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Metaphor and Mind Style in Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Metaphor and Mind Style in Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Metaphor and Mind Style in Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
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Jesus and Cuckoo's Nest Parallels Jesus Christ led his apostles against a very oppressive government. In the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, R.P. McMurphy leads an oppressed group of mental patients against an extremely oppressive medical staff. There are many parallels between R.P. and Jesus Christ. The main similarity is that, even in the face of adversity, both continued to fight for what was right. Additionally, both did not have a selfish personality.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey uses the motif, Christ and Savior to find faults within society demonstrating that one should sacrifices oneself in order to save others from tyranny imposed by authority. In the beginning of the novel, the motif, Christ and Savior is not prevalent within the ward. However, as McMurphy appears, the figure of Christ and Savior starts to reveal by McMurphy’s actions. While the men think McMurphy is going to stand up for them against Big Nurse, he says, “I couldn’t figure it at first, why you guys were coming to me like I was some kind of savior.
By describing the patient, Kesey makes the reader create a picture of how tough and abusive the staff of the hospital
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.
Throughout One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the patients talked in fear of the “Shock Shop,” the nickname given to the Electro Shock Therapy machine. If a patient tries to rebel against the system at the hospital, they are sent to the “Shock Shop” where they are quickly fixed by the harsh device. The threat of the “Shock Shop” usually keeps the patients at bay, but every once in while someone is sent for Electro Shock Therapy. Nurse Ratched keeps order in the hospital by displaying these rebellious individuals where everyone can see the cruel effects of the “Shock Shop.” However, the “Shock Shop” and its victims symbolize something much greater than just a machine.
“It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.
Throughout the novel, there is a repeated metaphor of machinery and “The Combine”. Chief Bromden, the narrator, talks a lot about how society is just one big machine. The machine is controlling everyone and everything. The machine eventually turns other people into machines, leaving them with almost no humanity. The Chief installs this idea in the reader’s minds that all of the Chronics in the ward, the ones who are too far gone to fix, have been wired to act certain ways and are no longer human, simply machines.
The mental hospital also acts like a metaphor for the oppression Kesey saw in modern society. Through Chief's narration we can see how he perceives the world around him and the pressures to conform. He sees society as a kind of machine and the hospital is basically for people who are broken or are missing bolts/pieces. And people who don't conform to society's rules are defective and are labeled as mentally ill and are institutionalized. In the book, the hospital is portrayed as a dangerous place.
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.
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
Insanity or Insecurity Society, It is always changing, just like the people in it. No one wants to look out of place in the world so they do what they can to fit in. Everyone does it differently it might be acting a certain way, or changing style, but with fitting in comes rejection. Just like trying to fit in, dealing with rejection is done differently, most people try to fix the problem before they start to get labeled.
“The Big Nurse is suspicious of the crew-cut looks of these residents.” Nurse Ratched attempts to manipulate the patients with words by insinuating ideas in order to control them which in turn destroys their self-esteem leaving them powerless against her. This is the opposite in ‘Regeneration’ as they are able to open up about anything they dream or worry about. For example Anderson opened up about his dream involving lady’s corsets “…they got hold of me and tied me up… A pair of lady corsets.
“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.
A main theme in Ken Keesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is rebellion. In the book, rebellious actions by the main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, representing the carnival side of society, goes against the Big Nurse who represent the strict chains of society. However, what I find ironic is the fact that a woman, in fact the most feminine character in the book, is the enemy or the oppressor. During the 1950’s this was the complete opposite. The feminist movement hadn’t taken a prominent standing yet and men were in power.
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.
