Compare And Contrast One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

This essay will be exploring the text One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey and the film Dead poet’s society written by Tom Schulman. The essay will show how the authors use over exaggerated wildcard characters such as McMurphy and Keating. The use of different settings such as an insane asylum and an all-boys institution. And Lastly the use of fore shading to show how the authors can use different texts to present similar ideas in different ways.
Firstly, the authors use the use of protagonists to show how they can present similar ideas in different ways. The two protagonists which the authors present are Keating from Dead Poets Society and McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest. These characters have readers intrigued and on their feet from the beginning. These characters always keep the readers guessing what they’re going to do next for example when Keating says “No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” The Protagonists are presented as very different people but are in reality extremely similar and serve the same purpose. The authors present them as

over exaggerated, wildcard threats which is done to prove a point. The ideas which the authors display through the protagonists is that they’re both introduced as wildcards, then they both preach freedom, disaster strikes within both of the texts and lastly the wildcard gets removed and everything goes back to normal. This is how the authors use the use of protagonists to convey the same message but in different ways, due to the nature of the two different protagonists. The authors both also introduce the use of semi-protagonists such as the characters Neil and Chief which is don’t to create alternative perspectives and highlights certain situations.
Next, the authors use the use of setting within the film and the book to show how they can present similar ideas in different ways.

The setting of Dead Poets Society is set in an aristocratic and conservative boys school in America in the late 1950s. In the text One flew over the cuckoo’s nest it is set an insane Asylum in Oregon also in the late 1950s. Just like the protagonists mentioned before the settings are also over exaggerated. The settings both mentioned within the texts at first appear to be nothing alike. You cannot usually compare an insane asylum to an all-boys school. But the school and the insane asylum are both set as institutions. The school and the asylum are both repressive and restrictive. Likewise, the school and the asylum are microcosms of society. The authors use of the setting they both show how they can present similar ideas in different

ways.
Lastly the authors use the use of foreshadowing to present similar ideas in different ways. At the start of Dead Poets Society there is a class of boys reciting Latin from the board. You can clearly see that the class is boring this is the first instance of foreshadowing, where we can expect that this new teacher is going to change everything for the young boys. Likewise, a similar situation happens at the arrival of McMurphy. The authors both use the use of foreshowing to present their protagonists as gods when they arrive at their new settings, Towards the end the protagonists both get sacrificed. Protagonists throughout the texts preach the ideas of freedom such as when Keating says “Sucking the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone” Telling the boys to do things with their life and to open their minds and work on their ideas. Likewise, the idea of sacrifice can be expected due to the images of crucifixions placed throughout the text. This is how the authors use the use of foreshadowing to present similar ideas in different ways.
In conclusion both texts which were explored during this essay, the authors clearly showed that they can present similar ideas in different ways. This paper has demonstrated that initially the characters Keating and McMurphy appear to be parallels apart, the authors demonstrated how they both served the same purpose within the two different texts. The setting within the texts, the insane asylum and the institution likewise appeared as very different, however the authors show that they both serve as microcosms of society, repressive and restrictive. Lastly the use of foreshadowing furthermore showed how the authors can present similar ideas in similar ways. Ken Kesey and Tom Schulman have showed that by using thought provoking characters and settings throughout the texts, that sometimes the reader can be persuaded to change their initial thoughts and understand how they can be likewise to other thoughts.