Journal #1 One main event that occurs in the first third of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is the first group meeting Mr. McMurphy joined on the ward. Nurse Ratched begins to talk about another patient named Harding, and his issues with his wife. After listening to what the nurse had to say, McMurphy made an inappropriate joke concerning the matter of Harding’s wife. Everyone was amused with his joke, except for Nurse Ratched.
Albert Einstein once said, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything”. The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey portrays this quote through the main character McMurphy’s internal and external conflicts of falling into Nurse Ratched’s trap of becoming an obedient patient and being under her control or rebelling and fighting for the patients’ rights and freedoms. McMurphy’s actions can lead the reader to assume that he is an evil character, but he redeems himself by partaking in the selfless acts he does for other patients. One way it can be proven that McMurphy is a morally ambiguous character in this novel is that Nurse Ratched uses McMurphy and forcefully puts an idea in other patients minds that McMurphy has purely evil motivations. After McMurphy takes the patients from the ward on a fishing trip, Nurse Ratched has a
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
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest ended up causing life altering predicaments. At the moment on page 164, the situation has a direct correlation to McMurphy within the novel, yet shines a light upon the situation that all humans face as well as the consequences that may not be apparent at the specific occasion. The fate of others constantly depends on the actions and events of external forces. Throughout the novel, McMurphy grapples with the
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, using a pen as his weapon the author wages a war for individualism against our oppressive society. Ironically, the race and gender stereotypes he employs are oppressive themselves. The book is about the struggle between chaos and order. There’s no freedom without a little chaos, yet to maintain order, there must be oppression. McMurphy upsets the established routine of the ward, asking for schedule changes and inspiring resistance during therapy sessions.
Being engaged in constant conflict is never a good thing. In S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, it is no secret that the Greasers and the Socs do not like each other. Main character Ponyboy states, “I’m not saying that either Socs or Greasers are better; that's just the way things are.” (pg.3) This novel is all about two groups of teenagers, the Socs and the Greasers, who loathe each other.
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.
In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, is a perfect example of a tragic hero. Throughout the novel McMurphy sets himself up to be the tragic hero by resenting Nurse Ratched’s power and defending the other patients. He can be classified as a contemporary tragic hero, but he also includes elements of Aristotle’s tragic hero. McMurphy’s rebellious nature and ultimate demise are what truly makes him as a tragic hero.
Throughout Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the balance of power is challenged in the psychiatric ward. Out of the several leaders that appear in the novel, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy are the most prominent. During Nurse Ratched and McMurphy struggle for power, they share many of the same qualities. It is argued that: “McMurphy and Ratched are alike in intelligence, military service, distinctive (if opposite) clothing, and conventionally masculine qualities” (Evans). These small similarities; however, do not distract the characters from fighting for their individual beliefs.
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.
The nature of man, beyond the black-and-white differences, are clearly portrayed between the characters in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as Ken Kesey continuously alludes to the bible. McMurphy is portrayed as a Christ-like figure throughout the novel. The ward symbolizes the broken world filled with sin and death. In the beginning, when McMurphy enters the ward, he is baptized with a shower. “16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.
The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey, presents the ideas about venerability and strength by using his characters and the way they interact with each other to establish whether they are a submissive or a dominant, tamed or leading, venerable or strong. Kesey uses strong personalities to show the drastic difference between someone who is vulnerable and someone who is strong. Nurse Ratchet is a perfect example of how Kasey presents the idea of strength over the venerability of others (the patients). Keys also exhibited vulnerability throughout characters such as Chief Bromden and his extensive habit of hiding himself in all means possible from Nurse Ratchet. Another idea presented by Kesey is a character’s false thought on what
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.
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.
The Movie Character’s behavior In the movie “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Randle McMurphy is a rather sane man who chose to be institutionalized instead of residing at a "prison farm"(1975). McMurphy is a risk taker with a vulgar mouth, endless energy, and he enjoys challenging
