Character Analysis: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Laughter makes the patients feel good, and, specifically, Bromden feels good and begins to remember other things that made him feel good (Tanner 4). McMurphy’s power in laughter is intensified by Nurse Ratched’s lack of laughter. McMurphy’s laughter and humor are genuine while Nurse Ratched’s humor is forced and smiles are chiseled like in plastic (Wallace 3, 5). Power enables McMurphy to make changes on the ward and to survive in the institution. His sanity compared to the other patients, his manipulations, and his ability to laugh give him the power. He, in turn, gives patients a sense of power by teaching them to laugh at themselves, Nurse Ratched, and the world (Magill 1533).

In Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the nurse Miss Ratched is a fine example of a realistic fictional villain. Possession of three key components is essential in identifying what makes Miss Ratched a villian. Motive is what drives the villain to commit the very acts that allow them to be considered evil in the first place, and often drive their entire being as a character. While they must possess motive, they must also have a sense of morals that coincides with their motives (typically evil, or distorted) and follow their moral compass in a way that often causes trouble for those around them. Additionally, a villain is frequently associated with their opposite; the hero who combats them. Kesey’s character perfectly aligns with these three categories of what makes a villain, and it is unquestionable that she is the villain of the novel.

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

In the beginning of the novel, Cole behaves cruelly when he becomes emotional. For example, Cole beats up Peter after Peter has told on Cole for breaking into a store. Another time, Cole hated the stare he was getting, he spit into the wind, were the wind would catch the saliva and carry it back to Edwin. The only reason to why Cole spit cause he hated the stare he was getting and he wanted the saliva to hit Edwin. Whenever, Cole was asked to eat the ingredient separately, he told Gravey it won’t taste good, but you mixed the food together it tastes good. Cole got really mad that he made the food going flying cause how he acted, once he is angry. Cole becomes very angry and he ends up acting very harsh.

Have you ever been to a mental institution? The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is about Randall McMurphy becoming a patient in a mental institution. McMurphy is a white-trash degenerate with many problems, but mental instability is not one of them. He is an alcoholic with a gambling problem that gets into fights. He was recently convicted of alleged rape. McMurphy, somehow, conned his way into being enrolled into the mental institution instead of going to a work farm for his actions, “the court ruled that I’m a psychopath… they tell me a psychopath’s a guy fights too much and fucks too much” (13). In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Randall McMurphy’s character and the acute community change as they both interact with each other.

Nurse Ratched acts as the authoritarian figure in the story who strips all the power from the patients with her “ward policy”. The acute patients are the only ones present for the vote to change the schedule. For example, she mentions “There are forty patients on the ward, Mr, McMurphy. Forty patients, and only twenty voted, you must have a majority to change ward policy”(Kesey 209) She says this because the twenty patients present at the group meeting are the only patients who are capable of thinking for themselves. The other patients who are not present at the meeting, are still accounted for as chronic patients. This is one of the many ways she rigs ward policy in her favor in order to prevent power from leaving her side. Kesey also uses symbolism to describe her overwhelming intimidation. The narrator, Chief Bromden is in

One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest describes a mental hospital where the patients housed within are restrained by the use of medication and a controlling nurse who reduces the patients wills. The patients over and over betray one another, which effectively draw them to further detachment within themselves. In an institution where no one seems to care about curing patients Nurse Ratched seems happy to break the will of each patient, making them manageable. In this way, the hospital’s day to day activities blackout all free will instead of creating comfort. The arrival of a new patient, McMurphy creates attention immediately in the ward as he acts out of routine. Due to his

Literary elements play a very important role in literature discussed in How to read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. It adds richness to a novel helping convey complex concepts. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, Kesey loads the novel with insightful literary elements that bring dimension to his story. The book is also jam packed with literary devices that range from Chapter 1: Every Trip is a Quest (Except When It’s Not), to Chapter 14: Yes, She’s a Christ Figure, Too in Foster’s book. Focusing on Chapter 12: Is that a Symbol? , Kesey fills One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with several dynamic symbols that make it facile for his reader to analyze, interpret and connect to his work.

In the convoluted mess of the botched colonization of Mars in The Martian Chronicles and the horrors of mental institutions in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest arise many intricate similarities and differences. Both The Martian Chronicles and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest have characters who oppose change, strive for freedom, and oppose the status quo; however, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the maintenance of current norms is portrayed as evil while in The Martian Chronicles it is painted as an act of heroism.

In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, readers are thrust into the unknown and sometimes terrifying world of mental patients at a psychiatric ward. In the novel, narrator Chief Bromden describes the events that happen in his day-to-day life after a new ward patient, Randle McMurphy, is admitted. Throughout most of the story, McMurphy constantly challenges the Big Nurse in charge of the ward, Nurse Ratched, and ridicules her futile attempts to force him to conform to the monotonous life shared by the other patients. Although McMurphy is able to change many of the patient’s lives for the better, Nurse Ratched ultimately wins by essentially turning him into a vegetable and regaining control over the ward. One of the biggest themes

Kesey’s setting of a mental health institution pits the sane against the insane, the powerful against the powerless, representing the two opposing sides of a situation. McMurphy symbolizes the conflicting motivations of people, particularly in challenging situations, to promote their own best interests or those of other people. Kesey’s description of McMurphy’s history including a difficult childhood, war experiences in Korea, a prison stay and ultimately, his placement in the asylum would suggest he would consider his own needs first. However, his biggest gamble in attempting to outsmart Nurse Ratched cost him everything. Because McMurphy is an ambiguous character, readers are able to notice the connection between the novel and themselves and their

In essence, the unbending traditions coupled with the pressure to conform to the institute’s perception of normal, creates a microcosm of society in both texts. The strictly enforced routine in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is used as a tool to portray the struggle for independence. Patients bend to conformity by not only the influence of the totalitarian Head Nurse Ratched, but also by the monotonous daily life. Any deviance from the ‘normal’ was met with cruel punishment through the threat of the electroshock table and other de-masculating forms of punishment. The Chief’s commentary on the daily routine, reflections on Nurse Ratched and her interactions with the patients is how Kesey demonstrates the extreme institutionalisation to the

Ken Kasey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest describes the lives of patients during the late fifties living in the ward of a mental institution. This was a time period where anyone who didn’t fit into societies mould was deemed to be crazy, and often hospitalized. Throughout the novel, power is an underlying theme. When Randle McMurphy enters the hospital, he soon realises the emasculating tactics that Nurse Ratched also known as Big Nurse, uses on all of on the male patients. McMurphy attempts to take control of the ward, as he and Nurse Ratched battle for dominance. The narrator, Chief Bromden notices that McMurphy’s laugh

Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado in 1935. He and his family moved to Springfield, Oregon where he went to public school and then graduated from the University of Oregon. He competed in athletics and drama throughout his college career. As a champion wrestler, he almost scored a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Kesey then married Faye Haxy, his high school sweetheart, in 1956. They had three children together. Two years after their marriage, he began to study creative writing at Stanford University.

As McMurphy’s mental and physical state continues to deteriorate, Bromden finds the strength to overcome “the gray zone between light and dark” caused by the fog (242). Here, Kesey’s image of Bromden’s mental state illustrates the change McMurphy has implemented. Bromden’s fight against the dark and the light in the fog signifies the chance of hope overcoming darkness caused by Nurse Ratched and the Combine. Kesey creating an image of Bromden fighting the fog portrays how McMurphy has affected the patients. Without McMurphy presence, Bromden would still be slipping further back to a blanket of safety. McMurphy ends up paying the ultimate price for his devotion in letting the patients become fully free of Nurse Ratched and the Combine. For weeks, McMurphy followed orders given to him from “forty masters” who kept him “standing long after his feet and legs had given out”