McMurphy made them stronger and more confident just by being
Chief Bromden’s character development is extremely limited in the movie adaptation, because director Milos Forman took out one of the most crucial details of the novel: Bromden’s first person narration. The movie lacked in any references to Bromden’s philosophy of society and had nothing about his back-story, an important aspect of what made him the person he was at the beginning of the movie. Of course, it would’ve been a pain to film an entire movie from one person’s point of view, much less include narrations and backgrounds. Overall, despite the film’s outstanding ability to match the novel’s original storyline, Ken Kesey does not depict Chief Bromden’s growth in a successful, accurate, and admirable way.
Kesey, Ken. One flew over the cuckoo's nest, a novel. New York: Viking Press, 1962. Print.
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.
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.
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.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The Viking Press. New York. 1973. Page 188.
O'Brien's writing style is so vivid, the reader frequently finds himself accepting the events and details of this novel as absolute fact. To contrast truth and fiction, the author inserts reminders that the stories are not fact, but are mere representations of human emotion incommunicable as fact.
Semino, Elena and Kate Swindlehurst. "Metaphor and mind style in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Style 30 (1996): 143-67.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ed. John Clark Pratt. New York: Viking-Penguin, 1996. Print. Viking Critical Library.
...ut the hidden thoughts and feelings of the narrator are the real things that need to be examined. The Vietnam War is so colluded with uncertainties that it's meaning and questions of why are still lingering in the minds of citizens of the United States.
In conclusion, details involving the characters and symbolic meanings to objects are the factors that make the novel better than the movie. Leaving out aspects of the novel limits the viewer’s appreciation for the story. One may favor the film over the novel or vice versa, but that person will not overlook the intense work that went into the making of both. The film and novel have their similarities and differences, but both effectively communicate their meaning to the public.
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."
The background of Chief Bromden’s life makes him a likely target for mental illness. Conflict that Chief’s father faced also negatively impacted Chief. His father was Chief Tee Ah Millatoona of the Umpqua tribe and his mother was a white woman. Chief’s father took his mother’s last name, “Her name is Bromden. He took her name” (214). This suggests her domination in the relationship, but it is made clear that her extreme belittling had negative psychological effects: “It wasn't just her that made him little. Everybody worked on him because he was big, and wouldn't give in, and did as he pleased... He fought it a long time until my mother made him too little to fight anymore and he gave up" (220). Just like his father, Chief was a big man crushed into a tiny man by the pressures of society. Chief grew up living a normal life, without schizophrenia, on the Columbia Gorge in an Umpqua village led by his father. The first memorable trigger of Chief’s schizophrenia came when government officials were inspecting his vil...