Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950's Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50's, 60's where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting' & its significance towards Ken Kesey's "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Hospitals are meant to help some people heal physically and others mentally. In the novel One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey published in 1962, readers are introduced to a mental hospital that has goals that do not align with helping people. Within the hospital, characters with varied personalities and opinions are intermixed with three main characters playing specific roles with supporting characters close by. With the characters’ motivations, themes develop such as the emasculation of the men in the hospital by an oppressive nurse. Symbols, such as laughter and the “combine”, are also pertinent to themes as the readers watch the men transitioning from being oppressed to being able to stand up for themselves causing change in hospital policy.

Nurse Ratched wants to display the newly braindead McMurphy to show the patients on the ward what happens if they disobey her. Bromden channels his inner McMurphy by thinking back to what he would have done to prove a point. He says, “I watched and tried to figure out what he would’ve done” (Kesey). Bromden takes on McMurphy’s persona which reveals how much of an impact he had on Bromden. The reader may believe that evil has triumphed over good because McMurphy is now merely a vegetable. “Insert quote”... By referring to McMurphy as “the body,” it is dehumanized. The reader can infer that this means Nurse has taken all the life out of him. Bromden not only puts McMurphy out of his misery, but he also escapes. The escape is symbolic of leaving everything behind. Nurse Ratched’s final plot to gain control by presenting McMurphy as a vegetable is soiled and Bromden gets away before she could take control of him. The fight is over and good triumphs over

Motives are the most common source of an outcome, leading individuals to every action that occurs. Every decision made by an individual is influenced by some sort of motive, whether it is physiological, social, or personal. Ken Kesey presents to the reader the inspiration behind the characters course of action in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, resulting in the change of heart from Dr.Spivey and Randle McMurphy. The impact from other individuals often alters the reasoning for an action. Doctor Spivey originally supported Nurse Ratched’s actions, but Mcmurphy influenced him to make decisions based on the needs and wants of the patients. Mcmurphy inspires the men to voice their opinion and builds their confidence up, so that they can take on the Nurse. Nurse Ratched does not agree with the men, so she does everything in her power to eliminate the men's masculinity in order for her to keep the ward running like she desires.

“A success, they say, but I say he’s just another robot for the Combine and might be better off as a failure…”(17).

“She aint honest … She likes a rigged game” (Forman One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Film). Power can be used as a source of evil or heroism. It has the capacity to control and manipulate people. However, it also has the capability to champion freedom and rights for others. In the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratchet’s controlling power came from her ability to emasculate the male patients and maintain a sexless façade. She also held in place an extensive system of rules and regulations, as well as an ordered routine. McMurphy’s liberating power derived from his rebellion against the ward rules and his open sexuality which granted him confidence.

Randal McMurphy is portrayed as having many various personalities throughout Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. McMurphy stumbles into the insane asylum as a boisterous new acute. From the start, he openly asserts his strong rebellious personality. McMurphy is a Savior to the other ward patients; rather than someone who brings them down.

He uses it as a persuasive way to get people to do what he wants. McMurphy does use the patients, most of them, to get what he wants. For example, like at the meeting he wanted to watch the World Series on the television, but he had to get a vote. He then persuaded the patients to lift their hands to vote, but Nurse Ratched said no. McMurphy tried and tried to be at the top of the food chain and he is getting there, slowly. McMurphy uses his girl, Candy, as well. He will bring her to outings, the party and the boat outing, to show that he is important in the outside world. McMurphy even manipulates a guard. He manipulates them by persuading him that he will bring in girls and booze with him if the guard lets him run this party. The guard says yes, and a party

When McMurphy finds out that he is one of two patients that are involuntarily committed to the hospital, it makes him realize that he alone is fighting for his freedom, and the others have been repressed by Ratched to the point of being afraid to rebel against her or simply leave. McMurphy fights until the end to free these men of their emasculation even if it

According to Freud, civilization is against happiness because of the conflict between the state of nature and the state of society. Freud believed human nature was to be aggressive and sexual all the time (the id) and society is what controls us and makes us suppress these urges (superego). This conflict between our innate animalistic urges and society’s control, according to Freud, leads to discontentment and unhappiness. Although civilization leads to us mastering our id, Freud would argue that we are not ok with it and therefore are not happy.

While the novel itself is portrayed as an odd depiction of the struggle of power in an unrealistic setting, there is a purpose for the information included in the novel, which is full of symbolism. The novel by Ken Kesey was written around the children’s rhyme previously stated and symbolizes the plot. The beginning of the rhyme is displayed as “Ting. Tingle, tangle, tremble toes, she’s a good fisherman, catches hens, puts them in pens” which also depicts the novel because the fisherman is Nurse Ratched, who “catches hens”, or mentally ill patients and “puts them in pens” by incarcerating them in the psychiatric hospital. The rhyme then continues with “… three geese in a flock, one flew east, one flew west, and one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.”

Characters like Billy Bibbit, who is too timid, with a speech impediment and Harding who is a closet homosexual and was less avert in sexuality were seen as having mental problems, and were committed to the asylum. McMurphy demonstrated the treating of these patients like normal people, helped them to become more in line with society then Nurse Ratched’s rules and group therapy meetings, or pecking party as Chief Bromden would call it. Chief Bromden was a Native American and wasn’t insane until he was institutionalized and withdrew himself from everyone else pretending he was deaf and dumb to protect himself. Ken Kesey’s message here with Chief Bromdens silence, was to portray the natives of the time having no voice in the country and to show the controlling and manipulative manner of Nurse Ratched that emasculated and de-socialised these grown men.

The changes people experience over time can range from minor differences to drastic alterations in their personality. Even complete transformations can sometimes be hard to notice, as they may happen subtly and gradually. One of the most interesting elements of novels is how a character matures and develops over time, the way an individual would in reality. Randle McMurphy, the hero figure of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, started out as a light-hearted rebel who challenged authority for entertainment, then became a martyr, eventually dying for the patients of the ward. This character development is integral to the plot, as it is what actually drives the story forward into its climax and conclusion. Milos Forman, the director of the film adaptation of the book, was unsuccessful in portraying this vital element of the novel. McMurphy acted consistently until the ending, when he behaved abruptly and unexpectedly differently. This not only confused the viewers of the movie, but also changed the true meaning behind his actions.

Chief Bromden, the novel’s half-Indian narrator, introduces the reader to the mental ward, a place dominated by Nurse Ratched (is this passive?) and her obedient staff. (think of different description for the ward) When the new patient McMurphy arrives, he challenges Nurse Ratched’s authority and encourages the normally passive and compliant patients to join him in his rebellion against the overpowering staff. The unrelenting power of Nurse Ratched soon discourages McMurphy, but when a fellow patient commits suicide(,?) McMurphy realizes that he must put the needs (specify) of his fellow (redundant) patients above his own desires and revive his rebellion. McMurphy plans a fishing trip for the ward and, upon return, gets into a fistfight

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is seen as obscene, racist, immoral, and sexist to some eyes. It does have some bizarre language, and some obscene scenes, but every great literature attempts to give an accurate picture of some part of the human condition, which is less than perfect. (Sutherland 42) Being in a mental hospital, there are going to be some language that may be offensive and there also will be situations there that are a little