...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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...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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...Deliverable # 2 Ervin Goffman “Characteristics of Total Institutions” Vs. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” By: Eric Sawyer Option #1 We live in a world with many different types of institutions. Some might care for mental problems, not being able to care for yourself or being at age when you cannot. There are also institutions that are organized to protect the community to so called intentional dangers. Some of the concepts we have discussed in class go hand and hand with the social context of Goffman’s total institutions. I will discuss the concepts of how institutions might hurt or help and the different concepts we have discussed in class relating to Coffman’s “Characteristics of Total Institutions”. Something that I analyzed in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest” is the false diagnosis of insanity. Mcmurphy’s sanity is symbolized through free spirit, positive laughter and just an over all around positive out look on life. In Coffman’s “Total Institutions”, it goes into “Adaption Alignments” and how this is a mortifying process of how inmates must adapt to the conditions that an institution might have such as privileges and consequences. Mcmurphy falls under the rebellious line, the characteristics that fall under this is how the inmate intentionally challenges institution by refusing to cooperate with staff in almost any way. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, Mcmurphy demonstrates this in many ways, in the part were he broke two young ladies in the institution, or...
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...our views on different races change over time. Although I feel that the media makes a more conscious effort to remove degrading racial stereotypes from films, the acknowledgement of the existence of these stereotypes confirms that they are still present. After watching a movie from three different time periods, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Stand and Deliver (1988), and Our Family Wedding (2010), I have found that representation of race in film has largely remained the same, while the acknowledgement of existing stereotypes has become more obvious. The 1960’s-1970’s was a time characterized by Irish Mob Wars (Durney 2000), Hollywood conservative backlash films, and the ongoing misrepresentation of American Indians in film (Larson 2006). One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a movie is about a criminal who pretends to be crazy so that he can serve his sentence in the relatively comfortable confines of an insane asylum rather than a prison. We see the results of the historical events represented in characters from this movie such as Randle Patrick McMurphy, Mr. Turkle, the ward’s guards, and Chief Bromden. The Irish have been infamous for their mafia and organized crime, especially in the Cleveland area. Perhaps their most publicly recognized contribution to the media’s fascination with violence is the Mob Wars of the mid-1970’s (Durney 2000). These huge displays of violence prepped the audience of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to easily accept the character of McMurphy...
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...Peace, by John Knowles, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, and the movie, Cool Hand Luke, include Christ Figures who positively alter the setting where they once existed. Commonly, a Christ Figure intentionally takes on suffering, such as Luke in Cool Hand Luke and McMurphy in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Luke is a newly arrived inmate at a work prison who influences his fellow prisoners to fight against authority. Just like Luke, McMurphy is a newly admitted patient in a mental institute who influences the people around him to defy the authority...
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...Dyman Fisher Mr. Nardone AP English 24 November 2012 Critical Paper The Novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is narrated by Chief Bromden, a patient in an Oregon psychiatric hospital. The lives of the men in this hospital are dictated by the "Big Nurse" also known as Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is a tyrant who gains power by emasculating the men and carrying off a sexless persona. She has complete dominance of the men and there is no rebellion until a patient by the name of Randall McMurphy comes and disrupts the matriarchal system of the ward. McMurphy is the Christ figure, or tragic hero, of the novel. McMurphy is depicted as a Christ figure when he first arrives at the asylum. He is "baptized by a shower when he first enters...
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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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...Ken Kesey accurately depicts one of the most unique theories of the subconscious mind in his 1975 novel “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. With the central setting in a psychiatric hospital One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest clearly depicts Sigmund Freud's Theory of the Id, Ego, and Superego. The characters throughout the book depict these separations of the Id, Ego, and Superego and we see how they work together to create a functioning whole much like our own brains do everyday. Randle Patrick McMurphy is depicted as the Id. His sexual remarks, swearing, and gamble is parallel to the Id, which is our human desire. We all are born with impulses whether right or wrong and Randle is a clear example of our need to get what we want at any cost. "You can't run around here—in a towel!" "No?" He looks down at the part of the towel she's eye to eye with, and it's wet and skin tight. "Towels against ward policy too? Well, I guess there's nothin' to do exec—" (Nest, 1975). Randle is impulsive and dangerous and...
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...Wednesday July 16th, 2014 A Comparison of the Fatherly Figures in William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 and Dale Wasserman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest A father figure is a man to whom a person looks up to and whom he treats like a father. Fathers who have an involved relationship with children are more likely to have an impact on their social and emotional development (Rosenberg). In the play, Henry IV ,Part 1 by William Shakespeare, there are two main plots that converge in a melodramatic action at the end. One of the plots is between Hal and his relationship with his father whereas the second plot is about Hotspur and other noblemen that form a rebellion against King Henry. In the other play, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Dale Wasserman, McMurphy, the protagonist, rebels against the authority of Nurse Ratched, the antagonist, to change the way the patients are treated. Through genuine love and leading Hal and the patients, both McMurphy and Falstaff act as father figures. However, McMurphy protects his patients whereas Falstaff’s cowardly behaviour restrains him from helping Hal. To start off, McMurphy and Falstaff give Hal and the patients advice that guides them and helps them cope with their difficulties. Firstly, McMurphy tries to educate the patients to give them a better understanding of Nurse Ratched's real personality. For example, when the patients tell McMurphy how caring Nurse Ratched is, McMurphy furiously tells them that "She's sharp as a knife and...
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...The Power of Rebellion Rebellion is the only power against tyranny in this world. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest addresses the power of rebellion against a tyrannical force through the relationship between protagonist R.P. McMurphy and antagonist Nurse Ratched. Through the use of diction, figurative language and symbolism, Kesey illuminates rebellion kindled by McMurphy as a force that degrades the power of Nurse Ratched. The use of diction in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a key component to revealing the influence of McMurphy’s rebellion. The use of diction can be seen as Nurse Ratched’s “remote patience” begins to diminish following the destruction of the glass pane in front of her nurses’ station (Kesey 207). In this instance, Nurse Ratched’s forced patience with McMurphy is wearing down due to his repeated defiant acts. The word “remote” to describe Nurse Ratched’s patience, a patience she forces in order to maintain her calm, collected façade, reveals the influence of McMurphy’s rebellious actions. No longer is Nurse Ratched able to adequately mask her intolerance with the patients, which in turn demonstrates the breakdown of her control over said patients. Diction once again exposes Nurse Ratched’s loss of power as she “jerk[s] the adhesive as tight as she [can]” on McMurphy’s bandage (207). This rough physical movement indicates that Nurse Ratched is not pleased to be bandaging the hand of the man who shattered glass just to test her patience...
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... populace they command, even completely destroying someone’s life for “the good of all.” Within these works Kesey, Wharton, and Schulman use the sadistic Nurse Ratched, Zeena, and Headmaster Nolan to show their use of drastic methods to enforce conformity and the destruction of characters’ lives to show this. Nurse Ratched takes a certain sadistic motherly pleasure in her position of conformist enforcement on the ward. As soon as her entrance in the first scene Chief Bromden interprets her expression during her walk to her office as being “pleased and peaceful with the thought”(Kesey 4) of her duties for the day, which involve watching over the patients of the ward. She orders and controls the patients in a manner that diminishes their masculinity, and she takes pleasure in the fear that she causes and the power she commands. Another instance of this is when Nurse Ratched remembers the time when she had a patient named Taber (who she eventually made docile through electroshock therapy treatments and is considered a successfully cured patient): 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." She looks up from her work, needle half filled in Pascal 2 front of her face like a little wand. Her eyes get faroff and pleased with the memory. "Mistur Taybur," she says. (Kesey 27)...
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...One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The book that my book club discussed was "One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest." In the first book club meeting, we discussed the characters and our initial impressions of them. The start of the novel doesn’t really get that interesting till later on. The story is narrated through the story of Chief Bromden, who is in the insane asylum because he suffers from hallucinations and paranoia. At first I found the part in the book where Bromden first describes the fog machine hard to understand. There was no clear indication that Bromden is hallucinating but it’s up to the reader to figure it out themselves. Matt helped me understand the scene by explaining that Bromden believes that the people running the ward like Nurse Rached have a fog machine and that they turn it on in order to make the patients lose themselves, but really the fog machine is Bromdens own hallucinations. "Before noontime they're at the fog machine again but they haven't got it turned up full; it's not so thick but what I can see if I strain real hard. One of these days I'll quit straining and let myself go completely, lose myself in the fog the way some of the other chronics have." (Kesey 37) The main character of the book McMurphy arrives being a very charismatic individual with the other inmates, and even laughs, which Bromden describes as not seeing for years. "This sounds real. I realize all of a sudden it's the first real laugh I've heard in years. He stands looking at...
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...hide them, fix them, isolate them, sort them, and challenge/undermined them. Medical institutions for the mentally ill can use any and all of the above techniques to manage deviant behaviors. Legal institutions like police stations, jails, prisons, and courts use the techniques that deal less with medicalizing deviants; the techniques generally include: rules, isolation, sorting, punishment, and challenging the deviants. Such examples are covered in the readings and movie for this unit: Case Routinization in Police Work (Waegel 1981), Normal Crimes (Sudnow 1965), On Being Sane in Insane Places (Rosenhan), and The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In Case Routinization in Police Work and Normal Crimes, the main objective of the two journals was to show case the different ways in which the legal system handles deviance. For Case Routinization in Police Work it explained that the differences in bonds and sentencing is based on the crime itself and how the assailant committed the crime, if it was performed in a routine or non-routine way. A great example that comes from recent media coverage would be “the attack of the Miami zombie/ cannibal”, it was rather non-routine in the sense that it is not normal to find two men naked under an overpass where on is eating the other’s face. In reaction, the police that made it to the scene were rather confused on how to approach the situation and in the end had to extinguish the “Miami zombie/cannibal” by shooting him multiple times. It of...
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...One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey follows the life of men who have to live in the harsh environment of a mental institution. Although we are restricted to only the interior world of the ward, we do not meet any high level authority figure other than Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is a very tyrannical individual whose goal is to maintain a harsh hierarchical structure which at the time that this novel was written, was fairly normal in mental hospitals. Nurse Ratched had many ways in obtaining the ideal order she desires. One of these is manipulation, which is seen in constant use throughout the novel. Under her tactics, the mental hospital transforms into a small world where anyone can be manipulated in order for people to get what...
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...STAGE 2 ENGLISH STUDIES One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey “In what ways has Kesey portrayed R.P McMurphy as an anti-hero?” One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is an acclaimed novel written by author Ken Kesey detailing the fictional events surrounding patients within a mental institution. The novel features protagonist R.P. McMurphy and his battle against Nurse Ratched and “the Combine”— Chief Bromden’s word to describe the system that governs the institution and the rest of the world. Through analysing the character of McMurphy, it can be seen that although he lacks conventional hero qualities, his behaviour fits into a subcategory of the hero called the antihero. The personality of an antihero can be described as a devil on the side...
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