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What Is The Conflict In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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In the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I am transferred to a hospital from prison for allegedly raping a fifteen-year-old girl. I had always preferred completing my sentence in a calmer environment than in the prison and, therefore, this would do. The voice of the story from the scene is humorous. From the scene, my fellow mates’ goals and mine are to have fun far away from the hospital. The antagonism between me and my nurse Ratched is the most interesting part of the story. We are in conflict because of our almost opposing characters. While the nurse is geared towards punishing and demoralizing law breakers, I am geared towards breaking the law and having fun, especially since my discharge date from the hospital is uncertain. In the first instance, I am denied permission to go out of the hospital having broken Ratched’s window. She would have been justified to do so since my intention was to escape with a prostitute I had acquainted myself with while in Portland. Even after denial of the permission I break the window again just after it has been made (Kessey 3). The second most interesting instance happens when I am sent to a shock shop for electroconvulsive therapy. This happens when one of the patient’s anger flares up and starts causing chaos, and I join in the chaos. The …show more content…

Seeing that I am also following suit and taking advantage of my mental situation, the other patients follow on and make insults at the attendant. The next stop from the gas station is the scene of fishing. Here, we are challenged by the captain when he refuses to let us go fishing for claims that he has nothing to cover him in case something happened to us while in the sea. Still determined to win, I give him a number to call the brothel so that he could go and enjoy himself. When he gets back, we are already in the sea. At the sea, everyone has a good time and can catch large

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1474 Words | 6 Pages

At some time-- perhaps in your childhood-- you may have been allowed to get away with flouting the rules of society” (Kesey171). Nurse Ratched said this to all the patients at the ward one day regarding them rebelling against the rules. This quote really showed how manipulative and mean Nurse Ratched could be. Ever since McMurphy came to the ward, everyone there decided to start a rebellion against Nurse Ratched and the ward policy. Many examples such as when McMurphy was carousing around the halls in his underwear, people not doing their chores, asking to change the schedule to watch the baseball game and breaking the nurse’s window to take back their cigarettes show there is a difference in the air at the ward.

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710 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the beginning of the novel it is evident that some characters over use their powers, one of these characters being Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched uses her position in the ward to take advantage of the patients and make sure that they adhere to everyone of her daunting commands. Nurse Ratched “tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine” (Kesey 28) because she has been on the ward for so long that when something doesn 't go according to her plan, she starts to get mad and will often try to use her power to come down on the patient 's. Nurse Ratched is in control of the whole ward and when someone does something that isn 't in her manuscript she gets irritated. The ward will be run her way and only her way, “ under her rule the ward inside is almost completely adjusted to surroundings” (Kesey 28).

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605 Words | 3 Pages

Banneker Writes to thomas jefferson about the wrongs of slavery. HIs purpose is to argue against slavery. Banneker does this by using an appeal to logic to prove how slavery is illogical, diction to show the cruelty of slavery, and parallelism to show that they are like the white men who wanted their freedom as well. Banneker shows how illogical slavery is to help create an argument against it. He pulls in the Declaration of INdependence, which Thomas Jefferson wrote, it says “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal…” (lines 21-25).

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447 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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1389 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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725 Words | 3 Pages

In the drama film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, Patrick McMurphy was moved from a prison farm to a mental institution to get evaluated for his erratic behavior. Upon being transported to the institution, all his assumptions about his new home were completely wrong. The head nurse, Nurse Ratched, has the whole hospital under her control with little to no freedom for the patients. All the inmates at the institution go through rigorous training to become obedient to Nurse Ratched and her strict schedule and rules. The institution was a very controlled environment with the patients having no control over their own life’s while there.

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700 Words | 3 Pages

In the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there are four characteristics of a controlled environment. These include; status hierarchy, depersonalization, adjustment, and institution. Viewers can see these ideas through different scenes and situations in the movie. The overall movie stems from institutionalization, because it is set in a psychiatric hospital, which keeps the patients there confined to a strict environment and schedule. Doctors and nurses look at small traits or changes as something significant, whereas in the real world that small trait would appear as a norm and be overlooked.

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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.

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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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755 Words | 4 Pages

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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1033 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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1071 Words | 5 Pages

One Flew Over Society’s Utopia In 1962, Ken Kesey shook Americans across the nation with his book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest illustrates controversial topics in society as triumphant and was therefore under scrutiny since its publication. The novel expresses material, such as nonconformity, rebellion, freedom of the mind, and the hardships of having a mental illness. It also challenges many levels of reality and social norms, such as glorifying corrupt juveniles, criminal activity, and depicting images of obscenity, all which landed the novel a spot on the banned books list.

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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.

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1288 Words | 6 Pages

“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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1010 Words | 5 Pages

The warden employs subtle humiliation tactics to subdue the patients, which was challenged by Mac McMurphy (Kesey). The movie shows that there is a fine line between being normal and acting normal. The protagonist was forced to become a mental patient to make him less dangerous. The movie

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