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Essay On One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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In novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, a leader organizes a group of mental patients and rebels against the figurehead of the broken institutional system of the mental hospital. McMurphy pushes The institutions rules of order, bringing out the evil in the situation. Bromden, due to his bias narration, misconstrues Nurse Ratched as the antagonist where, in truth, she falsifies this by trying to maintain order and by ultimately seeking the best for her patients. Kesey chooses Bromden as the narrator, by doing this, he introduces an element of skepticism for the audience as Brombden opposes the institution. He only associates negative things to the institution because of what they did to him. They stripped him of his past life, …show more content…

Her strict rules, though a reflection of the broken institution’s methods, serve to maintain order in the most efficient way possible as she believes “its best to stick to our daily routine” (Kesey 92). She acts in an extreme fashion for two reasons, because she must follow the policy of the institution and because she works with patients who possess mental illnesses and have an unpredictable nature. She continues to justify her means of order by saying, “Please understand: We do not impose certain rules and restrictions on you without a great deal of thought about their therapeutic value,” later elaborating that “it is entirely for your own good that we enforce discipline and order” (Kesey 155). She uses her care for her patients as the main justification of her methods of treatment, showing that she puts their improvement above all other concerns. By wishing the ultimate best for her patients, She shows that she does not wish to harm them or degrade them directly like an antagonist would. Bromden’s bias perspective, and Nurse Ratched’s caring intent prove that Kesey did not make her the antagonist of the story. Broaden turns to McMurphy for help and he brings more chaos than Nurse Ratched ever intended to endure. The nurse left after seeing her lack of control and order of the

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Randall McMurphy, the protagonist of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has an unlikely destination at a mental hospital in Oregon. There, he fights against the system that has been imposed on his recently made friends in the hospital, such as Billy Bibbit and Chief Bromden, who he helps overcome the unfair system imposed on them. With his imminent battle for power against the institution, McMurphy is an archetypal Christ-like hero, although some of his actions aren’t Christ-like. The duel between him and Nurse Ratched ends in the ultimate de-throning of Ratched and McMurphy achieving what he wants to do-- even if he wasn’t there to witness it.

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The question of sanity becomes apparent when McMurphy, a confident gambler, who might have faked psychosis in order to get out of the work farm, is assigned to the mental hospital. He quickly stirs up tension in the ward for Nurse Ratched by encouraging the men to have fun and rebel against her rules. Brodmen appears to be sane for the most part, despite his hallucinations of a fog, which seems to be the result of something both the ward and the world has done to him. He is able to think logically and though others believe him to be deaf and dumb, he uses this to his advantage. Chief states, “They don't bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when I'm nearby because they think I'm deaf and dumb.

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“One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest” is a film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the novel by Ken Kesey. The Film was released in 1975. It is the story of a convicted man, trying to outsmart the American legal system by playing mentally ill. The film starts at the beginning when the main character, Randle McMurphy, enters the mental institution. It won 6 Golden Globes as well as 5 Oscars and many other nominations.

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Ken Kesey uses his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to describe the lives of patients in a mental institution, and their struggle to overcome the oppressive authority under which they are living. Told from the point of view of a supposedly mute schizophrenic, the novel also shines a light on the many disorders present in the patients, as well as how their illnesses affect their lives during a time when little known about these disorders, and when patients living with these illnesses were seen as an extreme threat. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the novel, has many mental illnesses, but he learns to accept himself and embrace his differences. Through the heroism introduced through Randle McMurphy, Chief becomes confident in himself, and is ultimately able to escape from the toxic environment Nurse Ratched has created on the ward. Chief has many disorders including schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, in addition to these illnesses, he pretends to be deaf and dumb.

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