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In the early 1960’s, Ken Kesey worked in the psych ward in a veterans hospital as an aide. During the course of his job, Kesey realized the administrators were giving patients experimental LSD to cope with their mental illnesses. After seeing this being done, he started to wonder, who is mentally stable and what classifies a person as insane (Kesey)? With this in mind Ken Kesey wrote, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This classic novel depicts the image of a psych ward under control by the manipulative, Nurse Ratched. The patients on the ward are lifeless; every waking moment is scheduled and controlled, until one day when a new patient, Patrick McMurphy arrives. Patrick McMurphy brings life back into the patients and helps them push the boundaries. With McMurphy on the ward there becomes a new normal. When answering the question of what normalcy is, Kesey uses character development, symbols, and motifs to give insight of the psychological well-being of others and how it shifts with positive and negative changes. The characters in this novel portray different levels of mental stability. Throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest each of the main characters undergoes a notable shift in their mental states (Rutten). The schizophrenic narrator, Chief Bromden is indubitably insane in the beginning. As the narrator, he gives insight into the inner workings of the hospital. All of what he sees is stated as fact but, it cannot be taken literally since a portion of it is based off of hallucinations and paranoia (Waxler). He states early on "it's the truth even if it didn't happen" (Kesey, 8). He often takes looks back into his childhood. During these flashbacks he describes himself as small and his parents as large. In Chief's mind char... ... middle of paper ... ... a way to escape; a type of salvation. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, uses laughter as a measure of psychological well-being. The lack of laughter strays away from normalcy whereas regular laughter makes everything seem normal. Before McMurphy arrives on the ward every second of time the patients spend is strictly monitored and far away from the standard of normal. Without laughter McMurphy starts to lose sight of sanity. As everyone else starts to lighten up and genuinely laugh the ward starts to open itself up as a place where the patients can express themselves more freely. Invisibility is an important part of this novel because what is narrated by Chief Bromden generally happens when he feels invisible or hidden in fog. When the patients are going against the administrators of the ward there are claims about not seeing or not fully seeing all of the details.
Chief Bromden, who is presumably deaf and dumb, narrates the story in third person. Mr. McMurphy enters the ward all smiles and hearty laughter as his own personal medicine. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a story about patients in a psychiatric hospital, who are under the power of Nurse Ratched. Mrs. Ratched has control over all the patients except for Mr. McMurphy, who uses laughter to fight her power. According to Chief Bromden, McMurphy "...knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy" (212). Laughter is McMurphy's medicine and tool to get him and the rest of the patients through their endless days at the hospital. The author's theme throughout the novel is that laughter is the best medicine, and he shows this through McMurphy's static character. The story is made up of series of conflicts between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. McMurphy becomes a hero, changing the lives of many of the inmates. In the end, though, he pays for his actions by suffering a lobotomy, which turned him into a vegetable. The story ends when Bromden smothers McMurphy with a pillow and escapes to freedom.
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...
Some people are what you may call "normal", some are depressed, some are mentally ill, and some are just plain old crazy. In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, written by Ken Kesey, the author shows how people can act so differently and have different ways of dealing with their problems. The story is narrated by Chief Bromden who is thought to be deaf and dumb. He tells of a man by the name of R. P. McMurphy, who was a con man, and was convicted of statutory rape. He told the officials that, "she was 18 and very willing if you know what I mean."( ) He was sent to a work farm, where he would spend some time, working off his crime. Since he was so lazy, he faked being insane and was transferred to a mental ward, somewhere near Portland, Oregon. On his arrival he finds some of the other members of the asylum to be almost "normal" and so he tries to make changes to the ward; even though the changes he is trying to make are all at his own expense. As time goes on he gets some of the other inmates to realize that they aren't so crazy and this gets under the skin of the head nurse. Nurse Ratched (the head nurse) and McMurphy have battle upon battle against each other to show who is the stronger of the two. He does many things to get the other guys to leave the ward. First he sets up a fishing trip for some of them, then sets up a basketball team, along with many smaller problems and distractions. Finally Nurse Ratched gives him all he can handle and he attacks her.
... Nurse Ratched hides her sexuality by trying to hide her large breasts with her heavy white uniform. Kesey seems to share the same point of view, which the author of the Rocking Horse Winner had. That was, we do not pay enough attention to our sexuality. These themes and may others are consistent and scattered evenly throughout the story, which again emphasizes the quality of this novel. The setting was explained with the greatest of detail, the characters were always true to their nature and the themes dealt with in this novel were in fact very real. A quite disturbing piece, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, makes you think about how people in such institutions live. However, as grim as his descriptions of the hospital may be, Kesey is not simply writing a book that criticizes such mental health facilities, for we realize that the outside world is not much better.
Ken Kesey in his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest question a lot of things that you think almost everyday. With this famous portrait of a mental institute its rebellious patients and domineering caretakers counter-culture icon Kesey is doing a whole lot more than just spinning a great yarn. He is asking us to stop and consider how what we call "normal" is forced upon each and every one of us. Stepping out of line, going against the grain, swimming upstream whatever your metaphor, there is a steep price to pay for that kind of behavior. The novel tells McMurphys tale, along with the tales of other inmates who suffer under the yoke of the authoritarian Nurse Ratched it is the story of any person who has felt suffocated and confined by our
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey presents a situation which is a small scale and exaggerated model of modern society and its suppressive qualities. The story deals with the inmates of a psychiatric ward who are all under the control of Nurse Ratched, ‘Big Nurse’, whose name itself signifies the oppressive nature of her authority. She rules with an iron fist so that the ward can function smoothly in order to achieve the rehabilitation of patients with a variety of mental illnesses. Big Nurse is presented to the reader through the eyes of the Chief, the story’s narrator, and much of her control is represented through the Chief’s hallucinations. One of these most recurring elements is the fog, a metaphorical haze keeping the patients befuddled and controlled “The fog: then time doesn’t mean anything. It’s lost in the fog, like everyone else” (Kesey 69). Another element of her control is the wires, though the Chief only brings this u...
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.
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest mirrors, in the behavior of it’s characters, contemporary society very accurately and can still be relied on, as a contemporary text, an accurate display of the treatment of patients within a mental hospital today.
In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the main characters, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy struggle for power over the ward. Throughout the novel, McMurphy grew from questioning rules to disobeying them completely. In comparison, Nurse Ratched went from verbally emasculating the inmates to physically traumatizing them and destroying their self-esteem. At various moments within the novel, McMurphy has more power, and during others Nurse Ratched seems victorious. McMurphy gains control by appealing to the ward’s inmates with confidence and hope, while Nurse Ratched gains control by emasculating them, and making them feel self conscious. Furthermore, McMurphy has the support of his fellow inmates, while Nurse Ratched uses the rules of the ward, and the government to her advantage. Although Nurse Ratched lobotomizes McMurphy, his beliefs and influence carries on within the rest of the patients. Therefore, this novel suggests that despite Nurse Ratched’s power over the ward, McMurphy’s Impact lives on.
In an archaic children’s rhyme, it is stated that “one flies east, one flies west, one flies over the cuckoo’s nest.” which deeply connects to the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by serving as an epigraph for the events in the novel. In the novel, the contrast between sanity and insanity is displayed via the inhabitants of an Oregon psychiatric hospital. It is narrated by Chief Bromden, a massive Indian who, despite his size, is unable to voice his opinions and is timid. At the commencing of the novel, the hospital is run by an overbearing and tyrannical leader known as Nurse Ratched. Ratched, also referred to as the “Big Nurse” receives her reputation from being completely organized and constantly attempting to achieve perfection that
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells a colorful but rather disturbing story through the lenses of Chief Bromden-a schizophrenic half Indian who pretends to be deaf and unintelligent-as he observes how McMurphy-a con man and a gambler charged with battery and assault who cheated himself out of a prison work farm through an insanity plea-manages to grant the patients freedom against the oppression of the head Nurse. On the surface One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a commentary concerning the institutional systems that are responsible for the mentally ill. However, as the book progresses it is evident that the ward in the mental asylum is metaphorical for society at large and the authoritative
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a trip to the interior of a human mind that cannot fit into society. The book introduces us to several characters, and the author deepens each one of them, showing us how they came to the state they are in and how the patients can quickly lose their sanity. Of course, it also criticizes the way the psychiatric hospitals cared for its patients during that time, where the “doctors” could not understand that their treatments were harmful to the patients. Both the psychological side as the clinical side of a psychiatric hospital is very well portrayed in the book. The author shows us the daily routine of the patients, transporting the reader into a real sanatorium, showing the patient’s fears, anxieties, and
As people become isolated in an environment of chaos, it leads to a pattern of rebellion and insubordination that is demonstrated throughout the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. It is a thrilling story written about a group of men in a mental asylum, who are divided into groups of acute and chronic patients. The narrator of the story is Chief Bromden who tells the story of how a well organized and structured institution gets overthrown by a new psychopath, Randle McMurphy. Nurse Ratched takes care of the asylum and holds the place together despite being a tyrant and manipulative. Randle McMurphy is a powerful and mutinous character that challenges the themes of the book to be rebellion and insubordination.
Freud believed that our subconscious was divided into three sections. Our unconscious thoughts, urges and desires known as the id. Our preconscious thoughts and conscience which represents the knowledge we have learned about right and wrong, known as the superego. Finally, our conscious self which mediates the id and superego, known as the ego. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, written by Ken Kesey, is a story about a man who doctors can not decide whether he is insane or just pretending, so they send him to Oregon Psychiatric Hospital which is run by Nurse Ratched. When applying Freud's theory to this novel we are able to distinguish the different personality traits of the two main characters, R.P McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. Through their encounters
When put in stress inducing situations, humans often use coping or defense mechanisms to deal with their surroundings. Some may turn to negative entities, while others seek spiritual guidance. Author Ken Kesey does an excellent job illustrating a handful of different types of coping and defense mechanisms through the ward patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The characters in this story have a variety of mental disorders, causing them to react differently to everyday situations— as compared to the average human being. Due to these disorders, the ward patients would be more likely to resort to coping/defense mechanisms than others, thus, coping/defense mechanisms play a very important role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.