One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” Winnie the Pooh once said. In the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the men that live in the Oregon Mental Institution do not hear words like these very often. They have been rejected from society because they are not classified to meet the social norm. So they hide away behind the white walls of the ward, protecting themselves from the world around them. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, author Ken Kesey uses religious allusions to depict that society rejects people that do not fit the ideal social “norm”, but when someone can prove himself powerful enough to stand up for his beliefs men easily follow.

The allegorical protest novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by author Ken Kesey (1962) and the black comedy film Heathers directed by Michael Lehmann (1980) both highlight the powerful impact which social conditioning has upon the wellbeing of individuals. Both Kesey and Lehmann utilise a strong-willed interloper who acts powerfully in response to social conditioning as a method of inciting change in the lives of the vulnerable protagonists. Lehmann and Kesey both reflect greatly upon sexual repression through the characterisation of minor characters, with both creators expressing the resultant failings caused by this conditioning. Within Lehmann’s microcosmic society, the romanticisation of mental illness occurs immensely. Contrarily,

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Analysis of Societal Oppression Sanity remains a relatively defined state depending on the point of view. Having firsthand knowledge of psychiatric wards, author Ken Kesey leads his audience in an engaging campaign for self-determination and questions perceptions of sanity in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In the novel, Kesey illustrates how society oppresses expressions converging with behavioral norms.

Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a book in which he dealt with the issues of racism, sex and authority that is going on in a mental institute. In the novel, the women are depicted as the power figures who are able to significantly manipulate the patients on the ward. There are four ways of Ken Kesey’s using of “woman” as a subject: Superiority of male sexuality over female authority, matriarchal system that seeks to castrate men in the society, mother figures as counterpart of Big Nurse and “Womanish” values defined as civilizing in the novel.

Society is governed by a set of rules and laws that help to maintain order and efficiency. However, the rules and laws that are set may be given by one person and is not acceptable by society or an individual. This could lead to challenging authority and becoming an individual and not a statistic in society. Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, one of the main characters, Randle McMurphy, defies all the rules given once entering the mental hospital. In doing so, he challenges Nurse Ratched's authority which disturbs the order in the ward. Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,a children folk rhyme, and a Beatles song, Tomorrow Never Knows, depict the power and control one may have over society or an individual.

This was because they were expected to be seen as the motherly figure in the household and they were presumed to be the ones to take care of the children. The women who were in the working force during this time worked in any industry available. It was very rare to have women working before the first World War, and those who worked did so to provide and support their family. Certain jobs, such as in the government, were not open to women because they were considered to be appropriate for men only.

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.

Throughout the novel ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ written by Ken Kesey, and the poem ‘Advice to Young Ladies’ crafted by A.D. Hope, there is evidence to suggest that the discourses represented by the characters in the novel and poem unveil the ways discourses of conformity underpin the characters’ actions, perceptions and motives, as well as inviting and silencing beliefs, attitudes and values. The author and poet are able to strongly convey their beliefs to the reader from their personal experiences. The four dominant discourses that both the novel and poem share and represents: conformity, sexuality and religious. These will be analysed and compared.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a controversial novel that has left parents and school authorities debating about its influence on students since its publication in 1962. The novel describes the inner workings of a mental institution, how the patients are emasculated and mistreated by the terrifying Nurse Ratched, who will go to any length to control them. But in comes McMurphy, a criminal who chose to go to an asylum rather than serve physical labor; he disrupts the order of the hospital with his big personality and loud opinions, undermining the authority of Nurse Ratched and encouraging the patients to live their own lives, until he too, is silenced forever by authority. With his novel, Ken Kesey paints society as an oppressive

It was rare To see females in the workplace, especially married ones. A lot of the companies lived By the rule, “simply fire the women, who shouldn’t be working anyway, and hire the men. ”The men could pretty much work everywhere, while women could not work

After watching Ken Kensey film “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”, I came to the conclusion that this film has many controversial messages about what really goes on behind the doors of a mental institution. However, there is only one message that both the book and the film try to portray, and that is how people are perceived when they are given a label by society. In this movie, there are two characters that challenge the audience social perception. The first character that challenges the audience social perception is Ms. Ratched the head nurse of the mental because, in the begging of the film, she is perceived by the audience as a woman who is trying to help her patients get better. However, once we get to see her inside the mental institution,

In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, Nurse Ratched symbolizes the oppression of society through archetypal emasculation. The male patients at the ward are controlled, alienated and forced into submission by the superior female characters. Throughout the novel, there is a constant fear of female superiority; Randle McMurphy, the sexually empowered male protagonist, states how they are essentially being castrated. Castration, in the novel, symbolizes the removal of freedom, sexual expression and their identity. Furthermore, Nurse Ratched, the mechanical enforcer, represents American society: corruption, surveillance and the deterioration of individuality.

World War II brought a new era for women since they took over the job force as men were fighting in the war. Soon, women were successfully engaging in jobs that were once believed could only be done by men. However, once the war was over there was an expectation that women would give their jobs back to the men. With some women resisting to return to their traditional pink-collar domestic, secretarial, and industrial positions, ubiquitous images of propaganda still recognized today symbolize this idea. “Rosie the Riveter” is a primary example as her image radiates competence and power, which were traits associated with masculinity and were not appropriate in women. As society’s view on women began to change and broaden, characteristics that were stereotypically male accommodated this new idea of femininity and attractiveness. Henry Hawk’s film production of The Big Sleep (Warner Brothers, 1946) and Raymond Chandler’s novel, The Big Sleep highlights the changes in social construction of the portrayal of women in the form of female empowerment and its involvement in a predominately-male society.

In Kesey’s 1950s novel ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest’ Nurse Ratched’s relationship with male patients is based upon differences they hold about gender and identity. Nurse Ratched is portrayed as a masculine misandrist figure that gains power from emasculation. She carries “no compact or lipstick or woman stuff, she’s got that bag full of a thousand parts she aims to use in her duties” . This implies nothing womanly about her as she prioritises her “duties”, suggesting that she aims to control her male patients by ridding her feminine qualities. In addition, she is shown in robotic with a chilling aura. This is evident when she slid “through the door with a gust of cold and locks the door behind her” . This indicates that as a power figure her only concern is controlling her male patients, making sure they are obedient and abiding by her rules. “Gust of cold” implies that by doing so she wholly ruins her relationship with the males due to her “cold” and callous methods. Daniel J. Vitkus states she is “the Big Nurse, an evil mother who wishes to keep and control her little boys (the men on the ward) under her system of mechanical surveillance and mind control.” Yet, can be argued that she is fulfilling her role of working as a Nurse within a mental institution. However Vitkus’s critique is similar to when McMurphy says “Mother Ratched, a ball-cutter?” McMurphy is a hyper masculine force against Ratched’s emasculating norms. Their relationship is essentially a power

“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. Nurse Ratched is notorious in her endeavors to control the men and uses her power to regulate the men. In this domain the beams of society cause the men to shrink from individual freedom that is reawakened with McMurphy, who teaches the men to be bold in the face of society. In Kesey’s work he 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.