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Satire In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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Kesey’s perspective on society is illuminated through Nurse Ratched’s tyrannical ward which has been influenced by the time, place and the culture of 1960s American Society. ADOLF HITLER / MCCARTHYISM Ken Kesey’s, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest presents a confronting satire, in which Nurse Ratched’s oppressive and tyrannical government in the ward prevents freedom and self-expression. Nurse Ratched’s manipulation of patients and tyrannical rule over the ward is comparable to Adolf Hitler’s rule over Nazi Germany. Similar to Adolf Hitler, an egomaniac, Nurse Ratched, portrays institutional authorities, mercilessly punishing patients and manipulating them into conforming with her ideas of a perfect society. The asylum “hum[s] hate and death” …show more content…

The table, a religious symbol, performs the function of destroying lives and making public examples of those who rebel against the ruling powers, while also symbolising crucifixion, and foreshadowing McMurphy’s inevitable sacrifice. Similar to Hitler, who concealed his actions from the German civilians, Nurse Ratched hid her ‘vile’ behaviour from outsiders. Through the despicable actions of Nurse Ratched, Kesey positions the reader to question the sinister notion of authoritative control. This is highlighted through Nurse Ratched’s manipulation of patients through her ‘democratic’ group meetings which were intended to transform the patients into ‘functioning, adjusted components’ ready to assimilate into society. Nurse Ratched maintained her position of power through her ‘pecking party’ where she manipulated patients into expelling shameful ‘confessions’ and performing humiliating …show more content…

The Soviet Union and the U.S had contrasting views on the ideas of capitalism and communism, in a bid for world domination the Cold War broke out. A “red scare” swept the nation, with a fear of possible nuclear conflict Americans were paranoid that their own families were communist, spies for the Soviet government. Initiated by Senator Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism, preached for anti-communism and the suppression of the Anti-communist party. Supporters of communism (reds) were ostracised akin to the patients in the ward being ostracised from society, ‘the outside world’ cementing their chances of ever assimilating into modern society. Government bodies and followers of McCarthyism suppressed freedom of speech and persecuted the “Reds”, in the same manner, that Nurse Ratched controlled the speech and actions within the confines of the ward, controlling her patients every word and move through her “cogs and wires”, anyone who dared to cause an uproar was either humiliated in ‘democratic’ group therapy sessions, given ‘electroshock therapy’ or

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1953 Words | 8 Pages

Quotation Analysis: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest SETTING Quotation #1: “The Chronics and the Acutes don’t generally mingle. Each stays on his own side of the day room the way the black boys want it. The black boys say it’s more orderly that way and let everybody know that’s the way they’d like it to stay” (Kesey 18). Contribution to Development of SETTING: Within the mental institution, operations are conducted in a smooth, orderly manner.

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Manipulation Analysis

1542 Words | 7 Pages

Manipulation and the struggle for control in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, the role of manipulation is integral to showing the complexities of each character, and creates a set of standards in which right and wrong become indistinguishable in a human struggle for dignity and survival. The characters of McMurphy and Nurse Ratched show this most vividly, and the complex combination of manipulation and a human lust for survival come together in the end, in which the dignity of all involved is compromised. As a strategy of self-preservation and a grab for power,, manipulation comprises both good and evil: both the deep human need to survive and the deep human desire to maintain control. This is shown through McMurphy’s manipulation of the other patients, Nurse Ratched 's manipulation of everyone, and the patients manipulation of McMurphy.

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742 Words | 3 Pages

Can Manipulation Be Used for Good? Laughter is something humans do inherently. If we find something humorous, we cannot resist the urge to laugh; it is uncontrollable. Control and humor are extremely important themes in Ken Kesey’s

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Laughter Essay

1236 Words | 5 Pages

In Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, humor is present in an influential form. Not all insane people have the capacity to laugh or find the humor in something as would normal people are capable of. Most people live terrible realities, drifting day by day in the plain, depressing in the place of an asylum. Patients have forgotten how to live because they are under the commanding rule of the head nurse, and under the behavior effect of drug doses and overbearing orderlies. The patients’ laughter is a therapeutic form.

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2551 Words | 11 Pages

What truly deems the mentally insane, insane? Throughout the captivating novel written by Ken Kesey, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, whether or not patients were mentally insane was completely up to Nurse Ratched or “Big Nurse”. The emasculating role Big Nurse and several other female characters played in the novel, shaped the submissive role a majority of the male characters held. Kesey illustrates the human fear of abnormality and sometimes sexuality, through tyrant-like individuals that foster a mental hospital full of docility. Big Nurse, an anal, oppressor of the male species, believed everyone who resides in the mental hospital must comply by her rules.

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1764 Words | 8 Pages

In recent years, many Americans on both sides of the political spectrum have been showing very counter-cultural attitudes via the internet and their choice of president. These attitudes are similar to that of people living in the 1960’s. In that period of counter-cultural ideas, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, a counter-cultural book, was published. One major theme that frequently appears throughout the book’s entirety is Corruption of power, as the antagonist, Nurse Ratched, displays the tendencies of corrupt, undemocratic leaders throughout the novel, as the novel builds her up as being a very power-hungry individual. Nurse Ratched’s corrupt character, as well as her neglect of democracy in group sessions and neglect for the helpless mental patients shows that the purpose of Nurse Ratched’s character may have been to provoke thought about whether we Americans truly live in a fair and democratic nation.

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166 Words | 1 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest is a novel that takes place at a mental institution back in the 1960’s. Nurse Ratched is a key role in the story and she actively characterizes the book by her unbending routines and mistreating behavior against her patients. The most obvious problem concerning the book is the power that Nurse Ratched possesses. The hierarchy at the ward is something that is hard to deny, which is proven over and over again. Mentally ill people are put at the bottom of the hierarchical staircase while the people with power and good positions are put at the top.

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1976 Words | 8 Pages

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest In ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ “Kesey Some claim that Kesey used the mental illness ward to act as a symbol “of the tricks of control afoot in post war American society”. Treatment of mental illness ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is a classic novel that is deemed to have had an important impact in the field of psychiatry. Ken Kesey’s novel leaves the reader with a stark and tarnished image of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which results to the treatment being taken out of mainstream healthcare (1).

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994 Words | 4 Pages

Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, published in 1962, tells the story of men in a psychiatric ward and focuses on two characters called McMurphy and Bromden, and their defiance towards the institution’s system. A critical factor in this novel are the women. The 1960’s played a significant role in changing the norms of social issues, and the perfect idea of women was changing too. Women were no longer just stay at home wives, but had their own voice in society, and many people did not agree with these untraditional views. Kesey’s representation of women in this novel illustrate them in a poor light that makes it obvious that they don’t fit the ideal womanly persona.

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Insanity Essay

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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1579 Words | 7 Pages

Embedded in his novel is compelling rhetoric that validates Kesey’s disapproval of the actions of government institutions. Employing allusion, Kesey’s character Chief Bromden - an embodiment of Kesey’s attack against the governmental treatment of the mentally insane - alludes to the nursery rhyme his mother sang to him: “Ting. Tingle, tingle, tangle toes, she 's a good fisherman, catches hens, puts 'em inna pens...wire blier, limber lock, three geese inna flock... one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo 's nest... O-U-T spells out... goose swoops down and plucks you out” (285).

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1050 Words | 5 Pages

Pursuit of Freedom Freedom is a river that maintains and nourishes the people along its borders to develop individuality and power. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the author describes the sterile environment run by the sadistic Nurse Ratched through the eyes of one of the patient's: Chief Bromden. Under Nurse Ratched’s oppressive power, the patients live with restricted freedom until Randle McMurphy arrives at the ward. The novel suggests, through the use of symbolism and metaphors, that the ward operates similarly to the world in reality, which suppresses people into mindless machines that are detached from society and their own selves.

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444 Words | 2 Pages

The male patients often comment on her womanly figure, speaking about her ‘big, womanly breasts’ (Kesey, 1962), and asking ‘just what was the actual inch-by-inch measurement on them great big ol ' breasts that she did her best to conceal but never could’ (Kesey, 1962). Similarly to Erin Brockovich, Nurse Ratched’s physical features and gender is seen to determine her personal character. Within the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Kesey, 1962) the idea of nurse’s sexuality cannot be used to her advantage, but rather is used to undermine her authority. Nurse Ratched is a minority in power within the society operating inside the mental asylum, and in the outside world she is seen as a second classes citizen as a result of her gender.

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926 Words | 4 Pages

Ken Kesey’s, One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, is a novel set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital which portrays the psychedelic sixties. In this extract, Kesey strongly emphasizes the theme of power through Harding’s speech using different techniques. He does this by focusing on the context and the society of the sixties, conformity, strong use of animal imagery and the shift in power. Firstly, Harding’s speech effectively reflects the theme of power, by inferring the social and historical context in the sixties society.

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626 Words | 3 Pages

Ken Kesey’s novel “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” was set during the psychedelic sixties of the post war American society, where many social changes were influenced by psychedelic drugs. During the end of the 1950s Psychiatry had reached the peak of its apparent prestige in the American Society, where psychiatric hospitals were seen as “a utopian monument to the virtues of separating the mentally ill from the community for successful treatment.” In “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest”, Ken Kesey displays an era with the widespread practice of “Therapeutic community” through the eyes of Chief Bromden; the narrator who suffers from Schizophrenia and is seen as the observer in the novel. Ultimately, through the portrayal of a post war American Psychiatric hospital setting, Ken Kesey explores how society smothers difference even though it may come as a valuable aspect to society.

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