Who Is The Protagonist In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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.

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

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.

Although the nurse has seemingly won because the patients were not able to achieve their primary goal, in reality, their real victory is their combined resistance against Nurse Ratched. The adventure on the fishing boat also exhibits how the patients aid McMurphy in his rebellion. Though he charges them for their endeavor, they once again decide to accompany him and go against the institution, further implying their admiration for him and his cause. Even though McMurphy knows that the nurse will likely punish the twelve other patients severely for lying and leaving the ward with a prostitute under false pretenses, he does so anyway, showing that he will risk great punishment to help his “disciples.” Finally, the patients support the party that McMurphy has in the ward with alcohol and the two prostitutes. The main reason behind this event was to ensure that Billy Bibbit, one of the patients on the ward who lacked self-confidence, got to have a date with Candy, one of the prostitutes whom Billy liked. This event is another example of how McMurphy would risk trouble for himself for the betterment of others and how they supported him in his actions.

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

Since McMurphy has a more accurate depiction of how people in the real world behave, he believes it’s his duty to explain that they aren’t much different than the people who put them in the ward. He is trying to encourage a self-realization for the patients in order to set their minds free of the depressing brain rot they’ve been exposed to from Nurse Ratched. To further illustrate, Michael Gugliotta claims, “In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy’s impact on the patient is evident. Before his arrival, the patients were under the strict rule of Nurse Ratched.

When norms of society are unfair and seem set in stone, rebellion is bound to occur, ultimately bringing about change in the community. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest demonstrates the conflict of individuals who have to survive in an environment where they are pressured to cooperate. The hospital's atmosphere suppresses the patients' individuality through authority figures that mold the patients into their visions of perfection. The ward staff's ability to overpower the patients' free will is not questioned until a man named Randal McMurphy is committed to the mental institute. He rebels against what he perceives as a rigid, dehumanizing, and uncompassionate

Kesey has also given this novel great Symbolic value. As an opposer to the McCarthy scheme, he has used the mental hospital as a scale model of how society breaks free of society's conformity. McMurphy acts as the ‘liberator', or rebel of the ward's excessively strict conformity. He saves the patients from "the

In the Milos Forman film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a recidivist criminal serving a short prison term is transferred to a mental institution due to behavioral problems. It is in that institution that McMurphy meets Nurse Ratchet (Louise Fletcher), a bullish, controlling nurse who has cowed the patients into dejected submission and who has the power to keep McMurphy institutionalized indefinitely. A battle for control ensues between the two characters which Ratchet views as a personal affront and

McMurphy can also be considered a tragic hero. Although he could almost always take control of a situation and never let the combine get the best of him, he could not always control his temper. It was the one think that could get him in trouble because Nurse Ratched could not punish him with electric shock therapy unless he had an outburst. The best thing that McMurphy could have had in the hospital was patience and a calm temper because the only weapon Nurse Ratched had was to try to frustrate him. Since she has ultimate power on the ward, she could do anything she wants and make any rules. For instance, when the patients wanted to watch the world series and they clearly had a majority, she didn’t let them because she wanted them to know that she has authority

In the asylums during the 50’s, patients were allowed to smoke, were admitted for petty issues such as jealousy, or laziness and were also treated with harsh consequences like electroshock therapy or lobotomies. I would recommend this book because it gives a special message, that we can change the structure of society – if we possess enough determination, courage, and perseverance. McMurphy showed his courage and determination by not giving up when trying to make the other patients happy, while still trying to get into Nurse Ratched’s head. Throughout the story, I have noticed that McMurphy could be looked at as a God, because he “cured” the patients by providing them with hope and happiness. McMurphy’s death could be referred to as Jesus dying for people’s sins. Overall, I believe this was a very good book and would be in my top five favorites. The message that “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” brings, and the close relationships all the characters have really pull the book together and present a bittersweet

McMurphy believes that the inhumane treatment to the patients in the hospital is wrong and tries to make the patients see the wrong ways. Mrs. Ratched believes that it is her duty to fix these broken men and send them back into society with the law justifying her treatments.

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

We feel that One Flew over the Cuckoo’s nest is filled with many psychological connotations. This movie is set in a mental hospital where McMurphy was admitted to be psychologically evaluated because of violent behavior. Upon his arrival McMurphy noticed that the patients were very robot-like in their actions. The hospital is extremely structured where the patient’s daily life was monotonous. We will discuss the various connotations by answering the following questions that have been asked.

wo of the most prominent conflicts in the story are issues arising from person vs. person (Randle McMurphy vs. Nurse Ratched) and person vs. self (Dale Harding and Billy Bibbit.) Of the two topics, the arising issues between patient McMurphy and Mrs. Ratched seems to prompt for the largest problem. From the moment that McMurphy was admitted to the psychiatric ward, there was tension between him and Nurse Ratched. Upon his arrival, McMurphy established that he wanted to know who the “bull goose looney” (most influential man among the patients) was so that he could overpower him and gain power. Nurse Ratched seemed to disapprove of his thirst for power from the beginning, fearing that he may disrupt the flow of her ward. The tension between the