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Symbolism essay examples
Significance of symbolism in literature
Significance of symbolism in literature
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''One that flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest'' can much relate to something we have discussed during the marking period.Much like with The Scarlet Letter, this book has symbols which help deepen the understanding of the work. Nonetheless, ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' brings a few sorts of symbolism, one being the hydro-console. It was an enormously heavy device that was impossible to move anywhere, which was a great representation of the situation going on in this novel. Much like the men in the mental ward, they were in the same position as the console. They were being weighed down on and wouldn't be allowed to leave thanks to the system that was crushing on their confidence like a ball and chain. But once Mcmurphy comes in, he tries lifting
the console both metaphorically and physically. He is what the folk in the mental ward needed; someone convincing these people that they don't require Mrs.Ratched telling them that they're broken or need to be controlled. Another symbol brought upon this novel is a person's voice. The voice in this novel is something best represented as one's strength. Quite like how Mrs.Ratched’s dangerous strength was her poisonous mouth, which was able to make people seem insignificant. But once Mcmurphy nearly strangles her to death, which she loses her voice for a couple of weeks, it is almost as if he had seized control and taken away her authority. Although that overcoming didn’t last long since, quite like what had happened to Mrs.Ratched, she had Mcmurphy’s power taken away; his power to inspire confidence and freedom through a lobotomy
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
In my opinion the main theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is conformity. The patients at this mental institution, or at least the one in the Big Nurse’s ward, find themselves on a rough situation where not following standards costs them many privileges being taken away. The standards that the Combine sets are what makes the patients so afraid of a change and simply conform hopelessly to what they have since anything out of the ordinary would get them in trouble. Such conformity is what Mc Murphy can not stand and makes him bring life back to the ward by fighting Miss Ratched and creating a new environment for the patients. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest represents a rebellion against the conformity implied in today’s society.
For this final paper, I would like to discuss the historical failures that came into light when Mr. Clifford Stoll (the author of “Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage” book) stumbled upon a $ 0.75 accounting error and the revelations that followed, its potential findings, risks and costs associated and why it is important to address and fix those security holes. Cuckoo’s Egg is an interesting read and the author was successful in presenting to his readers the picture of beginning of Internet days (arpanet, then), network practices then. Despite of the fact that this book describes a real incident that in 1980’s, some of the findings are relevant and torment us even today.
Power and control are the central ideas of Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There are examples of physical, authoritative and mechanical power in the novel, as well as cases of self-control, and control over others. Nurse Ratched is the ultimate example of authoritative power and control over others but R.P. McMurphy refuses to acknowledge the Nurse’s power, and encourages others to challenge the status quo. The other patients begin powerless, but with McMurphy’s help, learn to control their own lives. Many symbols are also used to represent power and control in the book, such as the ‘Combine’, ‘fog’, and the imagery of machines.
Ken Kesey incorporates figurative language into his novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, to illustrate the struggle to overcome the comfort of inaction, that ultimately results in the great benefit of standing up for one’s self. When McMurphy decides to stand up to Nurse Ratched, there is “no fog” (130). Kesey’s metaphor of the fog represents the haze of inaction that hovers over the patients of the ward. With the oppressive Nurse Ratched in charge, the patients are not able to stand up for themselves and are forced to be “sly” to avoid her vicious punishments (166). When the patients avoid confrontation with the Nurse, they are guaranteed safety by hiding in the fog, complaisant with their standing. The fog obscures the patient’s view of the ward and the farther they slip into it, the farther away they drift from reality.
In the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the characters are in a mental hospital for various reasons. Narrated by Chief Bromden, a large Native American man, the story tells mainly of a newcomer to the hospital, Randle McMurphy, who is not actually mentally ill, but pretends to be to escape work detail. A much-feared middle-aged woman named Mildred Ratched runs the hospital. She runs the hospital like a concentration camp, with harsh rules, little change, and almost no medical oversight. The “prisoners” have a large amount of fear of Nurse Ratched, as she rules the place like she is a soulless dictator, the patients get no say in any decision made. This is exemplified when McMurphy brings up the World Series, and the patients take a vote on it. Though everyone wants to watch it, they have so much fear for Nurse Ratched that they are too afraid to speak out against her wishes.
Ken Kesey presents his masterpiece, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, with popular culture symbolism of the 1960s. This strategy helps paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind. Music and cartoons of the times are often referred to in the novel. These help to exaggerate the characters and the state of the mental institution.
Firstly, symbolism is a key element in both One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest as well as The Handmaid's Tale. The color red is prominent in Handmaid's Tale, while machinery is prominent in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Both symbols play essential parts in each story with red being the color of blood and the mark of the Handmaid's lost innocence as well as you
One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a movie that portrays a life story of a criminal named McMurphy who is sent to a mental institution because he believes that he himself is insane. While McMurphy is in the mental ward, he encounters other patients and changes their perception of the “real” world. Before McMurphy came to the mental ward, it was a place filled with strict rules and orders that patients had to follow; these rules were created by the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. However, once McMurphy was in the ward, everything, including the atmosphere, changed. He was the first patient to disobey Nurse Ratched. Unlike other patients who continuously obeyed Nurse Ratched, McMurphy and another patient named Charlie Cheswick decided to rebel
Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a story about a band of patients in a mental ward who struggle to find their identity and get away from the wretched Nurse. As audiences read about the tale, many common events and items seen throughout the story actually represent symbols for the bigger themes of the story. Symbols like the fishing trip, Nurse, and electroshock therapy all emphasize the bigger themes of the story.
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
In order to fully convey the destigmatization of mental illnesses, both films utilize water to symbolize freedom. Water is free flowing, transparent, and fluid. Having a mental illness is already stressful enough, but patients face even more anxiety due to discrimination and marginalization. In the ending scene of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, when Chief Bromden finds out that the institution lobotomized McMuprhy, he suffocates McMurphy out of his misery with a pillow. Chief Bromden knows that McMurphy would rather die than submit to
Kappel, Lawrence. Readings on One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print.
The emergence of counterculture with its non-conformist and free thinking attitude, as well as its physical attempts of involvement in mainstream society, pre-empted the government and mainstream society to retaliate by suppressing and conforming these people, often branding them as criminals. This widespread oppression, created and actioned by the Government and mainstream society is personified in the text of ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest’. The characters of the novel can be divided into three specific groups. The domineering and overpowering hospital staffs, is headed by the totalitarian Nurse Ratched. Ratched and her staff, who can be perceived as ‘henchmen’ represent the oppressive US government and mainstream society, controlling the actions and thoughts the majority of the American population, whi...
Edgar Allan Poe is forever identified with his eerie poem “The Raven” with his many gothic horror stories, and as the father of the detective story (Werlock1). Poe’s stories are known in America and Europe. Most of Poe’s stories are Gothic, which he describes them as “arabesque” a term that he felt best described as flowery (Wilson52). Poe proclaimed his writing a reaction to typical literature of the day, which he called “the heresy of the Didactic” for its tendency to preach (Wilson52). Some of Poe’s stories are also comedies. “The Fall of the House of Usher” was a nevertheless typical of Poe’s short stories in that it presents narrator thrust into a psychologically intense situation in which otherworldly forces conspire to drive at least one of the characters insane (Wilson53).Edgar Allan Poe had a difficult life after dropping out of college. He became a short story writer, one of his stories being “The Fall of the House of Usher”. “The Fall of the House of Usher” uses literary elements of symbols and settings to further the theme of evil.