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How to write a critical discourse analysis essay
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One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, filmed in 1975, based on the 1962 novel of the same name, tell a story about the lack of autonomy for mental health patients due to rigid rules of conformity, manipulation and authority. The Institutionalised Mental Hospital is where the patients are mainly governed through a paternalistic and/or authoritative approach which results in a general lack of autonomy in the film. This leads to the following ethical problems such
as:
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...
Barbaric treatments for mental patients such as lobotomies and electric shock therapy were often used in mid-twentieth century psychiatric wards. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, set in one of these wards, is a fictional novel about committed mental patient R. P. McMurphy and his power struggle with the emasculating Nurse Ratched. The mastermind behind this novel, Ken Kesey, was a prominent figure in American counter-culture who struggled with figures of power during his lifetime as well. Ken Kesey reflects his life in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in various ways including the setting and the hallucinogenic experiences he shares with the narrator.
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 environment. His exposure of the flaws in the hospital's perfunctory rituals permits the other patients to form opinions and consequently their personalities surface. The patient's new behavior clashes with the medical personnel's main goal-to turn them into 'perfect' robots, creating havoc on the ward.
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
A common theme of literature is conflict one has with one’s self. Often the solution to the main external conflict shines light upon the solution to the internal conflict of a character. In both One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Their Eyes Were Watching God the central character is oppressed by their surroundings and trapped in situations of internal and external distress. However, both Bromden and Janie become strong throughout their story despite their marginalization. In these novels it is their internal strength that gives them the ability to overcome their external conflict. This springs from the common theme of dehumanization in both novels. Dehumanization is a tool of oppression that is used against minority groups across history and around the world to repress their
Randall Patrick McMurphy’s struggle against institutional authority in the 1975 Academy Award winning film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest brings to light one man’s rebellion against the repressive and controlling powers of an oppressive institution. McMurphy is committed to a mental institution after being ejected from a work farm due to his belligerent: some at the prison believed him to be crazy.
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. The biggest theme of the story is oppression. Throughout the course of the story, patients are suppressed and fight to find who they really are.
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.
Kappel, Lawrence. Readings on One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print.
The author of One Flew over the Cuckoo 's Nest, allows the reader to explore different psychoanalytic issues in literature. The ability to use works literature to learn about real world conflicts allows us to use prior knowledge to interact with these problems in reality. Ken Kesey, the author of the above novel and Carl Jung, author of “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious” wrote how the mind can be easily overtaken by many outside factors from the past or present. The novel takes place in an asylum that is aimed to contain individuals that have a mental issue or problem. The doctors and care takers are seen as tyrants and barriers that inhibit the patients to improve their health, while the patients are limited by their initial conditions
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kessey is a narrative of Chief Bromden, a severe schizophrenic in a psychiatric hospital. Chief is a Native American man who has habituated at the asylum the longest out of all the patients. He feigns to be deaf and dumb to prevent drawing attention to himself. According to Chief, the hospital is a giant machine referred to as the ‘Combine’, which is used to force the patients to abide by the rules. The hospital is visibly divided into two categories of patients, the ‘Acutes’ (curable) and the ‘Chronics’ (incurable). The men are dictated by the heinous Nurse Ratched, a cold and uncompassionate woman. This tale begins with the introduction of the Chief, Nurse Ratched and her aides. Chief often slips into the ‘fog’,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest takes place in a ward of a mental institution. The biggest conflict throughout the film is the fight for power, which is a reoccurring theme. If you’ve ever seen the film you probably thought to yourself there is a very corrupt ruling system in place. If you know anything about The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo then you begin to realize the evil elements shown in the film.
In the movie one flew over the cuckoo’s nest all the elements of institutionalization are present. Therefore I will be covering all the four major parts, status hierarchy, power structure, depersonalization, and the loss of individuality. All of these are present in the movie and play an important role in how the hospital is run In this essay I will connect all four of these to the movie and elaborate on them.
Published in 1962, Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, has become a staple in high school curriculum despite its old age. The book follows Chief Bromden, a quiet and passive man with a half Native American heritage, and Randle McMurphy, a hot-headed gambler who likes to defy authority. Despite its publication date, several of the themes present in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest are still universal to this day. The defiance of authority is one of the themes that can be seen in many books in this current day. McMurphy’s single man rebellion against the cruel power of Nurse Ratched and his questioning of why the patients live so passively, following her commands without a fight, is still applicable even in the twenty-first century. Another
A madhouse is still better than the jail, thinks at least of the burnt-down dolly Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) when he pleads in court for insanity and gets himself into a mental hospital. But far from it, a malicious station nurse is leading a brutal and inhumane regime. The helpless patients vegetate in fear and despair, if any of them should have difficulty adapting, he is mercilessly put to rest with painful electric shocks. In order to convince the prison leadership under Dr. Spivey (Dean R. Brooks) of his preemptive mental illness, McMurphy instigates restlessness wherever he can and soon finds friends among the patients. His bizarre actions turn out to be the best remedy for the sick, and slowly they awaken from their joyless lethargy.