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The Human Mind In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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The human mind is one of the strongest parts of the human body, it has the capability to adapt to almost anything that life may throw at it. Brains take in thousands of signals from the outside world and one’s own body every day, it has to manage one of the most complex organisms on this earth. Physically, it is about as fragile as a newborn; mentally, it can sustain the weight of a freight train. Psychiatric hospitals are often full of patients who show just how resilient the brain can be and just how much fight is inside that three-pound chunk of water, fat, and neurons. Patients in these places are fighting every day to regain some sense of sanity or reality that they lost along the way. From the outside, they can seem insane and often without hope, but that typically comes from misunderstanding them because of poor communication. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, author Ken Kesey depicts the lengths the human mind will go to in order to survive and how inhumane reigns will fail in the …show more content…

When met with no other way to escape, the human mind is capable of completely altering one’s behavior. Forcing himself into living in complete silence due to his fear of backlash from the black boys, Chief Bromden is the perfect example of this type of behavior. All others on the ward treat him like an idiot and as learned behavior from his past, he is “cagey enough to fool them”(Ken Kesey 3). Bromden is half Indian, life has not been the easiest for him and his family. His method of survival is to hide in the background as best as possible, despite being nearly six feet tall. This could be construed as Selective Mutism, “a situational anxiety disorder” (Carl, “Overview of Selective Mutism”). Bromden is unable to speak to those he sees as an authority or a threat because the fear of them possibly acting out against them creates an

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Setting Analysis

379 Words | 2 Pages

He keeps himself away from the Acutes and Chronics by pretending to be deaf and dumb (“One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest” 6). The ironic thing about the story is that he [Bromden] is the narrator, telling the reader about everything hears. Bromden is a main character who does what he’s told when he’s told; “Stick a mop in my hand and motion to the spot they aim for me to clean today, and I go” (Kesey 3). If he’s caught slackin’, they’ll whack him in the back of the knees with a handle from whatever they’ve got in hand to get him moving. As the reader gets farther in the novel, they’ll notice how Bromden starts to do what McMurphy says

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Now I am wondering, how exactly does it feel to be a victim of the same crime that he commits (racism)? The theme of racism is evident throughout the entirety of the book. This book, of which takes place in the 1950s-1960, was written during the times where the segregation was becoming integration with some complications and struggles. During this time, Native Americans were having a hard life and couldn't adjust and this book clearly shows Chief Bromden, whom is an Indian, getting picked on and blamed for things he is completely innocent of because of who he is.

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I felt like I was flying. Free (Kesey, pg. 324).” Sure he broke the rules and escaped the hospital, but think about it: when you feel oppressed for so long and that you’re good as dead, you need to do something to change that, because you can choose happiness it’s just a matter of you fighting to get it. That is exactly what Bromden did. Another lesson is when Bromden says “Machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired (Kesey, pg. 16).”

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Examples Of Cruelty In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1172 Words | 5 Pages

Putting others down is easier than improving oneself, and by cruelly choosing to disable our opposition through insults and shaming, one can achieve their goals with ease. This idea is echoed throughout Ms. Ratched’s therapeutic meetings, where she shames patients into submission, giving her the power to mold her ward to her liking. Furthermore, by sacrificing one's morality for self-benefit, as seen when government officials cheat and manipulate Chief Bromden’s people into selling their land, one can take advantage of opportunities for cruel self-growth that would have been impossible if one would have followed their moral compass. Moreover, one can take the successful path of cruelty by understanding that fear is a more powerful emotion than love, and then cruelly using fear to get what they want, just as Ms. Ratched used Billy’s fear to realize her goal of tearing his and McMurphy’s relationship apart. Cruelty is the tool that allows one to pursue their dreams, though only if they are strong or cold enough to wield it.

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1046 Words | 5 Pages

Leading to the patients to believing that it is possible to have a better life once they get out of the mental ward. Additionally, McMurphy demonstrated to the patients that there is a way off of the mental ward. He explained to the patients that he would try to escape from the ward by throwing the control panel out the window. At the end of the book, Chief Bromden escapes the ward by following McMurphy’s teachings and throwing the control panel out the window. McMurphy’s symbol of freedom eventually led to Chief Bromden escaping the ward into a better life.

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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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1047 Words | 5 Pages

To dehumanize someone is to strip an individual of their individuality including their human attributes and qualities. For as long as mental illnesses have been known, people have treated those with illnesses much differently. A particular assertion i tend to agree with is that people who have mental disorders are always dehumanized in some way. This dehumanization is shown in One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest alongside other perspectives such as a live and pop culture point of view.

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Chief Bromden is a chronic, deaf half-Native American who has witnessed physical abuse and verbal torment from the aides for decades. This institution is monitored by the head of Nurse Ratched otherwise known as The Big Nurse. The nickname comes from the multiple patients living in the

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951 Words | 4 Pages

He is a physically large person but due to years of belittlement, Bromden succumbs to the societal pressures of the ward and loses himself. Everyone in the ward including himself believes he is nothing but weak and dumb. One of the biggest forms of oppression the authority in the ward imposed was dehumanization. Nurse Ratched's office resides behind a panel of glass that she uses as a barrier between her and the men of the ward but also to watch them and make sure they are following the rules. The men are subject to the treatment of a zoo animal and are robbed of their rights to privacy, they are all scared Nurse Ratched will catch them doing something wrong.

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Insanity Essay

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.

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So not only was a “crazy” person unlawfully trapped in a mental institution, they were also subjected to societies “humane” methods of therapy, “including drugs and shock therapy, to rehabilitate its patients” (Vitkus, 74). One of the methods formerly used to treat mental illness and stopped in 1947 was called Lobotomy, which means a surgical operation involving incision into the prefrontal lobe of the brain, which was described as “frontal-lob castration” because “if she can’t cut below the belt she’ll do it above the eyes” (Kensey, 164). A Lobotomy, in the Combines eyes, is considered a permanent “fix” and deemed successful to returning those once insane back to the outside world of reality. Therefore, the social understanding and models of practices experienced in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest represents “a whole analogical system that serves, metaphorically, to define the inhumanity of a society that demands total conformity” (Vitkus,

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1010 Words | 5 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest The film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, prompts very important aspect of the human condition. In the movie, the protagonist, Mac McMurphy, is deemed dangerous, so the mental institute tries to suppress him (Kesey). The film highlights various aspects of human conditions like psychology, sociology and philosophy. The mental institute tries to suppress the mentally challenged people rather than to try to communicate with them.

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1329 Words | 6 Pages

Bromden becomes very intimidated by the nurse and “backs against the wall” while she becomes machine-like. In this situation, the antagonist is compared to a machine

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673 Words | 3 Pages

Ken Kesey uses his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to describe the lives of patients in a mental institution, and their struggle to overcome the oppressive authority under which they are living. Told from the point of view of a supposedly mute schizophrenic, the novel also shines a light on the many disorders present in the patients, as well as how their illnesses affect their lives during a time when little known about these disorders, and when patients living with these illnesses were seen as an extreme threat. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the novel, has many mental illnesses, but he learns to accept himself and embrace his differences. Through the heroism introduced through Randle McMurphy, Chief becomes confident in himself, and is ultimately able to escape from the toxic environment Nurse Ratched has created on the ward. Chief has many disorders including schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, in addition to these illnesses, he pretends to be deaf and dumb.

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