ipl-logo

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Conformity Analysis

858 Words4 Pages

Is conformity healthy for individuals in a society? In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, a patient in a mental hospital consistantantly talks about his experience with a fog. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the story, is given pills that cause intermittent hallucinations like people greatly changing size and mechanical sounds in the walls. But his most intense and important hallucination is fog. He describes it as coming out of the walls, so thick that he cannot see his hand in front of his face. Conformity being a main theme of the book, fog is the most important symbol used to represent the idea throughout the story. One example of fog in the novel is Chief Bromden floating in the fog at one of the group meetings. He is lifted …show more content…

This could be taken on one level as Chief just hallucinating so bad he can’t get to bed, or, it could have a deeper, more meaningful allusion. Chief, being manipulated and debilitated by the fog, could be taken as him being weakened and beatdown by the harsh conformity enforced by the ward’s head nurse. But Chief states that none of the other patients complain about the fog, and that McMurphey can’t understand why the others don’t want to act out, or even laugh: “That’s why McMurphey can’t understand, [the patients] wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at”(Kesey 114). This states how McMurphey is trying to help the others out of the dehumanizing pit of rules and regulations put in place by the Big Nurse, and how the other patients have given into her rule. “Drag us out of the fog” is Kesey quite literally stating how McMurphey is the rule-breaker, the bull in the china shop, the one that is going to free the others from the grip of the Big Nurse’s iron

Show More
Related
646 Words | 3 Pages

Chief had spent a long time going through the motions and never realizing what was going on. Kesey’s use of diction and figurative language in a tandem, fortifies Chief’s process of

Read More
379 Words | 2 Pages

In addition to setting, McMurphy did what wanted, when he wanted, always being loud and disruptive (“One Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest” 3). He admits himself into the ward only to get out of working on the work farm. Because McMurphy is not actually insane, he’s not fond of the rules of that are set in place on a daily basis; He doesn’t follow the “god damned policy” (Kesey 89). By acting the way he does, he gets under the skin of the Big Nurse, who is in charge of keeping a set routine Acutes and Chronics, such as “Six-forty-five the shavers buzz and the Acutes line up in alphabetical order at the mirrors, A, B, C, D….” (Kesey 26).

Read More
1024 Words | 5 Pages

Through the story he transforms into a man who finally realises his own physical and mental power and uses it to prove his worth to himself and society. During the ending scene where the Chief noticeably breaks free from the Big Nurse and her machinery, Kesey is proving the importance of freedom and the possibility for people to overcome what defeats them. McMurphy is a pivotal character within the novel, as his journey through destruction as he receives a number of electro shock therapies makes patients aware that lives can be changed and deteriorate no matter how big you appear to be or where you sit in society. There are clear signs of change in the Chief’s perceptions on McMurphy’s power also as he sees past his tough appearances and understands how much the EST is effecting his mind and body, he watches McMurphy go from a religious image upon the EST table to watching him lose his pattern of memory and fall under the rest of acutes who because of his influence begin to understand their

Read More
629 Words | 3 Pages

There is no freedom amongst the people without a little chaos, yet to maintain order, there must be oppression towards its people. McMurphy upsets the established routine of the ward by bring his own agenda such as, asking for schedule changes and inspiring resistance during therapy sessions. He teaches his peers to have fun and encourages them to embrace their desires such as watching baseball and playing cards. “If somebody’d of come in and took a look, men watching a blank TV, a fifty-year –old woman hollering and squealing at the back of their heads about discipline and order and recriminations, they’d of thought the whole bunch was crazy as loons” (Kesey 134). He convinces them that not only are they sane like everyone else, but also they are men and they are superior to the matriarchal society they are put in.

Read More
970 Words | 4 Pages

Before he started to teach them, Bromden caught on to what he was trying to do. Bromden says, “Nobody complains about all the fog. I know why, now: as bad as it is, you can slip back in it and feel safe. That’s what McMurphy can’t understand, us wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at.”

Read More
454 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, the narrator of the story named Chief Bromden goes through tremendous character development through finding the courage and confidence to face his fears. Since the beginning of the novel, the “fog machine” is mentioned several times by Chief Bromden, as it was something he always used to help him hide away from other nurses and patients. He describes it as a thick fog that clouds his vision, as said through the quote: “They start the fog machine again and it’s snowing down cold and white all over me like skim milk, so thick I might even be able to hide in it if they didn’t have a hold on me” (Kesey, 7). This quotation describes the fog as a cold, white and thick fog, and

Read More
1124 Words | 5 Pages

The Beat Generation of the 1950’s and early 1960’s encouraged a new lifestyle for young Americans striving for individualism and freedom, which included rock and roll music, long hair, relaxed style attire, vegetarianism, and experimenting with drugs (“Beat Movement”). Many young Americans of this era wanted to experiment with new social and cultural concepts, rebelling against “normal” American life. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, portrays the gruesomeness of conformity through the lives of patients in one of the asylum’s wards. The novel shows how the patients are confined to strict rules and limited freedom because of Nurse Ratched’s power.

Read More
1144 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
909 Words | 4 Pages

Societal expectations and norms, if followed or not, can have a profound impact on one’s mind set or way of comporting themselves. Concepts akin to these are present or noted in all types of media or literature, two such examples being The Catcher in the Rye and Shattered Glass. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye exemplifies non-conformity in the 1950’s through 17 year-old Holden Caulfield, who happens to be narrating from a mental hospital throughout the entirety of the book. Subsequently, the director Billy Ray portrays nonconformity and its consequences in terms of ethical behavior through a narcissistic journalist named Stephen Glass who has a propensity of a sociopath.

Read More
1380 Words | 6 Pages

Forcing people to follow a societal norm is detrimental to the health of the mind and body. The struggle between conformers and non conformers creates a schism in society. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey asserts the overarching importance of individuality through the use of a conflict between the patients and the nurse as a microcosm of society. In the novel, the delusions of the narrator create a surreal world that reveals a strong message on the nature of conformity.

Read More
993 Words | 4 Pages

Kesey has used characterisation to get the idea that in this novel there are aspects of venerability and strength. In Nurse Ratched’s case, Kesey has made it so that she is shown with strength and power over the whole ward, including the black men in white, other nurses, and mainly the patients. An example of Nurse Ratched’s power over the patients is when she says to Billy Bibbit, “What worries me, Billy, ' she said- I could hear the change in her voice- 'is how your mother is going to take this.” This shows how one sentence was able to debilitate Billy into begging Nurse for forgiveness and restraint of telling his mother.

Read More
1288 Words | 6 Pages

He also takes all of the patients out on a fishing trip, and one night he turns her whole ward into a party room. These changes of setting help the patients of the ward escape some of Nurse Ratched’s domination. In the end, thanks to McMurphy, Chief is able to instigate a change of scenery for himself, and he escapes the ward

Read More
1379 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
427 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel,One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey utilizes the motif of fog in order to provide a symbolic representation of Chief’s escape from reality to one's own comfort zone, ultimately suggesting that society perceives others on the basis of social standards. Just as the fog is said to be a place of tranquility, in the novel the fog symbolises Chief’s escape from reality. As Chief is about to go to bed after talking with Public relations he says “Nobody complains about all the fog. I know why, now: as bad as it is, you can slip back in it and feel safe. That's what McMurphy can't understand, us wanting to be safe.

Read More

More about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Conformity Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document