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One flew over the cuckoo’s nest is a film created in 1975 directed by Milos Forman that was based off the novel written by Ken Kesey. The book is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden as he watched a new admit stir up trouble within the ward. Through his eyes we were able to meet many of the patients residing there, but only he piqued my interest like none other. Chief Bromden introduced us to a side of mental illness that often isn’t looked at from more than a surface level. Being diagnosed with Schizophrenia chief Bromden makes us question what it really is like to have such a disease. Chief Bromden is a 6’7-foot-tall native American through which the story is told. Chief Bromden had a traumatic childhood. Forced to take his white mothers …show more content…
last name Bromden had an early understanding of his mother’s superiority over his father. Watching his white mother pressure his well-respected father to sell their tribal land to the government so that they could build a hydroelectric dam, and fall into despair.
After seeing that he further was exposed to his father drowning his sorrows into alcohol. Chief Bromden in his teen years played football in high school and later into adulthood joins the army to fight in WWII. What happens that lands him into the Oregon asylum is still unknown but a rumor amongst the patients is that Bromden was sane when he entered the asylum but after receiving excessive shocks to the brain his sanity began to dissipate. The story begins ten years after the beginning of his stay where he has gained a reputation as being deaf and dumb and Chief Bromden perceives himself as a man who used to be strong much like his father. It is possible that his schizophrenia showed up due to …show more content…
the stress and feelings of inferiority his parents exposed him to. In a research article discovered it was reported that men with major mental illnesses (including schizophrenia were more likely to be robbed or attempted to be robbed. (Marley, J. A., & Buila, S., 2001). Due to this information I believe chief Bromden’s mental illness is a result of the victimization caused by his parents and society. Watching his father be robed of his land was simultaneously robbing him of his land and pride. Even being forced to take on his mothers’ name can affect how Bromden felt during early adolescence. due to his past I believe chief Bromden is a victim Before we evaluate our character Chief Bromden we should first look at what schizophrenia is and what criteria must be met to be diagnosed with it.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. Almost as if they’re in an alternate reality. It is said symptoms of schizophrenia become prominent between the ages of 16 and 30. There are three types of symptoms schizophrenia can fall under, positive, negative, and cognitive. Positive symptoms include hallucination, delusions, though disorders, and movement disorders. Negative Symptoms include what is called a “flat affect” which correlates with less expressions verbally and facially. It also includes reduced pleasure in everyday life, difficulty beginning and sustaining activities, and reduced speaking. Cognitive symptoms cause you to struggle with processing and utilizing information, a short attention span, and problems with the working memory. Scientists believe that schizophrenia is not caused by genetics alone but combined with one’s environmental factors during adolescence. It is also believed that schizophrenia correlates with an imbalance in the chemicals reactions of the brain involving the neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamine, with a possibility of others playing a
role. Based off the symptoms I explained earlier many of the symptoms fall under the Negative symptom category. Chief Bromden displayed on a few occasions delusions and hallucinations throughout the film. One incident that I found in the book was of a fog machine that would come into effect when Bromden took his medication or become afraid. Chief Bromden was also always in a constant state of the “flat affect” and did not speak which very much is why the other patients thought he was deaf and dumb. There is no cure for schizophrenia and researchers are continuously conducting research to further understand this psychological disorder. The movie portrays older and outdated treatments which are now looked down upon in the medical community such as electroshock therapy which is a practice of inducing seizures by sending shocks to the brain allowing patients with mental disorders temporary relief. In the film Chief Bromden is treated using electroshock therapy. The other common treatment in the movie is a Lobotomy procedure which involves using a modified ice pick that would be inserted into the patient’s eye socket through the eye socket using a hammer. During the procedure the pick would be moved in a way that would separate the frontal lobes from the thalamus. To date this procedure is very rare and done a lot less horrifically than stated above, and if done is only given when all other treatments have failed the patient. As of now treatments focus on eliminating or weakening the symptoms of schizophrenia in which to allow many with the disorder the ability to live as normal of a life as possible. One form of treatment is using antipsychotics which are typically taken daily in pill or a liquid form. Some antipsychotics are given as injections that are to be done twice a month. Some people have side effects to this, but it is reported most of those side affects fade away after taking the medication for a few days. Another form of treatment is Psychosocial treatment is usually done while taking a medication that works for the patient. Many learn to use coping skills to address the everyday challenges of schizophrenia. Statistically people who participate in regular psychosocial treatment are less likely to be hospitalized. One last form of treatment executed is called Coordinated specialty care which integrates medication, psychosocial therapies, case management, family involvement, and supported education and employment services all aimed at reducing symptoms and improving quality of life. Once I learned that most of the patients who were in the facility were there voluntarily I was baffled. What makes a person feel as though it is safer to be in a hospital than to be out in society? Why were there voluntarily treated as though they were incapable of anything? Through research I discovered that while mentally ill patients do have the ability to accept treatment they consequently are denied the right to refuse treatment. (Szasz, T. ,2003) Only situations where the patient is competent patients with uremia can refuse treatment. This raises the question as to why is treatment a one-way street where your only option is to swallow your pill and conform. Forced treatment is like domestic situations and Szasz aims to make a change saying he wants it to become “a legal offense to impose involuntary psychiatric interventions on people protected by the order.” Claiming forced treatment as it leads to an abusive relationship between the psychiatrist and the individual Szasz hopes to “legalize “divorce” between psychiatrists and patients”. I do believe that often we forget that the patient should have the right to refuse the treatment that is so often accepted. One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest left me asking myself what really defines what is perceived as normal. But once I researched what schizophrenia is I think I would be there two. I feel like I could easily fall into depression because of the delusions that might occur. Trying to tell my reality from fantasy would drive me crazy because in your mind you slowly will forget what reality really is. With that in mind I wouldn’t want to have children and I would probably stay secluded for my entire life, so I have tremendous respect for those who do have families and don’t let schizophrenia take over their lives. I did love though that at the end of the movie chief Bromden got his confidence back and escaped leaving us with the question; Was he every really schizophrenic to begin with?
The novel that Kesey wrote is focused on how Bromden’s past memories should not let him down, but to gather his strength and let go of the past to start anew. Kesey builds up the encouragement through the help on McMurphy in order for Bromden to face reality with the hallucinations, to Nurse Ratched’s authorities, and the use of symbolism.
Chief Bromden’s character development is extremely limited in the movie adaptation, because director Milos Forman took out one of the most crucial details of the novel: Bromden’s first person narration. The movie lacked in any references to Bromden’s philosophy of society and had nothing about his back-story, an important aspect of what made him the person he was at the beginning of the movie. Of course, it would’ve been a pain to film an entire movie from one person’s point of view, much less include narrations and backgrounds. Overall, despite the film’s outstanding ability to match the novel’s original storyline, Ken Kesey does not depict Chief Bromden’s growth in a successful, accurate, and admirable way.
Chief Bromden is a six foot seven tall Native American (half) who feels very small and weak even though by physical description, he is very big and strong. Chief does not have enough self-confidence and he is not independent. That is what makes him so small and weak. When Randle McMurphy, the new inmate in the asylum comes in, Chief is reminded of what his father used to be: strong, independent, confident and big. "He talks a little the way papa used to, voice loud and full of hell " (16) McMurphy helps Chief gains back his self-confidence and teaches him to be independent.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1962). The Viking Press Inc. New York, New York.Gideons International. Tennessee: The National Publishing Company.
White characters such as Nurse Ratched and McMurphy show surprise that he is able to speak and understand them while the black boys claim that Indians can't read or write. Bromden justifies that he is victim to racial inequality when people look "at me [him] like I'm [he’s] some kind of bug" (26) or when people "see right through me [him] like I [he] wasn't there." Throughout Bromden's childhood, he realized that the white people thought he was deaf and mute and that even if he spoke, no one could hear him. In order to survive through the dangers of the social hierarchy he existed in through the ward, he feigns deafness. Bromden points out that, "it wasn't me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all." (178) Bromden, has also been constantly abused by the staff and other patients at the ward who call him Chief Broom, a derogation of his name as Chief and a mockery of his floor mopping “duties” in the ward that the black boys force upon him. Bromden's circumstances is illustrative of his race and of his entire tribe. The social criticism that Kesey portrays, emerges piecemeal through Bromden’s constant flashbacks and hallucinations of his village. Kesey compares Native Indian cohesion with the new estrangement accompanying the loss of Indian cultures and the adjustment of a white lifestyle to show the social unity once created by Indian traditions. By the end of
Chief Bromden is half American Indian. His father was a chief named Tee Ah Millatoona, which means The-pine-that-stands-tallest-on-the-mountain. That is why he is able to use the title chief. He took on his mother's last name of Bromden. He grew up in the Columbian gorge. The chief is massive and tall and would appear very intimidating and threatening to those who meet him. He was committed to the hospital and has been there for longer than anyone else, for over 15 years.
The film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, produced by Milos Forman, contains many similarities to the novel, however the differences are numerous to the extent that the story, written by Ken Kesey, is overlooked by anyone who only saw the film. Ken Kesey wrote the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, after experimenting with drugs and working on a psychiatric ward in 1960 and the novel was published in 1962. “Kesey became a night attendant on the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital psychiatric ward so that he could concentrate on his writing.” (Magill 1528) Kesey’s rebellious novel explores the world of mental patients struggling against authority and society through incredible imagery. He was able to describe this struggle because of his personal experiences. Kesey was “disturbed by the dehumanizing treatment of the patients” (Beetz 3089-3090), so he decided to write this novel about them. In his surrealistic life’s work, Ken Kesey has managed to capture both the gloomy asylum atmosphere and the mental patients’ demented attitudes. Kesey’s novel proclaims a classic struggle between good and evil or the hero and the villain. This contemporary classic was brought to life through the film version in 1975 and is considered “one of the greatest American films of all time” (Dirks 1). It was the first film to receive all the major Oscar awards. These included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. The same name as the novel was chosen so that it would appeal to contemporary audiences, which proved to be a big hit at the box office. “Its allegorical theme is set in the world of an authentic mental hospital, a place of rebellion by a wise-guy hero against institutional authority and attitudes.” (Dirks 1)
Chief Bromden, a tall American-Indian mute is the central character that symbolizes the change throughout the text and also throughout society. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest uses this character that is subject to change as the narrator event though his perceptions cannot be fully trusted.
Bromden is nothing more than a crazy Indian who doesn't want to talk so. pretends to be deaf and dumb. Much of the understanding and respect is lost in the transition between book and movie. In the book, Bromden has flashbacks to his childhood, lighting on significant points in his childhood. His background is never even brushed upon in the movie. Of course it would have been nearly impossible to tell of Bromdens life in a movie, much less show the world from his point of view as in the book. Bromden is still a very interesting character but the real puzzle to his problems are lost in the process. & nbsp; McMurphy is a very sly, cunning man. He knows how to play his game. and does it well.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a film directed by Czech Milos Forman in 1975. Using potent elements of fiction--characters, conflict, and symbolism--Forman illustrates the counterculture of the 1960’s. This film depicts American society as an insane asylum that demands conformity from its citizens. The film begins with a conniving convict being assigned to the asylum. R. P. McMurphy is sent to the asylum to be evaluated by the doctors and to determine whether or not he is mentally ill. He is unaware that he will be supervised by an emasculating woman named Nurse Mildred Ratched who watches the patients’ every motion from her nurse’s station.
An exceptionally tall, Native American, Chief Bromden, trapped in the Oregon psychiatric ward, suffers from the psychological condition of paranoid schizophrenia. This fictional character in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest struggles with extreme mental illness, but he also falls victim to the choking grasp of society, which worsens Bromden’s condition. Paranoid schizophrenia is a rare mental illness that leads to heavy delusions and hallucinations among other, less serious, symptoms. Through the love and compassion that Bromden’s inmate, Randle Patrick McMurphy, gives Chief Bromden, he is able to briefly overcome paranoid schizophrenia and escape the dehumanizing psychiatric ward that he is held prisoner in.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ed. John Clark Pratt. New York: Viking-Penguin, 1996. Print. Viking Critical Library.
Just as Billy and Cheswick, Chief had his own self-image issues. Despite being somewhat of a giant, measuring in at “six f[oo]t-seven” (p.24), Chief felt none of the bravado associated with his size. Instead, Bromden felt “way too little” (p.219), unable to truly be a contributing member of society. As a child, Chief witnessed his “big” (p.219) father’s demise to society’s destructive order , becoming “too little to fight” (p.220) the adversities projected towards him. At a loss for hope, Chief, as his father, became debilitated, pretending to be mute and deaf. Specifically, he began because “it was people that first started acting like [he] was too dumb to hear...or say anything at all” (p.210). In compliance to other’s perception of others, Chief began to lose himself. Moreover, under the shrewd supervision of Nurse Ratched, Chief’s perception of himself worsened. Nevertheless, once Mcmurphy arrived to the hospital, Chief discovered a new side of himself. Mcmurphy’s free-thinking mentality brought upon hope, and reinforced Bromden’s initial strength. One of the first moments Chief felt a regained sense of control over his life was during the World Series. He’d always been considered useless; the patients thought of him as “just a [big] deaf Indian”
On the morning of the fishing trip on Nurse Ratched's ward, one of Ratched's aides called Bromden illiterate because he was half-Indian. The General statement made by the aid, which was in the quote "`Why, who you s'pose signed chief Bromden up for this foolishness? Inniuns ain't able to write.'" (191), describes Kesey's racism toward Indians. The quote reflects how Indians in Kesey's novel are portrayed as illiterate. Bromden also represents the Indians as imprisoned at the mercy of white people. In Kesey's novel Indians, such as Bromden's father were forced to hand over their land to white people. The Indians' land was very important to them and being forced to give up land was essentially giving up their freedom.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, is a psychological drama that forces readers to look at a mental ward, and the inmates, with a different perspective. The novel is perceived through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a native american who pretends to be deaf to listen to the whispers of the ward. Life in this prison-like facility is full of scrutiny and both physical and mental abuse from “The Big Nurse”, Nurse Rached. However, when a new inmate by the name of McMurphy enters the hospital, her power is called into question through his leadership and rebellion. Kesey uses McMurphy, Bromden, and the other inmates to call into question how far one would go for a cause they believe in. Ronald Wallace talks about laughter as a cure