One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Society Analysis

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.

In modern day society, individuals are influenced by strong superiority figures their whose dominance stems from internal power. Authority can often lead subordinates to rebel and seize control; therefore ability to obtain power is exceptionally difficult. A rivalry for rigid power is seen in the literary piece, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The limited dominance is shifted fluidly between Nurse Ratched and Randle McMurphy, and finally designated to Chief Bromden. Although Nurse Ratched exercises initial control over her ward, Randle McMurphy attempts to disobey her authority through defiance, and ultimately the power shifts into Chief Bromden’s final control in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the lead protagonist, Randle McMurphy, changes over the course of the novel because of the characters that he meets and the effects they have on him. Originally, McMurphy was selfish, disrespectful, and inconsiderate, but then he forms closer bonds with the other characters and they change him and the way he views other people. The characters in the mental hospital struggle with conforming to the dictator in the ward, Nurse Ratched. McMurphy comes into the hospital as a way out of a prison sentence and tries to teach the patients that they need to stand up for themselves and do what they believe is right.

In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey makes many allusions to McMurphy as a Christ-like figure. As the story progresses the religious references increase and become more evident. Any character can be a Christ figure, “where you find them, and as you find them. If the indicators are there, then there is some basis for drawing the conclusion” (Foster, 2003, p.123). Throughout the novel McMurphy’s actions parallel the actions of Christ. From the beginning it was clear McMurphy was different from the other patients. As his visit prolonged, McMurphy began to care for the patients much like Christ cared for his followers. In order to depict this similarity, Kesey used foreshadowing, events, and feelings.

“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”, is a commended novel written by Ken Kesey about a certifiable mental institution. Randle Patrick McMurphy is the character that Kesey has predominantly used to impact the reader. Kesey illustrated this by having a presumed deaf mute, Chief Bromden narrate the novel, focusing on how McMurphy influence’s the other deranged characters of the novel. In order to have McMurphy leave an impact on the ward, Kesey portrayed him as an anti- hero. “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” is not the only novel to include an anti- hero; authors have included these types of characters to incorporate aspects of the human conditions to their literature. Kesey could have initially kept McMurphy as a hero; to save the day and fight

The story One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey describes a 1950’s Oregon mental hospital that is administered by a cruel and abusive nurse named Miss. Ratched was inspired by Kesey’s own experience observing patients in a mental hospital. The 1950’s were a time of increasing social change and development culminating in movements such as the civil rights and sexual revolution movements of the 60’s. The novel ties sexual liberation to personal freedoms and shows that being able to manage one's behavior and choices is a sign of independence. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey persuades us to share the same worldview through use of language and perspective, showing us the importance of freedom and the impact of society on what freedoms we allow ourselves to have.

Firstly, the prominent motif in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is invisibility, Chief Bromden was seen as invisible in his childhood as well as on the ward. Once as a child on the reserve with his family, a group of appraisers trespassed onto the Bromden family land while Bromden was outside completing daily chores, the group proceeded to insult

Kesey and Weir have together portrayed how the pressures of conformity instilled by authoritarian figures can cause mental unpredictability. This is shown through the theme of suicide as a major factor in both texts. The self-inflicted death of minor character Billy Bibbit in One flew Over the Cuckoos Nest was

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a play that was narrated by Chief Bromden about patient in an Oregon psychiatric hospital. It tells the story of Randle McMurphy and how he came to the psychiatric hospital, changed the dynamic of it and the power struggle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, There were two themes in the play that jumped out to me which are freedom and power. In the play, it is clear that there was a power struggle and how that caused conflict. We can see that when Nurse Ratched power get tested, it cause a major problem in the play.

People are always perceived as one or the other; You are good or you are bad, mean or nice. Then there are the sane and the insane. What decides whether a person’s actions are considered one or the other, depends on who is viewing them. In the circumstances of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, there is the argument between who is insane and who is considered sane between the Big Nurse and McMurphy especially. She sees him as insane because of his behavior and the way he knows how to get under her skin. He, and most of the other patients, don’t view him that way. He uses his “irrational” label of being insane to his advantage and to help the other patients.

Throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey Murphy arrives at the mental asylum to avoid working. Throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the main character McMurphy is compared, sutely at times and quite obviously at other to Jesus Christ. These comparisons are spoted throughout the book some being more obvious then others and some bearing more weight then others. The comparisons This comes into play with comparison between McMurphy and Jesus.

“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.

“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.

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a creation of the socio-cultural context of his time. Social and cultural values, attitudes and beliefs informed his invited reading of his text.

Our perspective of a stranger whom we’ve never met nor seen, but only heard of through the mouth of the enemy’s opinion, will inevitably align with the only version of the story we’ve heard. This sort of bias is found in Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with Nurse Ratched’s depiction through the narration by Chief Bromden. The reliability of Bromden’s perspective is questionable, as it is his interpretation of the world, rather than what it actually is.