Summary Of ' One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest '

2. McMurphy is a non-conformist in a setting that forces the individuals to conform to Nurse Ratched standards. Because of McMurphy’s urge to

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.

Chief Bromden is the main character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden, also know as “Chief Broom” is mentally ill in a mental ward. Chief suffers from Schizophrenia, lack of identity, and oppression. Chief Bromden changes throughout the novel by coming out of his fog, becoming aware of his surroundings, and even leaving the mental ward with the help of his friend Mcmurphy.

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.

He says, “Just as I said: any of you sharpies here willing to take my five bucks that says that I can get the best of that woman, before the week’s up, without her getting the best of me?” (73) This quote shows that McMurphy is very self-assured that he can accomplish what he sets his mind to. The ward was not used to this kind of behavior in a man. Most of the men that were already there needed to be there because of an actual insanity problem, but McMurphy was there because he would rather have been there than where he was before and the court had allowed him to be transferred. McMurphy took them completely by surprise with his resistance to follow their instructions and to do what he was expected to do. At his arrival, he immediately exhibited disobedience. He refused to take a shower, which was the asylum’s policy for new admissions. This instantly put Randle McMurphy under the staff’s radar for them to watch out for.

Works of literature innately embody the author’s ideology and the historical context of the given time period. Within the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, the author furthers his ideals against the issue of oppression as he attempts to take stabs against its deteriorating effects and support those who rebel. Set in the microcosm of a small mental hospital, he establishes man’s external struggle to overcome tyranny. At the head of the head of the ward is the corrupted character of Nurse Ratched, who rules with an iron fist and the help of her machine like aides. It also features the nonconformist character, McMurphy, as he works to break Nurse Ratched’s endless cycle of tyranny. Although the novel shifts between the

As the seeds of McMurphy’s influence are being planted, the men on the ward still won’t take any gambles or let loose and have fun (with the exception of McMurphy’s casino), choosing to stay with the mechanical and manufactured routine. As the Acutes begin to gamble more on the ward, the doctor proposes using the old tub room as “...a sort of second day room, a game room” (111), which is a gamble in itself for the doctor, because he knows the nurse will shoot it down. With the help of some forward thinking from the doctor the idea is approved, and the patients begin gambling on more games, even betting on Monopoly at one point and the World Series. To watch the games, McMurphy proposes at a group meeting that the television time on the ward be changed and it’s put to a vote that the other men are too cagey to actually participate in for cynicism that the Nurse will cheat and get her way. Pissed off at the Acutes, McMurphy bets that he can lift a large control panel in the tub room. They all bet more than they usually do, because they know that McMurphy can’t possibly lift the control panel, and when McMurphy inevitably fails, he give all the Acutes the accumulated IOUs back and says, “But I tried, though...Goddammit, I sure as hell did that much, didn’t I?” (125). McMurphy establishes the main

McMurphy learns that involuntarily committed patients cannot leave the hospital without staff approval. Therefore, he cannot leave at the end of his six months sentence, but when Nurse Ratched says he can and he begins to submit to her authority. However, by this time, he had become the leader for the other patients. Their sanity, their claim to manhood lies in the balance. Cheswick, dismayed by McMurphy’s surrender, commits suicide.

“A success, they say, but I say he’s just another robot for the Combine and might be better off as a failure…”(17).

Throughout McMurphy’s stay at the hospital, one of his only goals was to take Nurse Ratched off of her throne. He didn’t like the way she ran the hospital, and he was the only one to do something about it. He brought together

n the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest, laughter is represented differently than it is typically defined. Laughter, by definition, is the action done when one is happy or amused. However, in this novel it represents rebellion, a change, and an overthrowing of power. These representations are presented by the three characters known as R. P. McMurphy, Chief Bromden, and Nurse Ratched. Laughter for R. P. McMurphy represents rebellion.

This worker, named Moses, comes to be a very important person in Mary's life when he is taken to be a servant for the house. Mary does not fear her servant Moses but rather reserves a great deal of disgust, repugnance, and avoidance for him. Often Mary does all she can to avoid having any social proximity with him. After many years living on the farm together, Dick and Mary are seen to be in a condition of deterioration. Mary often goes through spells of depression. In her frailty, Mary ends up relying more and more on Moses. As Mary becomes weaker, she finds herself feeling endearment towards Moses. On a rare visit from their neighbor, Slatter, Mary is seen being carelessly and thoughtlessly kind to Moses. This enrages Slatter. Slatter demands that Mary is not allowed to live with that worker as a house servant. Slatter sees himself as defending the values and integrity of the white community.

Ken Kesey’s book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, takes us through Mcmurphy’s experience in the state mental hospital, taking place in Oregon’s state hospital. Chief narrates through the story, he is half native american who acts like a deaf dumb chronic. In the beginning of the story Mcmurphy arrives at the hospital as transfer. On Mcmurphy’s first day there he finds out Harding is top dog and intends on changing that. Then, during the first group meeting he sees Nurse Ratched; who is head of the ward, puts all the men against each other. After the meeting he describes it all as a “pecking party”, so he then makes a bet with the boys that he can break Nurse Ratched without destroying himself. One morning he asked the nurse if she could turn

McMurphy is a gambling Irishman and convict, who grows tired of laboring at the Pendleton prison farm. To escape prison life, he feigns insanity and gets himself involuntarily committed to a mental hospital in Oregon. He tries to bring about a change at the hospital, for he does not like the fact that grown men act like "rabbits" and are scared of the Big Nurse. He tries as hard as he can to "get her goat", by not doing the duties he is given. He also ironically ends up serving as a

In totality, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest directed by Milos Forman, is a highly interesting and successful adaptation of the book written by Ken Kessey but it has major flaws that introduce unwanted and unneeded perspectives that alter the views of the audience and cause multiple differing point of views that allow for too many unbalanced opinions. The fact that there is un unsuccessful portrayal of all of the important characters causes an untrustworthy point of view that could have been avoided. Next the idea that Nurse Ratched is a power hungry individual is correctly displayed within the film but is one of the perspective of the director which also alters the audience's point of view. Finally the idea that Randle Patrick McMurphy is