...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...
Words: 467 - Pages: 2
...Power can change people for good, or bad. When someone is put into a position of power, they have full control of what they can do. Some use this to help others, but a lot of times, it is abused or used for the wrong purposes. Many people think that unless you have all of the power, you have none. Alice Walker, an American novelist and poet, once stated that “The most common way people people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any”. Everyone has an idea of what power is, but often times, it is compared to others power. Everyone has some type of power, but the key is to find it within yourself. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there are many different examples of power being abused. Nurse Ratched, the head...
Words: 275 - Pages: 2
...One needs to be honest, know right from wrong and have respect for others and without these basic principles do not expect anything good to come from a person. He or she will abuse power when it is given, as they does not see it as wrong. In Ken Keseys’ One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest both Nurse Ratched and McMurphy abuse their power over the other patients in the ward. They have different ways and motive but it all comes down to personal gain. Power is easily abused when the person possessing it is never challenged, actively seeks it and feels entitled to it. It could be said that the abusers are fully aware of what they are doing, but although aware of it, that does not mean they are doing it just because they can. The distinction between the use and abuse of power is a matter of perception. Abusers generally do not see themselves as abusing, merely using it to pursue their goals. People start abusing power when they are surrounded by sycophants or “yes people” and gradually start seeing the world through a distorted lense that filters out critical input. Unchecked power is blinding and corrupting because the person in power is normally disconnected from from the people they have power over. Throughout the begining of Keseys’ novel Nurse Ratched...
Words: 904 - Pages: 4
...Throughout Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, one can see the book in many ways. He uses the book to express many of his believes, some of which are quite obviously drug induced. Kesey, like other authors at the time was looking at the world from the outside. He was part of the end of the beats movement. A common belief amongst beats movement writers was the idea of not conforming to the society that went against everything they believed. Ken Kesey hinted at his beats generation views all throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by reversing gender and race roles inside the mental hospital the book takes place in. Kesey also exploits the idea of conforming to, and being controlled by society norms. Early and all through One Flew...
Words: 824 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 1394 - Pages: 6
...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...
Words: 2726 - Pages: 11
...One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary analysis How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers? One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a book that deals with the struggles of mental illness and conformity. Randle Patrick McMurphy also known as McMurphy has just been out into a hospital for the mentally ill, where he intends to take over and make the head nurse, Nurse Ratched crack under pressure from his shenanigans and wild antics. Next is Chief, Chief has been at the hospital the longest, the story his told through his eyes and schizophrenic thoughts. Though Chief is in the story he can be unreliable because of the schizophrenia and possible ptsd from being in world war two causing hallucinations throughout...
Words: 814 - Pages: 4
...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...
Words: 1717 - Pages: 7
...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...
Words: 2080 - Pages: 9
...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...
Words: 1153 - Pages: 5
...and challenged which lead into the release of the movies: Cool Hand Luke (1967) and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975). In Cool Hand Luke, Lucas Jackson is placed at a southern prison where as in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, R.P. (Randle) McMurphy was placed in a mental institution. They were the rebellious and Christ-like figures that were chained into a restricted society. One will see through the many similarities between the two movies’ including the characters, conflict, symbolism, and theme. The similarities between the...
Words: 1081 - Pages: 5
...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...
Words: 1023 - Pages: 5
...One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest As a child, the adults in my neighborhood would always say “stop acting like a crazy person, or else people are going to think you’re really crazy”. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Randle McMurphy does exactly what the old people of my community said not to do; he pretends to be crazy. The reason he does this is to avoid the punishment of jail time, he pleads insanity and ends up in a mental institution. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was released in 1975, it was directed by Milos Forman. It starred Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy, Louise Fletcher as Nurse Rathced, and Danny Divito as Martini. Randle McMurphy is under the impression that he would rather serve time in a mental institution, than serve jail time, is admitted as a patient and attempts to play the role of an insane person. Immediately he realizes that the people who are his peers in the community have problems that go a lot deeper than his. He seems to be able to reach out to the clients and in the end; his demise is one person’s freedom. McMurphy teaches Chief, a Native American inmate how to fend for himself, and he encourages the other patients to rebel against the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched does not like her authority to be challenged, and a power struggle begins between she and McMurphy. McMurphy pulls many stunts during his stay at the hospital, but the one that sends her over the edge is when McMurphy throws party and brings prostitutes to the mental...
Words: 485 - Pages: 2
...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...
Words: 594 - Pages: 3
...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...
Words: 3252 - Pages: 14
