One Flew Over The Cuckoo 's Nest By Ken Kesey

In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, patient Chief Bromden observes the matriarchy dictated by Nurse Ratched and the conflict that occurs due to Randle McMurphy’s arrival at the mental institution. The author uses fog in many analogies created regarding Bromden’s sense of clarity. Kesey employs the fog as a motif throughout the novel to emphasize the relationship between reality and delusion in the hospital, and to provide insight into Chief Bromden’s disposition.

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

In Ken Kesey’s book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there were two main characters that were in a battle to have the majority of control over the ward. Throughout the story, they engaged in different acts of stubbornness to see who could display the most power and which of the two could stand their ground the longest without giving in to the other. These two characters were: Randle McMurphy, a new patient who was determined to change the ways of the ward, and Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of the asylum who preferred to have complete control over everyone and everything.

As a man who pretends to be deaf and mute, Bromden is considered to be a relatively unbiased character, yet he even displays strong feelings of hatred towards Nurse Ratched, proving just how evil she is. As Nurse Ratched enters the novel for the first time, she brings with her a noticeably ominous atmospheric change with, “A gust of cold,” (4) that represents her complete control over every aspect of the mental ward, even the weather. At the pinnacle of Kesey’s totalitarian society, Nurse Ratched represents the tendencies of an oppressive government or what Bromden calls, The Combine. For example, she suppresses the patients’ free will because regardless of the patients actual sanity, she is undeniably in control of their fates at the hospital. Besides McMurphy, the majority of the patients could leave on their own, but Nurse Ratched has been able to brainwash them into thinking that they are not suited to assimilate with others outside of the ward. Billy Bibbit says to McMurphy when he asks why they do not leave, “You think I wuh-wuh-wuh-want to stay in here? You think I wouldn’t like a con-convertible and a guh-guh-girl friend? But did you ever have people l-l-laughing at you? No, because you’re so b-big and so tough!” (162-163). Just like an oppressive government, Nurse Ratched convinces its people that they are worthless so they never feel powerful enough to retaliate. Like an alcoholic, Nurse Ratched needs her fix of power that makes her drunk and

An exceptionally tall, Native American, Chief Bromden, trapped in the Oregon psychiatric ward, suffers from the psychological condition of paranoid schizophrenia. This fictional character in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest struggles with extreme mental illness, but he also falls victim to the choking grasp of society, which worsens Bromden’s condition. Paranoid schizophrenia is a rare mental illness that leads to heavy delusions and hallucinations among other, less serious, symptoms. Through the love and compassion that Bromden’s inmate, Randle Patrick McMurphy, gives Chief Bromden, he is able to briefly overcome paranoid schizophrenia and escape the dehumanizing psychiatric ward that he is held prisoner in.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey, is the telling of the inner workings of a mental asylum told by the view of one of the patients. Bromden, the narrator who is seemingly deaf and mute, begins the story with warning the reader that he is not a reliable source before he dives into the past to tell of the mayhem that Randall McMurphy brings to the mental institute with his arrival. McMurphy takes the asylum by storm with his masculinity in a corporation ran by an effeminate woman, Big Nurse Ratched. The longer McMurphy stays, the more the patients become individuals rather than a part of the machine of the

He waltzed into the ward and introduced himself to every patient as a gambling man with a zest for women and cards. Randle P. McMurphy, a swaggering, gambling, boisterous redheaded con man, arrived at the ward from the Pendleton Work Farm. He was sentenced to six months at the prison work farm, but pretended to be insane in order to obtain a transfer to the hospital because he thought it would be more comfortable than the work farm. Bromden senses that there was something different about this new patient. After his first experience with the excruciating routine of the Group Meeting, McMurphy tells the patients that Nurse Ratchet is a genuine “ball-cutter.” The other patients tell him that

In the novel "American Psycho" written by Bret Easton Ellis, Patrick Bateman 's use of violence and his wealth are exemplified in scenes involving the murder of his ex-girlfriend Bethany. As well as appealing to the idea to maintain an upscale image by any means such as purchasing expensive merchandise and taking the initiative to attend upscale restaurants. His actions with the implications of those elements reveal the consumptions of status and privilege. The detailed narration of Bateman 's intense violent acts and purchases of expensive products creates imaginary and conflict for readers to accept the appearance he is trying to come across to his associates and the general public. This may result in readers rejecting his character and concluding that he is worthy of the position in society, he desires to achieve or deserving of it. This plays a significant part in how to read this novel because it demonstrates the obsession of acknowledgment and the measurements individuals are prepared to grasp it. The only sense of acknowledgment Bateman receives from the other characters in the novel is his tan instead of his presence or success. Experiencing treatment like this can possibly help the audience understand his motives for preying on women. Feeding off the vulnerability and the weakness of women provides him with the confidence and authority that he lacks. Overall, the consumption of seeking prestige and praise through aggressive behavior towards powerless people

Despite McMurphy’s uncaring attitude and criminal past his actions throughout the book show that he is a good person deep down. For example, when George, a fellow patient, is being harassed by an aid McMurphy, “took a deep breath and stepped across to the [aid], shoving him away from George” (230). Ultimately this leads to McMurphy being sent to the disturbed ward where he undergoes electroshock therapy. This self-sacrificing action shows that he is a kindhearted person and values the wellbeing of those around him. In another instance McMurphy witnesses an aid gleefully steal all of Bromden’s old cherished gum. Instead of

Bromden has been undergoing changes since McMurphy has arrived to the ward. For many years, Bromden has been hiding, posing as deaf and dumb person so he can ignore and be ignored. However, McMurphy’s arrival in the ward awaken Bromden’s senses, almost forcing Bromden to reconnect with reality.

The word insane is a legal term. Because research has identified many different mental illnesses of varying severities, it is now too simplistic to describe a severely mentally ill person merely as insane. The federal law states that insanity is a fair defense if " at the time of the commission of the acts constituting the offense, the defendants as a result of sever mental disease or defect was unable to appreciate the nature and quality of the wrongfulness of his acts"(Knowles). The American

Many times throughout one of Ken Kesey’s most famous novels, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book uses animals as symbols to represent the story’s plot. The animals usually relate to individual characters and their current struggles within the story. Animal imagery provides us with great insight to the themes that Kesey is trying to have us explore, and is a very good tool that the reader can use to help better understand and relate to the characters.

The plot of the story is Bromden’s worldview is subjugated by his fear of what he calls the Combine, a huge conglomeration that controls society and forces people into conformity. Bromden pretends to be deaf and dumb and tries to go unnoticed, even though he is six feet seven inches tall. The all-male mental patients are divided into Acutes, who can be cured, and Chronics, who couldn’t be cured. They are controlled by Nurse Ratched, a former army nurse who runs the ward with harsh, mechanical precision. Randle McMurphy arrives as a transfer from the work farm; Bromden senses that something is different about him. McMurphy swaggers into the ward and introduces himself as a gambling man. Bromden suffocates McMurphy in his bed, enabling him to die with some dignity rather than live as a symbol of Ratched’s power. Bromden, having improved his immense strength that he had thought was gone during his time in the mental ward, but escapes from the hospital by breaking through a window.

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.

What does it take to be considered sane by society? Of course one must meet a commonly agreed upon definition of sanity in his/her behaviors and mental processes, but what kind of conditions in environment and lifestyle must also be met for a human to exhibit sanity in the way that they live their life. The first part of sanity is met with the rudimentary question, “who defines sanity?” And the second requires further investigation into the accounts of those who work with and are affected by insanity, in all its forms.