ipl-logo

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Comparison Essay

566 Words3 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Comparison Essay It is virtually a maxim that a character’s inner thoughts are more enhanced in books than in movies or films. The novel was written by Ken Kessey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has a film version directed by Milos Forman. Throughout the book, Kessey shapes Chief Bromden’s overall character through his past, his view of the hospital and inner thoughts by using overwhelming mechanical imageries. However, in the film this crucial history and imageries were lacked. As a result, Chief appeared to be less significant and have no psychological issues.
In the book, Bromden reminisces a time when he spoke to white people who came to his house, but was ignored. As stated in the book, “I start to tell them ...with me standing there wondering if they ever even saw me.” (Page 163). This flashback shows Chief’s first interaction with someone in high authority. It …show more content…

In contrast, the film did not include this scene. In the book, he thought his room was slipping away and falling down continually as if it was taking him for a ride in the hospital. As stated in the book, “and the whole floor goes to slipping down away from him standing in the door, lowering into the building like a platform in a grain elevator!” (Pg 66). This help builds Bromden’s character for the audience. It shows he has psychological problems. In the film audiences were not given this information, therefore it give the impression that Chief does not have any psychological abnormalities. This makes the film less effective because throughout this story mental illness of Chief plays a huge part. It helps readers understand why Chief is a patient of the mentally ill and it indirectly created a bond between him and McMurphy. For example, if Chief was not mentally ill, he wouldn’t think he was “small in size” and McMurphy wouldn’t offer to help Chief gain back his size; “make him

Show More
Related
646 Words | 3 Pages

This sets up chief realizing that his eyes are closed. This gives the reader a sign of awakening. Chief looks out the window for the first time and notices that the hospital is in the country. “It

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey illustrates in the book's final passage Chief Bromden’s escape into nature and freedom from his prior mechanical entrapment. Kesey outlines in the novel the difference between the hospital, an automatic and controlling institute. To the outside countryside that Bromden observes as representative of freedom, which he breaks free into. This imagery of machinery vs. nature is carefully crafted by Kesey within diction and imagery of scenes and characters. Where this is most prominent however, are the scenes Bromden experiences solely at night.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

How strong their beliefs are can be observed by how large their sacrifices are for their values. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is a fictional novel about a man called Randle McMurphy who transfers from a prison work farm to an asylum after being thought of having psychopathic tendencies, and a tall Native American nicknamed, “Chief Bromden,” who becomes McMurphy’s friend in the ward. In the end of the novel, Chief Bromden kills Randel McMurphy after he is given a lobotomy. Chief Bromden’s sacrifice of Randel McMurphy’s life highlights his values in freedom and personal strength, as well as providing an image of an oppressive society that

Read More
1131 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the narrator, Chief Bromden, has a slight mystery surrounding him, like several of the other characters. That is, what mental illness is Chief in the ward for exactly? The answer might seem like the obvious post traumatic stress disorder, but is it really? While he does have the necessary traumatic experience for PTSD to occur, he doesn’t necessarily show all the symptoms. In fact, he shows just as many symptoms for depersonalization/derealization disorder and schizophrenia as he does PTSD.

Read More
374 Words | 2 Pages

1. After reading the first portion of the novel, “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” my first impression was that the narrator, who serves as also the main character of the story, lives in a psychiatric ward and is referred to as Chief Bromden. Chief Bromden is an individual who is faking to be deaf and dumb to all of those around him, so he pretty much is an observer. For this reason, he overhears a lot of what is going on in the asylum. Because everyone believes he cannot understand what they discuss, they talk freely around him.

Read More
978 Words | 4 Pages

The choice that a novelist makes when deciding what themes will be shown throughout the novel is hardly a minor one. {I need something }.When Randle McMurphy, the newest member to the ward,has himself committed to a mental institution He quickly discovers that life in the mental institution is not what he thought it was. Chief Bromden the narrator of the story and for most of the book, Is best known as an observer. Chief pretends to be deaf and unable to speak, therefore people talk freely around him, allowing him to learn their secrets.

Read More
1140 Words | 5 Pages

Currie explains how the severity of Chief’s illness comes from isolation within his previous community. Stereotypes from the Native Americans he lived around made it difficult for him to be accepted, understood, and helped. This is the reason he is in the mental hospital as well as why he acts deaf and dumb. He keeps doing what he knows how to do and thanks to McMurphy, he becomes motivated to leave the hospital and ends up doing

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

At that time he did not have any problem testing those out twenty dollars a day. He was told that “ those drugs were really dangerous and not to share with anyone. If he wants to test any of the drugs he has to test it by taking it himself. If he does it on someone else it might do a lot of damage to him”(Kesey 1). It relates to Chief in a way because Chief acts dumb and deaf which is kind of like even though he has problems but he chooses not to share it with others.

Read More
1144 Words | 5 Pages

Additionally, his ability to have full awareness triggers the newfound sense of confidence in himself that he uses to finally escape from the ward. One night when Bromden is lying awake in the ward, he describes, “I was seeing lots of things different. I figured the fog machine had broke down in the walls when they turned it up too high for that meeting on Friday... For the first time in years I was seeing people with none of that black outline they used to have, and one night I was even able to see out the window” (Kesey 162).

Read More
1380 Words | 6 Pages

Chief Bromden is a quiet patient that pretends to be deaf and mute. His transition to being a narrator is an important metamorphosis from his state of silence. As Thomas Scally states, “The Chief's movement from the pretense of deaf-mute to the status of narrator means to him that he has once again become "big" enough to resist the forces of the Combine” (Scally). Through the narrative, Chief Bromden constantly has delusions of a world controlled by the Combine. This group's intentions are to force conformity and total control on the world.

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
545 Words | 3 Pages

The main characters of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest have very distinct and different traits that in return make the novel the classic that it is today. One of the main characters is Chief Bromden. He is basically narrator of the book. Chief Bromden is the son of the chief of the Columbia Indians and his wife is a white woman. He has suffered from paranoia and hallucinations, has endured many electroshock treatments, and has been in the hospital for ten years, the longest patient to ever be in the hospital.

Read More
1288 Words | 6 Pages

What separates this film from others is its’ use of movie devices and techniques, as well as the emotionally charged story. What makes “One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest” special is the set of characters. We have Randle McMurphy, the fearless and cold criminal which it turns out, actually has a heart of gold. We have the calm and cold nurse Mildred Ratchet that tries with her full power to stop McMurphy from doing his mischief. And of course the patients like Billy Bibbit, Charlie Cheswick, Martini and Chief Bromden, all played beautifully by the actors, making the viewers feel that they are inside the mental institution.

Read More
1155 Words | 5 Pages

Does he talk about himself when he tells the story? This essay will characterize the Chief and how he relates to the Laughing Man. The Chief is an intelligent man, he is a law student at N.Y.U and an Eagle Scout, the highest achievement in the Boy Scouting program of the BSA. He is described as an “extremely shy” (TLM, X) and “gentle” (TLM, X).

Read More
772 Words | 4 Pages

In the book we see that the rest of the patients view Chief as a

Read More

More about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Comparison Essay

Related Topics

Open Document