...between men and women in society has fueled hundreds of conflicts throughout history as well as in the fictional worlds of many writings. Each gender has, at some point, had to fight the repression brought upon by the other. Most examples involve men as the dominate force over women in a patriarchal society. Less than a hundred years have passed since women gained the right to vote in the United States and just a few years ago women in Saudi Arabia were finally allowed the same right. The theme of a “battle of the sexes” has been around in literature for hundreds, even thousands of years in works such as Shakespeare’s comedies to various mythology. In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken...
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...Gender Roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The 1950’s was a decade characterized by traditional gender roles of women as homemakers downgraded to the domestic sphere and men as economic providers. With the arrival of the 1960’s, however, stereotypical gender roles were challenged and the American society underwent a variety of social transformations. American writers, such as Ken Kesey, responded to the change through writing. Kesey’s response to the times was his 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which is not only a social commentary about mental illness, but also a response to changing gender roles. By demonizing powerful women and uplifting powerful men, his novel promotes sexism and ultimately holds the misogynistic stance that powerful women must be subjugated. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the female characters can be divided into two extreme categories: "ball-cutters" and whores. The negative portrayal of powerful women can be seen in the problematic relationships that the male patients have with their mothers. Bromden, the half Native-American narrator, has a mother who constantly undermines his father, the chief of the Columbia Gorge tribe and a once-powerful man. Bromden’s mother dominates her husband and her son by acting in non-traditional ways, such as using her maiden name for the family’s last name rather than using her husband’s, which convinces Bromden’s father that he is weak and helpless. Because she herself is white, she is ashamed...
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...Cynthia K. Nessmith Professor Shawana Stanford American Literature 2130 14 April 2013 Film adaptation of the American novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest novel was written by Ken Kesey in 1962. The film adaptation version was directed by Czech Milos Forman in 1975. My goal in this paper is not only to compare the film adaptation to the Novel but to also explain what I think the symbols represent, critic’s analysis, themes presented in this film, and the significance of the Novel. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest film’s setting begins with a police car driving down the road to people sleeping in bunk beds, ending with a glimpse of a drawing taped to the wall with a crazy face centered in it. A nurse enters a locked down facility, while another prepares medicine for the patients. The police car arrives at the facility with a prisoner in handcuffs that is released to the hospital staff. The characters in this film are as follows: Randall P. McMurphy played by Jack Nicholson, a rebellious convict with a loud mouth and a set of sexual playing cards. He’s courageous and challenges the staff/system of the mental hospital. Nurse Ratched played by Louise Fletcher is a calm, cold, well mannered, and soft spoken head nurse of the mental hospital that plays McMurphy’s enemy. Chief Bromdon played by Will Sampson is a big and tall Indian who is described as “deaf and dumb” (according to the character Billy). Billy Bibbit played by Brad Dourif is a young...
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...Ms. Latasha Keith HUMN401-1305B-01: Literature and Film Professor Bonnie Ronson January 19, 2014 Unit 2 Individual Project – Canonical Classics of Literature Section 1- Introduction Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is set at an Oregon asylum in the 1950s (NovelGuide.com). The book is a study in the institutional process of the human mind, a critique of Behaviorism and a celebration of humanistic principles while exploring themes of individuality and rebellion against socially imposed repression (NovelGuide.com; SparkNotes.com; CliffsNotes.com). These themes and ideas were the topic of discussion during the publication of this novel because the world was introduced to communism and totalitarian regimes. The novel was published in 1962 and received with immediate success (SparkNotes.com). Section 2 – Biographical Information La Junta, Colorado is the birthplace of novelist Ken Kesey. He was born in 1935 and grew up on a small farm in Oregon and Colorado with his family. He married his high school sweetheart in 1956 and they had three children together (Lone Star College). He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon where he participated in wrestling and theater in 1957 (Lone Star College; SparkNotes.com). In 1959, Kesey enrolled in a creative writing program at Stanford University, the same year where he began volunteering with the Stanford Psychology Department (CliffsNotes.com; Lone Star College). The Stanford Psychology...
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...April 26, 2016 Critique of 1950 America’s Society in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the author obvious intention can be easily seen in analogies the author draws. For example, he makes an analogy between the mental institution in the story and a small society, which is the very epitome of that period. He makes an analogy between the patients in the mental institution and the common people in 1950s American society. He also makes an analogy between the nurses and the authorities in mid-twentieth century of America. The rules in the hospital are same as the dogma and law in American society. The common people have to strictly follow the dogmatic rules and the autocracy; freedom does not exist. The patients in the book are like machines. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, using the analogy of a mental institution, suggests that 1950s American society is not free and that people need to rise up to try to change it. Firstly, the Big Nurse’s manipulation and subtle cruelty cannot give enough freedom for the patients. Secondly, the main elements of control are self-inflicted; the fear that holds them down is internal. Thirdly, McMurphy is a messianic figure, and his doom is inevitable. He brings liberation to others, and this is the true meaning to his own life. First, Nurse Ratched’s manipulation and subtle cruelty mirrors discrimination of the era. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the chief Bromden and the patients who are there are...
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...In the novel “One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” what sticks out to me the most is that the narrator is not the protagonist. You would think at first that Chief Bromden the one who is a “Chronic” would have a flawed mental state. However that is not the case because Bromden is adept at describing what he sees. He also sees the true intention of Nurse Ratched and pretends that he is deaf. What is surprising is that McMurphy the new admission is very happy to be in a hospital for the insane. I still don’t know whether it’s all a play to get on the other patient good side or part of his true character. He notices that Chief Bromden is not really deaf and winks to Bromden that he knows. This tells me that McMurphy is someone who is not easily fooled....
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...are ones who have gone over.” - Hunter S. Thompson. Explore the presentation of the troubled mind in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and the poetry of John Keats, with illuminating reference to Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “The Edge” described by Hunter S. Thompson is, he says, unexplainable. What seems clear is that ‘the Edge’ is at the limit of the human mind. It can’t be explained, Thompson says, because the only people who ‘really know where it is’ are the ones who ‘have gone over’ it, those who have died or else never returned to ‘reality’ and ‘sanity’. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, the poetry of John Keats, and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest all describe, in differing ways, states of mind on ‘the Edge’. When they were first published, the contemporary reception to Keats’s poems and to Wuthering Heights was remarkably similar. Keats was described as writing ‘the most incongruous ideas in the most uncouth language’ , while Bronte’s novel (published under the male pseudonym Ellis Bell) was called ‘too coarse and disagreeable to be attractive’, and described as ‘wild, confused, disjointed, and improbable’ with characters who are ‘savages ruder than those who lived before the days of Homer.’ These accusations of ‘uncouth’, ‘coarse’ and ‘disjointed’ writing suggest that both authors had already crossed one edge with their writing: the edge of what was considered acceptable or respectable literature. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, wrote...
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...Springboard Activity One Quote from book and Warm-Up Students will read this quote on the smart board and answer the following questions: How do you feel about the nurse being a wolf? What do you think about people being wolfs in everyday life? "This world ... belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. We must face up to this. No more than right that it should be this way. We must learn to accept it as a law of the natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes on. He knows his place. He most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf to combat. Now, would that be wise? Would it?" He [Harding] lets go McMurphy's hand and leans back and crosses his legs, takes another long pull off the cigarette. He pulls the cigarette from his thin crack of a smile, and the laugh starts up again-eee-eee-eee, like a nail coming out of a plank. "Mr. McMurphy ... my friend ... I'm not a chicken, I'm a rabbit. The doctor is a rabbit. Cheswick there is a rabbit. Billy Bibbit is a rabbit. All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees, hippity-hopping through our Walt Disney world. Oh, don't misunderstand me, we're not in here because we are rabbits-we'd be rabbits wherever we were-we're all in here because we can't adjust...
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...The struggle for power is one of the greatest struggles a person may face, this is seen throughout the entire novel, One flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. The desire for power is what ultimately leads to the death of the protagonist, Randle McMurphy, who spends a majority of the novel trying to remove Nurse Ratched’s authority. He manages to corrupt the minds of some of the other patients to turn against Nurse Ratched’s dictatorship. These instances contribute to the overall theme of the novel: one of the strongest drives is the desire for power. From the beginning McMurphy is different, he speaks with confidence. The narrator Chief Bromden thinks, “Still, even though I can’t see him, I know he’s no ordinary admission… when they tell him about the shower he don’t just submit with a weak little yes, he tells them right back in a loud, brassy voice that he’s already pretty damn clean, thank you,” (10). He begins to learn that Nurse Ratched does not like change, because change can often lead to conflict. Nurse Ratched states, “I recall some years back we had a man, a Mr. Taber, on the ward, and he was an intolerable ward manipulator. For a while,” (25). This passage shows Nurse Ratched has had people like McMurphy...
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...Kelly Haddix Eng Comp 2 Jason Elznic 04/25/2012 My essay will show how Marxism is portrayed within the two short stories, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and A Raisin in the Sun. The purpose of this essay is to explain the Marxism role within these two short stories. I will use an academic approach to accomplish this objective. The role of Marxism is portrayed within these two stories, and I will show how Marxism is portrayed and defined by comparing these two short stories. The similarities between the two stories are that both Walter and McMurphy are fighting against a society that is bent on repressing them. Walter with the white community, and McMurphy with the hospital staff at the mental institution, namely Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched represents the controlling party in the mental institution where as the white realtor Mr. Lindner represents the controlling party of the white housing community. According to Dictionary.com the definition of Marxism states that “society is basically the struggle between the social classes.” Randle McMurphy McMurphy showed signs of Marxism’s conflict theory, focusing on the struggles between the classes (nurses and patients).McMurphy violated the norms of society when he was charged with statutory rape and sanctions were imposed, sending him to prison. McMurphy creates a society amongst the patients at the mental institution, which largely affects the structure of the institution. His relationship with the other patients...
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...The protagonist is usually the main character, the one that tells the story from memory, but in some instances, like in Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the main character is simply the narrator. Bromden is sometimes hard to understand,“Chief Bromden narrates, however, in ways that continually confuse the reader until he comes to appreciate how the logic of storytelling characteristic of a native point of view can manipulate different modes of discourse” The real protagonist was Randle McMurphy. Throughout the story, Chief Bromden describes the ward to the reader, but this only classifies him as the narrator. Randle McMurphy, a main character that came to the ward after pleading insanity, teaches the men how to find themselves. He shows them that they aren’t crazy and they could leave the ward when they were all ready, another lesson McMurphy taught the men. Nurse Ratched, an evil women that intimidates and mistreats the men, runs...
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...In the 1975 movie One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest a variety of filmic techniques are utilised in order to develop themes in the film embodied by specific characters. Randle McMurphy displays a variety of themes, the strongest and most obvious of them being his sense of freedom, displayed in numerous ways. Nurse Ratched utilises her abuse of power in order to help demonstrate the struggle some of the patients face in the ward. Finally Billy is also able to achieve relief from nurse Ratched’s rule by ending his own life. All of these themes are developed through these characters and through the usage of filmic techniques. Randle P McMurphy is depicted as a character free of the shackles present with the other members of the mental institution. Mr Forman utilises camera angles and mise en scene in order to create the free and strong McMurphy we see. A consistent low angle shot on McMurphy shows him to be in a position of power, or in a commanding role over his fellow patients at the ward. The use of the low angled shot is mimicked for other defining characters such as Nurse Ratched, however when both are present within a scene the camera angle begins to level off showing an almost equal balance of power. Mise en scene also helps to symbolise the freedom McMurphy believes he has in particular the use of costume. McMurphy is repeatedly...
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...society and as an individual. John Updike in Rabbit, Run and Erica Jong in The Fear of Flying extensively use the role of women as a theme throughout their works, but in strikingly different ways. The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest furthermore stages(I would use a different word: serves maybe?) as a pivot between the two novels highlighting how a women's position in life affects other characters and surrounding society. Within the novel Rabbit, Run, Updike illustrates many different, classic, stereotypical views of women. By these women, examples of whore, wife, temptress, and mother are presented. In each example we gain a better understanding of their roles and how they revolutionize society. Throughout the story, Rabbit chose to come and go as he pleased, openly cheating on his wife, Janice, with another woman. When she has her baby, Rabbit comes back and she responds by saying, "I told Mother it looks like you and she didn't want to hear it...I wanted to see you". Janice forgives her husband for his unfaithfulness and accepts him back into the home. For men, the consequences for their actions do not affect them. Janice on the other hand cannot provide for herself, much less her two children as well. In the end,...
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...experienced electroshock therapy to ensure an accurate description in his novel. Kesey uses various characters throughout the story to show his opposition to shock treatments (Kesey, 1962). He also explains how this treatment is given as a form of punishment and abuse, as one of his characters explains, if one does not listen to the nurse’s orders, you will end up on the ECT machine. Kesey believes that shock therapies are not properly justified and can cause much damage to the patient. Even if it seems to work, the patient eventually relapses, which proves the treatment to be unsuccessful (Kesey,...
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...Yes, this is definitely true, as the role of women plays a big part in this novel. “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey certainly includes a theme regarding the role of women and their dominance in society during the time period in which this novel was written. The novel has prevalently displayed this theme, especially when it comes to the hospital setting. One of the best examples is Nurse Ratched, also known as the “Big Nurse,” who is the main authoritative figure in the novel who runs the psychiatric ward. It has been continuously proven to the readers of this novel that Nurse Ratched is solely eager for power, order, and dominance in the institution. In order to gain these things, Nurse Ratched takes despicable action, while hurt hurting her ill patients in the process. She satisfies herself and feels no guilt in the way she accomplishes was she desires. Her harsh rules and attitude to the patients, who are all male, creates this theme of...
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