Batman and The Joker, legendary rivals, but what would Batman be without The Joker to fight? This back and forth quarrel betweens heros and villans is comparable to the conflict between nurse Ratched and Randle McMurphy in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. McMurphy, a rambunctious new addition to the Ward constantly antagonizes nurse Ratched, who has an extremely strict policy when it comes to following the rules. Ken Kesey skillfully utilizes both direct and indirect characterization to multiple layers to McMurphy and ratched’s personalities.
SETTING One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest takes place in Oregon during the late 1950’s or early 1960’s in a mental hospital. We know this because the memory of World War II is fresh in Bromden’s and McMurphy’s minds. The environment is very grey, dull, confining, and machine-like. There is very little warmth before McMurphy’s arrival.
Imagine a life where people ignore us and treat us as if we were not even there, simply because they believe we do not have the same mental age as our peers and cannot hear. All on a day to day basis. When entering One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, one can tell that Chief Bromden, our Indian narrator, is fully aware of his surroundings and does not live up to the statement above; even though the nurses and aids in the ward think otherwise. In this novel, we see how Chief Bromden comes to understand that he is not the one who started to present himself as deaf and dumb, but it was the people around him that thought he was too dumb to hear what they were saying. Through Kesey’s writing, we come to see how McMurphy, a rough-n-tough fighting man, helps Chief regain his ability of speech and build his emotional and “physical” strength back to its fullest potential.
Abusing Power: A Literary Theme Analysis of Part One in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Throughout the passage of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, from Kesey’s “Part One”, we come across our protagonist, Randle Patrick “Mac” McMurphy. He is the manipulator of the ward who fights against society’s demands as opposed to the oppressive Nurse Ratched “Big Nurse”, who controls the ward under her tyrannical rule.
The story is narrated by Chief Bromden, a patient in the psychiatric hospital, who has hallucinations as well as delusions. He acts though he is deaf wanting to have very little attention, but since the workers actually believe, sometime they’ll have him do their work (ex. mop for them). The narrator first starts off the story by explaining the main characters are and difference between the patients. He first talks about Nurse Ratched, the leader of the whole hospital, and how anything she says goes. He then talks about the difference in the patients, Acutes are the ones who can be cured and Chronics are the ones who can’t.
Moral Lense Literary Analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The 1950s, the context of which One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey, was written, was called the Era of Conformity. During this time, the American social atmosphere was quiet conformed, in that everyone was expected to follow the same, fixed format of behavior in society, and the ones who stand out of being not the same would likely be “beaten down” by the social norms. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey argues that it is immoral for society to simply push its beliefs onto the people who are deemed different, as it is unfair and could lead to destructive results. First of all, it is unjust for people who are deemed unalike from others in society to be forced into the preset way of conduct because human tend to have dissimilar nature.
In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (OFOTCN), Dale Harding is a very intelligent and educated man. He believes that the society is homophobic, therefore he admitted himself in the mental institute to be protected from all this hatred. He suffers from “humiliation of never fully pleasing his promiscuously unfaithful wife” (CliffNotes). He says that people tend to look at him and starts judging whenever he’s with his wife. Before Randle McMurphy was introduced to the ward, everyone looked up to him.
Weather in literature is often used to symbolize the mood or mental state in which a character experiences. For example, rain is commonly associated with sadness. As it is commonly identified, fog is a cloudy element of weather that affects one’s ability to see clearly, however, it is also used in literature to represent a character’s lack of clarity. Throughout One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the motif of fog is used to represent the mental instability and confusion Bromden experiences under Nurse Ratched’s ward. As the story progresses and Bromden gains confidence, the fog diminishes and he is able to overcome the Big Nurse.
The novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey has many themes, many ideas, many morals, and many characters. Throughout the story, as with any proper story, the characters develop. Each character develops in their own way and for different reasons. The biggest two characters in the story, who are the ones to influence the other characters to change the most, are the Big Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. Big Nurse runs the psych ward that McMurphy is placed into.
Although One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey focuses in on a group of men in a psychiatric ward, women are not severely absent from the storyline. Kesey places women carefully in the story line through relationships with the main characters. These relationships expresses sexism in the novel. Kesey reveals a bias against women in the sense that he emphasizes positive traits of men, such as bravery, and negative traits of women, such as overpowering. Women are interpreted as authoritative and aggresive figures who viviate and criticize men.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells the story of convicted felon, Randal McMurphy, and his experience entering a mental institution. He rebels against the restrictive environment and challenges the oppressive rules and standards set forth by Nurse Ratched and the hospital staff throughout the novel. He opens the eyes of the other patients to the unethical control and introduces them to their own right of individuality. McMurphy reconstructs the memory and identity of many of the characters throughout the course of the novel by challenging the oppressive environment created by the hospital and its staff through self sacrifice, rebellion, and perception. Mcmurphy's ultimate downfall at the end of the novel is an expression of self-sacrifice.
Ken Kesey author of the fictional novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest published in 1962 has taken the opportunity to write about the hippy culture and how society shames difference. Readers are taken to a mental institution in Oregon in the 1950’s and experience what it is like for the outcast people. The men in the ward are run by Nurse Ratched and have lost control of themselves. Majority of these men are in the mental hospital because they have checked themselves in, but not McMurphy he is a convict there for psych evaluation. Do to Nurse Ratched the men loses control over themselves and they haven’t realized till McMurphy walked through the door.
The last time I wrote to you was about a month ago. I lost track of time especially because I was reading a book that completely captured my attention, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. I loved the novel so much that I am going to recommend that you read it so you can have a similar experience. Knowing you study psychology at University, I have a suspicion that you will enjoy this book because of a main theme; Women as Castrators. This novel will help you understand your career field because the main setting in this book is in a psychiatric hospital, where mentally ill patients are cared for.
What separates this film from others is its’ use of movie devices and techniques, as well as the emotionally charged story. What makes “One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest” special is the set of characters. We have Randle McMurphy, the fearless and cold criminal which it turns out, actually has a heart of gold. We have the calm and cold nurse Mildred Ratchet that tries with her full power to stop McMurphy from doing his mischief. And of course the patients like Billy Bibbit, Charlie Cheswick, Martini and Chief Bromden, all played beautifully by the actors, making the viewers feel that they are inside the mental institution.
The movie “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” gives an inside look into the life of a patient living in a mental institution; helping to give a new definition of mental illnesses. From a medical standpoint, determinants of mental illness are considered to be internal; physically and in the mind, while they are seen as external; in the environment or the person’s social situation, from a sociological perspective (Stockton, 2014). Additionally, the movie also explores the idea of power relations that exist between an authorized person (Nurse Ratched) and a patient and further looks into the punishment a deviant actor receives (ie. McMurphy contesting Nurse Ratched). One of the sociological themes that I have observed is conformity.
