Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey are novels written in over time periods about people in very different situations, but they both centralize the similar themes of the misunderstanding of mental illness and the corruption of those in power above people suffering from said illness. Heller and Kesey both have unique styles to portray these ideals, but each implements quite a bit of humor a chaotic style to compliment their messages. Catch-22 is a war-time novel written about an air-force squadron stationed on the fictional island of Pianosa. While the novel explores many characters, its central player is Yossarian, a young, unbalanced captain fearing for his life and wanting nothing more than to get …show more content…
Mental illness, an issue that of late has made great strides toward understanding it, has always been something going well over the head of most people. In the 1940's, several servicemen felt the effects of the war long after it ended. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was common, as was men making illogical and harmful decisions during combat due to the high anxiety level. Catch-22 has numerous examples of this, one being the event in which pilot McWatt, after accidentally murdering a comrade during an irresponsibly handled training flight, "dipped his wings once in salute, decided oh, well, what the hell, and flew into a mountain." (Heller, 339). These actions of a madman would have been entirely preventable of McWatt had had proper surveillance and suitable men to lead him and ensure his mental health was in a better state. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest also contains a preventable suicide. After a night of debauchery by the ward members, Nurse Ratchet, the one I charge of improving their health, tears down a sweet and frightened Billy Bibbit for taking part. Fearing the one person who was to ensure his safety, Bibbit takes his life (Kesey 317). In both instances, the people in charge either turned a blind eye to the depleting mental state of those in their care, or abused their power to ensure they would never get better. No one had a firm grasp of how to …show more content…
The ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is run by Nurse Ratchet, an uptight woman who cares only about order and her appearance. If things are not absolutely perfect on the ward, Nurse Ratchet eliminates the problem. This ranges anywhere from belittling the men, being inflexible, sending the 'rebels' in for electroshock therapy, or in extreme cases, lobotomizing them to the point of being a vegetable (Kesey, 321). Obviously, none of these actions benefit the penitents in any way. They were all plays by the Big Nurse to ensure that her ward stayed under control and saved her proper appearance of being the perfect head
The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey tells a story of Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of a mental institution, and the way her patients respond to her harsh treatment. The story is told from the perspective of a large, Native-American patient named Bromden; he immediately introduces Randle McMurphy, a recently admitted patient, who is disturbed by the controlling and abusive way Ratched runs her ward. Through these feelings, McMurphy makes it his goal to undermine Ratched’s authority, while convincing the other patients to do the same. McMurphy becomes a symbol of rebellion through talking behind Ratched’s back, illegally playing cards, calling for votes, and leaving the ward for a fishing trip. His shenanigans cause his identity to be completely stolen through a lobotomy that puts him in a vegetative state. Bromden sees McMurphy in this condition and decides that the patients need to remember him as a symbol of individuality, not as a husk of a man destroyed by the
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...
In Ken Kesey’s novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, he engages the reader with Nurse Ratched’s obsession with power, especially against McMurphy. When Nurse Ratched faces multiple altercations with McMurphy, she believes that her significant power is in jeopardy. This commences a battle for power in the ward between these characters. One assumes that the Nurses’ meticulous tendency in the ward is for the benefit of the patients. However, this is simply not the case. The manipulative nurse is unfamiliar with losing control of the ward. Moreover, she is rabid when it comes to sharing her power with anyone, especially McMurphy. Nurse Ratched is overly ambitious when it comes to being in charge, leaving the reader with a poor impression of
In the story, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, patients live locked up in a restricted domain, everyday taking orders from the dictator, Nurse Ratched. Once McMurphy enters this asylum, he starts to rally everyone up and acting like this hospital is a competitive game between him and Nurse Ratched. McMurphy promotes negative behavior, such as, gambling and going against the rules, to mess around with the nurses and so he can be the leader that everyone looks up to. McMurphy soon learns that he might not be in control after all. Nurse Ratched decides who will be let out and when. After realizing why no one has stood up to Nurse Ratched before, he starts to follow rules and obey the nurses. This changes the whole mood of the hospital,
Catch-22 is a black comedy novel about death, about what people do when faced with the daily likelihood of annihilation. For the most part what they do is try to
In the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the characters are in a mental hospital for various reasons. Narrated by Chief Bromden, a large Native American man, the story tells mainly of a newcomer to the hospital, Randle McMurphy, who is not actually mentally ill, but pretends to be to escape work detail. A much-feared middle-aged woman named Mildred Ratched runs the hospital. She runs the hospital like a concentration camp, with harsh rules, little change, and almost no medical oversight. The “prisoners” have a large amount of fear of Nurse Ratched, as she rules the place like she is a soulless dictator, the patients get no say in any decision made. This is exemplified when McMurphy brings up the World Series, and the patients take a vote on it. Though everyone wants to watch it, they have so much fear for Nurse Ratched that they are too afraid to speak out against her wishes.
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) The character McMurphy as played by Jack Nicholson, McMurphy’s is a criminal who is troubled and keeps being defiant. Instead of pleading guilty, McMurphy pleads insanity and then lands inside a mental hospital. Murphy reasons that being imprisoned within the hospital will be just as bad as being locked up in prison until he starts enjoying being within by messing around with other staff and patients. In the staff, McMurphy continuously irritates Nurse Ratched. You can see how it builds up to a control problem between the inmates and staff. Nurse Ratched is seen as the “institution” and it is McMurphy’s whole goal to rebel against that institution that she makes herself out to be.The other inmates view McMurphy like he is god. He gives the inmates reason to
Nurse Ratched does not abuse authority. She only tries to keep everything in order. Nurse Ratched exclaims when the patient's escaped the ward,
The author of One Flew over the Cuckoo 's Nest, allows the reader to explore different psychoanalytic issues in literature. The ability to use works literature to learn about real world conflicts allows us to use prior knowledge to interact with these problems in reality. Ken Kesey, the author of the above novel and Carl Jung, author of “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious” wrote how the mind can be easily overtaken by many outside factors from the past or present. The novel takes place in an asylum that is aimed to contain individuals that have a mental issue or problem. The doctors and care takers are seen as tyrants and barriers that inhibit the patients to improve their health, while the patients are limited by their initial conditions
Catch-22 follows the protagonist, Yossarian’s experience during WWII. However, the book is nowhere near chronological and jumps from different time periods of Yossarian’s service in the military. The novel depicts many events of where Yossarian
Whereas Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey have a very similar theme of Coming of Age. The two novels differ by having the characters Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in The Rye and Chief Bromden in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest fight within themselves over Alienation vs. Isolation and Illusion vs. Reality.
Take for example, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. There is no doubt in my mind that the mental institution that comprises the primary setting of the narrative is intended as a metaphor of societal oppression. This symbolic novel relays the story of an inmate standing up against the powerful forces that operate a psychiatric hospital, but it represents much more than just a classic case of “man versus the establishment”. The questions raised by Kesey are almost as chilling as his descriptive tales of inmate abuse. Kesey compelled me to ponder just how thin the line is that separates insanity from sanity, and treatment from control. Representing a heroic struggle of personality against an institution of mindless conformity, I found “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to be one powerful piece of literature.
In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched is the antagonist and her use of cruel treatments is the main argument for malpractice. She uses daily doses of medication, electroshock therapy, and a lobotomy procedure to “treat” the patients in the ward. “Put your troubled mind at ease, my friend. In all
The quest for immortality is a common theme throughout literature. However, in Catch 22, death is the reccurring theme. Joseph Heller illustrates how precious he values life through his main character's obsession with death. After experiencing many tragedies, Yossarian becomes obsessed with the concept of his own mortality, fighting harder to stay alive. Heller’s explicit descriptions of horrific events come together to form one overall picture of death itself. With Yossarian’s obsession and Heller’s explicit descriptions, Heller reveals his own thought on the preciousness of life.