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Extended literary analysis one flew over the cuckoo's nest
One flew over the cuckoos nest literary analysis
One flew over the cuckoos nest literary analysis
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The film, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, has been categorized as an impactful movie and changed the way many individuals think about certain topics that still remain an issue within society. The way that it was most impactful was the way that it reflected and took an approach to power dynamics. The perspective of power dynamics throughout this film could be very similar to mental healthcare institutions or other institutions spread across the nation. The power dynamic is what defines this movie as a whole. The authority figure would be Nurse Ratched and the oppressed would be the patients that seek help for their mental illnesses.
The Origins of Madness in One Who Flew Off The Cuckoo's Nest The book, One who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is an eccentric story on the cruel treatment of patients within psychiatric wards in the 1960s. It is told from the narration of an indigenous man, named Chief Bromden, a character who is deeply conflicted and wounded inside, as he narrates the story of another patient McMurphy. McMurphy is not like Chief, nor any of the other patients for that matter, for he is a man who refuses to follow the wards rules and does whatever it takes in the book to strip the head nurse, Miss Ratched, of her power, in a fight for the patients, sovereignty within the ward. His rebellious attitude unfolds and the consequences begin unveiling
Nurse Ratched’s desire for control, in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, allows her to manipulate the entire hospital ward into believing her work is for the betterment of the patients. Significantly, Nurse Ratched appears doll-like: hair in a tight bun, a neatly pressed uniform, and “too-red” lipstick (48). Traditionally, dolls, like other toys, are made to occupy the unruly minds of young children. By comparing Nurse Ratched to a child’s toy, Kesey implies she is a mere distraction to the patients from their mental impairments.
In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey two of the main characters, Dr. Spivey and Nurse Ratched, have different opinions on the Therapeutic Community of the mental asylum where they work. The Therapeutic Community at the hospital, named the Combine by its patients, is supposed to make the ward a democratic place that puts its patients concerns and requests into consideration. Dr. Spivey uses the Therapeutic Community as a way to make the patients feel like they have more of a say in the way the asylum is run and wants them to feel comfortable. However, Nurse Ratched uses this free environment as a way to show her authority and force confessions out of her patients. Dr. Spivey wants the mental institute patients to benefit from a Therapeutic
The novel follows male patients at an Oregon psychiatric hospital who are in the hands of Nurse Ratched, who uses her power to enforce unethical rules on her patients to succeed in maintaining control. However,
Nurse Ratched, the head administrative nurse at a mental institution, exercised her near-absolute power over every aspect of the patients’ lives. Over time, she gradually gained a strong position of power, which was only strengthened by her ability to determine the fates of her patients. She was presented as a controlling, yet peaceful character, ensuring that her calculate outlook on the patients was upheld on every measure. Her strong personality is not seen as superficial, rather permanent through many distractions, revealing a mechanical aspect to her presence. Her lack of emotion was an extreme patience, which she used as a weapon against the patients.
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.
Applying Gender Studies to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, exposes how men on the ward are either immaculated or act as sexual predators. The men on the ward are controlled and immaculated by the Big Nurse’s use of intimidation. It makes the men feel weak and frightened of her. In the novel, Nurse Ratched makes sure everybody follows her rules, “She accumulates her ideal staff: doctors, all ages and types, come and rise up in front of her with ideas of their own about the way a ward should be run, some with backbone enough to stand behind their ideas, and she fixes these doctors with dry-ice eyes day in, day out until they retreat with unnatural chills.”
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.
Statement of Intent: I inteded this text to be an analysis of Nurse Ratched’s depiction in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. I did this using secondary sources such as Reclaiming Big Nurse: a Feminist Critique of Ken Kesey’s Portrayal of Nurse Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Philip Darbyshire and The Roles of Women in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Hana Kašpárková. My intention was to compare Nurse Ratched against her male counterpart, McMurphy, and to highlight the misogyny with which she was depicted.
She encourages the men in the ward to confess other men’s secrets during Group Therapy. Nurse Ratchet arranges for the men to turn against each other in attempt to keep the ward under her control. She keeps the men apprehensive and needy under restraint, taking their pride of freedom. This quote describes how Nurse Ratchet liked to find the men’s weaknesses and use them against the men. She turned the men against each other.
In the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the mental hospital is very strict with lots of structure. This causes many thing to happen that doesn’t necessarily have to happen and it's almost as if the patients are antagonized to overreact at points in the movie. Also as a human being we should be able to make our own choices and its important to be able to make your own choices to feel like you are an individual. Not to mention I would think it was improvement to have the patients working together as a team, but Nurse Ratched didn’t reward or even compliment them on working as a team. Instead she punished them and if you ask me working as a team is an key element of human behavior, because at this point your not just thinking about yourself
And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death, and more and more.” This shows that Nurse is pitting the patients against each other so that she, the leader of the flock, can stay dominate and in control. This reveals that the hospital is not about dehumanizing the patients until they are weak and willing to conform to
There is an obvious idea presented by Kesey that the Nurse is dominant over Billy, who has become very vulnerable. Nurse Ratched is shown as a character of strength by the way the writer has created her character. Nurse Ratched is also seen as a strong figure by the way the other characters talk about her, for example when Chief says “To beat her you don 't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as soon as you lose once, she 's won for good.” The writer has used this line to show us how both Chief and the other patient give her the strong and authoritative
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.
