One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest Essay

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey during a time in our society when pressures of our modern world seemed at their greatest. Many people were, at this time, deemed by society’s standards to be insane and institutionalized. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is set in a ward of a mental institution. The major conflict in the novel is that of power. Power is a recurring and overwhelming theme throughout the novel. Kesey shows the power of women who are associated with the patients, the power Nurse Ratched has, and also the power McMurphy fights to win. By default, he also shows how little power the patients have.

The electroshock therapy table is explicitly associated with crucifixion. It is shaped like a cross, with straps across the wrists and over the head. Moreover, the table performs a function similar to the public crucifixions of Roman times. Ellis, Ruckly, and Taber—Acutes whose lives were destroyed by electroshock therapy—serve as public examples of what happens to those who rebel against the ruling powers. Ellis makes the reference explicit: he is actually nailed to the wall. This foreshadows that McMurphy, who is associated with Christ images, will be sacrificed

Nurse Ratched, also known as “Big Nurse” was an oppressive figure that thrived on the conformity of the patients within the mental institution. Nurse Ratched represents a mechanical machine through her consistent appearance and attitude. Her character lacks sympathy and her cold demeanor sends chills down the back of the patients. Nurse Ratched is a perfect example of society today due to the controlling and cruel stance she withholds.

Nurse Ratched’s role as an antagonist is greatly exaggerated by the narrator’s mental illness and misogynistic tendencies. Bromden’s descriptions of the Nurse are often so unlikely that they can only be interpreted as hallucinations. When he sees the Nurse angry, he insists that “her painted smile twists, stretches to an open snarl, and she blows up…big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside” (5). This exaggerated imagery depicting the Nurse as a demon or cyborg is a significant reason that she appears as an antagonist. The narrator’s bias against Nurse Ratched is increased by his and the patients’ belief that women should not occupy positions of power. Phillip Darbyshire points out that the nurse, as a controlling leader,

In Ken Kesey classic 1960’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest McMurphy and Nurse Ratched both suffer from strong and aggressive personalities. Nurse Ratched and McMurphy have manipulative and powerful individualities.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a brilliant novel copyrighted in 1963 it is about a man testing his limits with his authority, the nurse. Ken Kesey was influenced to write this novel after being part of a experiment involving the effect LSD had on people's minds.("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Background.") This novel shows what I believe are true aspects of the way our world conceives people within a mental institution.

Nurse Ratched, also known as Big Nurse, controls the ward. Everyone seemed intimidated by her except for McMurphy. “She looks around to see if anybody else is about to interrupt her, smiling steady as her head look; they’re all looking for hangnails.” This quote tells us a bit more about Big Nurse’s personality. Her character is intimidating.

Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cukcoo's Nest tells a heartbreaking story of men struggling

Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, tells a fictionalized tale regarding a mental asylum in the 1960s. By analyzing the novel, we can see that Kesey argues that games are the ideal and natural manner in which homosocial communities and friendships are created, which ultimately benefit men by allowing them to resolve their issues surrounding masculinity; Kesey argues that games are the antithesis to the authority observed in society and institutions which aim to control men within rules and standards.

The 1960’s was a decade of social upheaval, during which America’s youth challenged the societal norms of the past. Known as the “beat” generation, this group promoted spiritual liberation, sexual revolution, ecological consciousness and perhaps most importantly, nontraditional gender roles. A forerunner of the “beat” movement himself, American author Ken Kesey responded to the radical time period in the form of his 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which tells the story of the power struggle between Randle McMurphy, a convicted rapist and Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of the mental institution to which he has been committed. While the novel has been praised for its stark commentary on the treatment of the mentally ill, it is, unfortunately,

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.

The novel describes the inner workings the the mental institution of how the patients are emasculated and mistreated by terrifying big nurse Ratched, who will go to any length to control them. “We do not impose certain rules and restrictions on you without a great deal of thought about their therapeutic value…….for your own good that we enforce discipline and order.” (page 171) The patients are unaware of their surroundings and they all depend on the big nurse for their well-being’s. Beginning of the novel when

The Big Nurse, Nurse Ratched, is the head nurse at the asylum. Chief normally falls victim to her grasps because she induces him, as the rest of the patients do, with a fog, The fog is a mental state of the patients which allows them to cope with what is happening around them. The fog also helps them conform to Nurse Ratchets ideas of conformity. The fog represents

Conformity has been the target of many works of literature even before Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye spewed angst about everyone around him being a “phony.” To many people, there are forces in the social order that shape others to fit a certain mold, and one who does not fit the mold will be considered an outcast by society. During the 1960’s, rebellion was a shared act among the majority, including authors and artists; this was due to the conflict in the East as well as the Civil Rights movement. To these people, the government was a criminal, even a machine perhaps, which threatened one’s individuality. This provides some historical context on the background of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Ken Kesey, the author, worked in

Nurse Ratched was a former Army Nurse, and is the main antagonist of this story. She was dubbed “Big Nurse” by the inmates after her oppressive, strong characteristics. These characteristics, as well as her hatred for the inmates, and micromanagement make her the enemy of all the men on the ward.