The Shame Of State Essay

With McMurphy’s continuous outburst or rebellion, Nurse Ratched sentenced him to receive Electroshock Therapy, the second worse punishment patients would receive for misbehaviour. Determined to put on a strong exterior “he insisted it wasn’t hurting him. He wouldn’t even take his capsules. But every time that loudspeaker called him to forgo breakfast and prepare to walk to Building One, the muscles in his jaw went taunt and his whole face drained of colour, looking thin and scared-” (Kesey 241). Enduring the excruciating experience of Electroshock therapy only heightened the image the other men upheld for McMurphy and contributed to his heroism. Through the fight with the black boys and his fight to stay strong through Electroshock Therapy, McMurphy’s determination was evident to the other patients of the ward.

Monsters on the Inside: The Cause and Effects on the Insane Asylum According to the famous English designer, Robert Welch, “The whole country is one vast insane asylum and they’re letting the worst patients run the place.” Insane asylums in the 1920’s were ran by monsters but defined the patients as the monsters. Anyone who had a mental or physical disability was thrown into an insane asylum. In the 1920’s insane asylums were crucial, the hospitals had extreme rules, ghastly treatments, and horrific restraints.

After leaving the hellish work farm where he serving his prison sentence, McMurphy arrives at the ward, which is exponentially more dull and drab in comparison. The impact of his arrival at the ward is seen instantly. The enthusiasm and energy he brings to the ward is so uncharacteristic, that even some of the Chronics, who are longstanding patients that have become “machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired,” show some life (Kesey 10). In his typical westernized fashion, McMurphy arrives at the hospital with the aura of “a frontier

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.

In Part I of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest McMurphy enters the ward as self-absorbed and self centered. He doesn’t care if he takes advantage of the people and only cares about himself. His track record proves this; “ A dishonorable discharge, afterward, for insubordination. Followed by a history of street brawls and barroom fights and a series of arrests for Drunkenness, Assault and Battery, Disturbing the Peace, repeated gambling, and one arrest - for Rape” (Kesey 42). All of his convictions and arrests show that he wasn’t ever worried about anyone else, especially his charged of rape. McMurphy also shows his self-centered personality right away when he was talking to the patients. He tells them; “Why, one of the big reasons I got myself sent here was because I needed some new suckers.... I thought I might take advantage of this and maybe make both our lives a little more richer. I’m starting level with you. I’m a gambler and I’m not in the habit of losing” (71). McMurphy comes straight out and tells the patients that he is a gambler and plans on taking their money. He doesn’t care about what they might think about him and it also doesn’t bother him to take advantage of people like mental handicaps. He just wants to win their money and plans on doing so. Overall, in Part I McMurphy is self-absorbed and self-centered and proves this with his life history and with what he tells the other patients.

To illustrate the mental institute, the narrator describes remembering “the trapdoor… and find the girl tied to a bed (Ellison 74).” Many medical facilities have a seclusion room where they isolate patients who are violent or self-destructive, with medical restraints, according to Gale Springer from the American Nurse Today. The girl tied to the bed symbolizes the use of medical restraints and “her clothing torn to rags (Ellison 74),” suggest that the girl was doing harm upon herself or to others. One may think the narrator’s comment on “everything was fixed (Ellison 75),” was about the constant visits to the “bingo hall” looking the same. In the perspective of a mental institute, an

Throughout history there has been a veil of mystery surrounding what truly goes on inside of asylums. This idea is illustrated clearly in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on multiple occasions. One example can be seen when R.P. McMurphy takes to writing letters to people he knows in order to get them to ask questions about what is really going on. By doing so, he hopes to reveal the truth behind the world he finds himself in. Additionally, in the world of McMurphy, electroshock therapy is still being used. However, this type of therapy was being used less as a cure for illness, and more as a form of discipline, punishment, and pain infliction. According to Weitz in chapter

He was not admitted because of a psychotic breakdown or for having a dangerous mental disorder, it was because McMurphy fooled the authorities to presume he needed to be sent to the hospital. McMurphy doesn't need to be registered in a hospital, he was just tired of working on the farm, "…this man performed violent acts for the sole purpose of getting away from the work farm and into the comparative luxury of this hospital…the very nature of this plan could indicate that he is simply a shrewd con man, and not mentally ill at all." (Kesey 154). By performing violent acts and slacking on his duties at the work farm he was able to manipulate the authorities into believing that being sent to a mental hospital would be the best solution. At the work farm McMurphy was treated subordinately and had no power to wield. By deceiving the authorities into thinking he was mentally ill enough to be taken in by a mental ward he could be in a position with plenty of power. Once in the hospital he was easily able to gain the loyalty of the patients and regain his beloved power. By using his sly and cunning attitude to control the staff of the hospital and the police, he manipulates them into granting his wishes. As Kesey incorporates the motif of control in his writing he reveals the selfish lengths McMurphy is willing to go to relinquish his thirst for

In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest some of the patients are stuck and are forced to stay in a psychiatric ward to seek help. In the Oregon psychiatric ward all of the patients are male the whole ward can be divided into two groups the Acutes the ones who can be cured, and the Chronics who can not be cured. The ward is controlled by nurses and other doctors within the building, Some nurses have more say than others do. McMurphy is a man who is very high functioning along with a little personality disorder, he hates the environment that him and his fellow patients are in.

In the movie One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, we see many different examples of the sociological effect that a controlled environment can have on different individuals. The movie follows Jack Nicholson's character McMurphy. McMurphy is a convicted convict who pleaded insanity to avoid serving his sentence out in jail, hoping to ride it out in a mental hospital. The movie follows him and his struggle with the cruel hospital staff. McMurphy is upset by the treatment of the patients seeing how controlled they are, all forced to be the same. He seems to notice the damaging effects it has on everyone in there. He exploits the staff and the patients numerous times to try to give the patients a taste of freedom and show them how things should be. Basically fighting for their rights. Slowly he started to get institutionalized as well, fighting till the end, in a final attempt at giving the patient's a taste of freedom, Murphy's closest friend in the hospital commits suicide because of the threats Nurse Ratched made towards him for having sexual intercourse with a woman. Murphy lashed out in rage and tried to kill her. He was stopped and punished

In the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Randle Mcmurphy was at first an outcast in today’s society. He constantly gambled, and struggled with anger issues. He was imprisoned for statutory rape although he claims it to be consensual. After faking signs of mental illness to excuse himself from the work farm, Mcmurphy was sent to a mental illness institution to be examined. While spending time in the institution Mcmurphy formed an emotional attachment to other patients, he found the hospital as a place he could feel somewhat normal at.

An economy, as defined by the Webster Dictionary, is the wealth and resources of a country or region, in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services. An economy, as defined by the vernacular, is a word that has become linked with synonyms that invoke feelings of dread, depression, collapse, and flat out anarchy at best. Both close to home and globally, people have felt some effect of the market crash. Since 2007, millions of Americans lost their homes, jobs, and feelings of financial security. To even begin to think about possible solutions to the current state of the economy, one must first understand the origin of our problems. We are in a recession today because of a weak job market, risky mortgages, and a heavy

In this quote, “Metaphorically, Kesey's sanitarium serves as a multiple microcosm for institutional society; it's a military barracks, prison cellblock, encounter-group bullpen, behavioral laboratory, and Jean Genet-esque plantation where the power hierarchy has been inverted."(Wolcott), perfectly and precisely captures the true essence of this book. Kesey empowers a rebellious figure by the name of McMurphy by privileging him to do as he sees fit for his fellow companions even if that means temporarily disrupting the artificial peace created by the vicious and barbarous administration. McMurphy represents an activist, attempting to fight for the well-being of the entire psych ward, while the community of patients represents a beaten down and continuously crumbling society at the mercy of the cruel

The government in the United States supposedly revolves around American ideals such as equality and diversity; however, this is simply not the case as perpetuated by class inequalities. The meaning of democracy has been skewed in the United States to represent something entirely different than it did in 1776. Today, American democracy behaves more like an aristocracy, where the upper class exercises power within the government and state, influencing discourse and therefore the laws and resources in our country, which are purportedly “for the people”. Democracy is presumed to provide everyone with equal political power, but the government in today’s America, although seemingly following this ideal model, does not. Instead, the elite upper class has a monopoly over the political influence and are the sole benefactors from public policies due to their influence over the policy making process. The upper class has an overall benefit from class inequality, as it greatly impacts American ‘democracy’ through the significant power gained through money and status, leadership roles that impact government, and the influence in the policymaking process that creates upper class advantages.

A nation is said to exist when it could traced its origins through the state, in which it associate itself with, histories. Additionally, the cultural elites must be established and well-versed in writing and speaking the national language. There must also be a valid reason for its claim on a certain territory. It is only when these three requirements are fulfilled will the international community consider their claim for a nation (Hobsbawm, 1990: 37). Disagreements, however, tend to arise in the political community over the definition of a nation. This essay will try to list out the different approaches employed in defining a nation starting from a nation being a natural cultural entity to it being politically and