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Examples Of Injustice In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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When stepping inside a hospital to receive help, one should expect care, treatment, and respect. However, shown in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and “Howl,” American society equates mental illness with inhumanity. In both texts, the characters are forced to live without basic human freedoms and a voice to change it. Society pressures the mentally ill into becoming submissive counterparts of the community by stripping away their physical freedoms, forcing inhumane treatment, and depriving them the freedom of expression. By pressuring confinement and treating the patients inhumanely, society strips away their freedom to express themselves. Once deemed mentally ill by society, one no longer has the right to physical freedom. As seen in both texts, the patients are often confined to the hospital and physically bounded until they no longer can be envision as free. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, some of the patients are admitted under the pretense that they cannot decide when they leave. In this case, these patients have absolutely no voice in the matter of their confinement; except, they can change their situations if they conform “to policy merely to aid his chances of an …show more content…

In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the nurse exposes the patients to harsh procedures in hopes to either cure them of their illness or stop unwanted behavior. Harding explains one of the treatments the patients endure: “Electro-Shock Therapy. Those fortunate souls in there are being given a free trip to the moon. No, on second thought, it isn’t completely free. You pay for the service with brain cells instead of money.” Not only is the procedure torturous, but also truly harms their health. Chief Bromden often alludes to his fear of the procedure and “being sucked through that door.” He exemplifies the powerlessness the patients have when denying

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“To be committed to a state hospital, one must go before a panel of a judge, lawyer and two doctors” (P. 5) the author of the memoir writes. Sounding similar to a court hearing before an individual is found guilty or not to be admitted to prison. This is one example of how the memoir reading is similar to Thomas S. Szasz statement of mental illness facilities being a prison for the patients. Another example is hospitalization patients were required to have paid jobs in the facilities, similar to jobs requiring inmates to have in prison. In prison, imates are the force to fulfill orders of the guards or punishment will occur.

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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.

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After learning of the other patients’ voluntary status, McMurphy’s loud, emphasized diction and constant use of exclamations as questions convey his emotional investment in their situation: “Are you guys bullshitting me! … you must be committed, for Christsakes! … Then why? Why? … why do you stand for it? …Tell me why ...

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He went on to explain that the people in those institutions are very limited to the things they are able to do and the choices that they can make. Simple choices such as what to eat, what to wear, and what to do in your freetime are made for the mentally ill by the workers. The patients are forced to take medication against their will and are also limited to everyday things such as being outside. There is so much dehumanization that occurs that the mental hospital doesn't feel like a place where the patients are receiving help. Instead, the patients themselves refer to being at the mental hospital as “doing time” as they would in

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Monkey Papi Irby English 3 23-May-2023 Be Free Nest of Cuckoo’s Seeing someone abused is hard especially when they are put into an institution that is supposed to help them get better. Patients in mental institutes were tortured and abused for years in the 60’s leading up to the 70’s. Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest is a waste of time debating wether or not it should be banned.

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Throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, many examples of injustice abound. Maycomb unfairness lashed out at multiple levels in the social class. By taking up a case, Atticus Finch made himself the fool of the town. The townsfolk gossiped and criticked him and his family. The injustice of Maycomb could be found in other circumstances.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb.

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The restrictions limit the lives of the men. Some men do take the restrictions into consideration, others don’t. The ones who do not will face a punishment; punishments can be anything from drugs to surgeries. Some men did not want to take medication for seizures because it made their gums rot but as they have their seizures the nurses comes and forces the medication in them and some men give their medication to other men because they fear having seizures. One surgical medication McMurphy receives is the lobotomy treatment.

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So not only was a “crazy” person unlawfully trapped in a mental institution, they were also subjected to societies “humane” methods of therapy, “including drugs and shock therapy, to rehabilitate its patients” (Vitkus, 74). One of the methods formerly used to treat mental illness and stopped in 1947 was called Lobotomy, which means a surgical operation involving incision into the prefrontal lobe of the brain, which was described as “frontal-lob castration” because “if she can’t cut below the belt she’ll do it above the eyes” (Kensey, 164). A Lobotomy, in the Combines eyes, is considered a permanent “fix” and deemed successful to returning those once insane back to the outside world of reality. Therefore, the social understanding and models of practices experienced in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest represents “a whole analogical system that serves, metaphorically, to define the inhumanity of a society that demands total conformity” (Vitkus,

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Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, published in 1962, is one of Kesey’s most popular works. It helped America realize the cruel way that psychiatry and psychology were being practiced. The story is about a group of guys committed to a men’s mental hospital in the 1950’s. Throughout the plot, a new patient named Randle P. McMurphy shines light on the otherwise dull lives of his fellow patients while he is committed. On the other hand, Nurse Ratched and the staff seem to be doing everything they can to make the patients' lives miserable and foil all of McMurphy’s patient supported schemes.

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The story “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey is seen through the perspective of a schizophrenic patient in a mental hospital pretending to be deaf, dumb, and mute. Because of his clear mental illness, it is difficult to tell in the story what is true and what is just in his mind. Throughout the story, the intentions of the patients and staff are questioned by whether they are acting morally. The issues brought to light by the story are using cruel and unusual punishments on mentally ill patients, fighting authority, and putting a human out of his or her misery by killing them, and if these actions are morally correct.

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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.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest The film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, prompts very important aspect of the human condition. In the movie, the protagonist, Mac McMurphy, is deemed dangerous, so the mental institute tries to suppress him (Kesey). The film highlights various aspects of human conditions like psychology, sociology and philosophy. The mental institute tries to suppress the mentally challenged people rather than to try to communicate with them.

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