One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Analysis

The oppressor, or antagonist, of the story is Nurse Ratched, or the Big Nurse. Her methods of oppression, including attempts to emasculating the men in the medical ward, is the foundation of the work. The nurse uses her power to manipulate the patients as well as members of the staff in the hospital. Since she is in charge of the entire ward, she runs it with an iron fist while concealing her feminism and humanity behind a patronizing façade. As the story progresses, Nurse Ratched loses some power over the patients with the introduction of a new patient on the ward, Randle McMurphy. As McMurphy continues to fight her oppression, her façade breaks down and falls apart as she loses control.

A composer’s authorial intent is reflective of the contextual concerns of their time, a paradigmatic shift can alter the way in which individuals perceive and respond to their environment. This is shown through a comparative analysis of Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) and Mendes’ film American Beauty (1999) as both texts display similar messages of oppression and rebellion amidst their contextual framework. Both writers critique the American Dream by depicting oppression as a means to tarnish human qualities as well as exploring the sacrificial, yet inherent rebellious nature of the human condition due to the deprivation of freedom.

As one is experiencing a life of alienation and loneliness, they may being to act uncontrollable while rebelling against their surroundings, one loses themselves as they feel different than everyone present. Alienation can force an individual to spiral into an abyss of nothingness, nonetheless if one allows others to reach out and inspire than it is possible to break away from the alienation and loneliness. Chief Bromden from the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, is an Indian who was institutionalized for insanity and is considered a chronic in the ward as he is “too far gone” to be healed. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger is a lying, rebellious teenager sent away by his parents to a private school as they are unable to handle Holden’s behaviour. It is evident both experience alienation as their stories progress and actions taken, however the individuals present in their lives motivate changes in the outcomes of these dynamic characters.

In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, an individual’s capacity for self-sacrifice is affected by compelling circumstances. The novel follows the experiences of Chief Bromden and his fellow patients within a psychiatric hospital ruled by an authoritarian Nurse Ratched, who imposes strict rules within the facility in order to maintain stability. The novel is centred on Randle McMurphy’s and Nurse Ratched’s rivalry caused by their polar opposite views on how the institute should be run. McMurphy, a boisterous patient, believes that his fellow patients should have more freedom, on the other hand Nurse Ratched believes in the institution being run like a dictatorship where discipline is the important aspect for stability.

Nurse Ratched is the head nurse at the mental ward. The way she uses power is pretty obvious, manipulation. She uses

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.

“There is generally one person in every situation you must never underestimate the power of” (Kesey 203). In Ken Kesey’s psychological fiction novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Chief Bromden—the oldest resident of the psychiatric hospital—was underestimated by all, until Randle McMurphy was admitted to the ward. McMurphy recognized his potential and encouraged him to fight against the oppressive rules of the ward to help him rediscover his strength. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey explores the concept inner-strength in the face of adversity, inspiring an emotional response in me as a reader as I identify with Chief’s journey to defy societal expectations.

Out of all the characters we discussed in class, I beleive Milton from Office Space and The Big Chief from the One That Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are the most similar. Both characters begin in the “fog” of the combine, Big Chief acts deaf and dumb and Milton can never say a full sentence to stand up for himself. As both stories develop we see a rebel individual, one who doesn’t care about the system, in Cuckoo's Nest it's McMurphy and in Office Space it's Peter. Both Milton and Big Chief follow the lead of the rebel and finish the job of breaking the combine.

Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, has a back story as outrageous as his book. The former Merry Prankster loved to spread is unconventional views on liberalism, write books and short stories, and was keen on LSD. “In the 60’s, Kesey volunteered as a paid experimental subject in a study conducted by the U.S. Army in which he was given mind-altering drugs and asked to report on their effects.” (Biography.com). Also, he worked as an attendant in a hospital's psychiatric ward which gave him most of his ideas for his most controversial book. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest uncovers the abuse of the system and the effects on individuals. The main character, Randle McMurphy, is boisterous as he is inappropriate. His main

When examining One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest from a semantic perspective things did get tricky since Ken Kesey wrote the story in a peculiar way. For this portion I will make use of three examples from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. At any rate, let’s get down to it, “He’s skulled,” McMurphy hissed (Kesey 165.) For this quote we’ll look at denotation, skulled could mean the person was hit in the head or it could be the slang term for being drunk or according to online dictionaries it means…having a skull, especially of a specified type. Obviously, there is a difference in the definitions for the word skulled. The first thing that came to mind is someone getting hit in the head, so I could see someone being skulled but not in reference to

In today 's society, as well as in the past, men are typically placed in a position of power over women. Although gender equality is increasing, a more patriarchal society is considered to be the norm. However, in certain situations the gender roles that are played by men and women are reversed, and women hold most, if not all of the power. Such as in Ken Kesey 's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, in this instance the ward is a very obvious matriarchy, where women rule over men and attempt to metaphorically castrate them. Throughout the text there are many examples of women, Nurse Ratched in particular, attempting to emasculate the patients on the ward. The ward is an extreme matriarchy, and the men hold little to no power, whereas the women are able to control and manipulate them with ease because of the reversal of roles.

In the movie "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" we find some incidents of rising tension.

The novel is set in the 1960’s inside a mental institution told by a patient, Big Chief Bromden and can be seen as a miniature mirror of society. The wards society is presented as a machine, called the Combine, that makes everyone conform to its strict rules and timetables. All individuality is taken away from the patients, and the happy feelings are frowned upon. In the ward, the leader of ‘society’ is the Big Nurse. She enforces order, efficiency and repression. She intends to cure them so that they can fit into the outside world and conform with all the rules that exist. If the patients refuse or resist to comply with her rules, they are abused by legitimate treatments that are supposed to be used only for curing mentally ill patients such as electro-shock therapy, lobotomy and spinal taps.

As a pharmacy student, math and science are the subjects I have always appreciated. Consequently, the only times I have ever really read is when the reading was assigned to me in a literature class. Personally, I do not enjoy the idea of reading, but of the books that I have managed to read, the two that I admired the most is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

People don't want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in.” This quote by Ken Kesey embodies his view of society in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest. He depicts the modern society through Nurse Ratched, a strong authoritarian figure, that embellishes the nature of society. She is notorious in her endeavors to control the men and pressures them to conform to society that is challenged by McMurphy, who brings the men out of the fog. Through the Combine and Ratched Kesey’s highlights several major ideas about society. He illustrates the repressive nature of society that causes men to conform to boundaries. Further, he depicts how society rejects those who are deemed defective in the system. Lastly, he also illustrates how society is a major cause of shame and indignity. Thus, Kensey delineates the nature of society as being repressive, selective, and a cause of diffidence.