The use of theme in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey brings upon the ideas of misogyny, sexual repression and freedom, and salvation from an omnipotent oppressor, through the story of Chief Bromden, who lives in an insanity ward. Even from the beginning pages of the novel, the reader is introduced to such characters as Nurse Ratched, or the “Big Nurse,” who is said to be the dictator of the ward and acts upon the ward with the utmost control. Another branch of the theme of oppressors and salvation that relates to Nurse Ratched, as well as Randle McMurphy, is the idea that they are both representatives of figures based in Catholicism. Sexual repression and freedom is seen with the ultimate punishment in the ward, a lobotomy, being stated as equivalent to castration. Both of the operations are seen as emasculating, removing the men’s personal freedom, individuality, and sexual expression, and reducing them to a child-like state. All of these different pieces of the theme relates to a powerful institution that, because of the advances of the time, such as technology and civil rights for women, is causing men to be common workers without distinctive thoughts that must fit the everyday working mold of the 1950s. Misogyny in this text is represented through many factors showing how women can only prove their dominance by removing the men’s sexuality and freedom of independence. It is also represented in the fact that Nurse Ratched is seen as perfect except for her breasts, her outward mark of being a woman. “A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing, putting those big, womanly breasts on what would of otherwise been a perfect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.” (6) The fear of women is usually stemmed from ... ... middle of paper ... ...l norms on a growing matriarchal society in place because of spreading civil rights. Even as Bromden becomes more self aware, he realizes how the ward is a symbol for society, and that, because of his difference as a Native American, he breaks the chain of industrialized, repetitive, and mechanical work of the capitalist world. This is his reason for being forced into the ward. It also generalizes Native Americans, showing that their connection to nature must mean that they are then incapable of working in a “modern” day society of technology and mechanics, forcing them to be burdens on the system. Overall, the book has a strong focus on the machine of America and how it is becoming a matriarchal society against the freedom of men and how self expression is dying from the doldrums of everyday, socially-accepted work that rejects individuality and critical thinking.
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey is about a man named Chief Bromden. He is half Indian and is locked up in a mental institute. He has led everyone in the ward to believe that he is deaf and dumb; instead he is just quiet and observant. Big Nurse is the head of the ward and mentally controls every patient she has, not allowing them to become better. McMurphy is a transfer to the ward and loosens up the atmosphere. He is a very relaxed, outgoing, funny guy that loves to joke around and be loud. When he too notices the Big Nurse's mental control on everyone, he sets out to help the patients become sane and not be influenced by the Big Nurse. One of the possible themes for this story is that women, although not physically stronger than men, can mentally be stronger than men and can control them with that alone. In the following paragraphs I will show how Kesey portrays women's control.
People often find themselves as part of a collective, following society's norms and may find oneself in places where feeling constrained by the rules and will act out to be unconstrained, as a result people are branded as nuisances or troublemakers. In the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, the author Ken Kesey conveys the attempt McMurphy makes to live unconstrained by the authority of Nurse Ratched. The story is very one sided and helps create an understanding for those troublemakers who are look down on in hopes of shifting ingrained ideals. The Significance of McMurphy's struggles lies in the importance placed on individuality and liberty. If McMurphy had not opposed fear and autocratic authority of Nurse Ratched nothing would have gotten better on the ward the men would still feel fear. and unnerved by a possibility of freedom. “...Then, just as she's rolling along at her biggest and meanest, McMurphy steps out of the latrine ... holding that towel around his hips-stops her dead! ” In the novel McMurphy shows little signs like this to combat thee Nurse. His defiance of her system included
“Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge,” verbalizes Andrea Dworkin. Gender-roles have been ingrained in the every-day life of people all around the world since the beginnings of civilization. Both One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Hamlet portray typical female stereotypes in different time periods. Due to the representation of women in literature like Hamlet by William Shakespeare and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kessey, and pop-culture, evidence of classic gender-based stereotypes in a consistently patriarchal world are still blatantly obvious in today’s societies.
When it comes to manipulation many view it as a negative aspect in life. Although people view it as a negative aspect, they continue to manipulate words and actions to get what they want. Ken Kesey applied manipulation in the book to reveal the positive and negative sides of manipulation. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a controversial novel that describes the inner workings of a mental institution.
The fundamental theme in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest involves society's destruction of individuality. People who refuse to conform to the social standards face ridicule and judgment. Kesey develops this theme through his use of mechanical imagery, metaphors, and symbolism. The novel takes place in a mental hospital, the narrator, Chief is a patient in the ward who suffers from vivid hallucinates. When McMurphy, a spirited character arrives at the ward he begins to question the humility of the hospital, his criticisms of the hospital spark a rebellion amongst the other patients. McMurphy teaches the others to think and speak as individuals and to be themselves despite others judgements. As Nurse Ratched sees the usually powerless patients find power in numbers she decides their leader, McMurphy must be eliminated if she wants to maintain control. She eventually has McMurphy lobotomized leaving him in a vegetable state. In the end Chief runs away from the hospital deciding to no longer live his life under the oppressive rule of doctors and nurses. After being inspired by McMurphy’s free thinking ways Chief decides that living a life dictated by society is not a quality life.
While McMurphy tries to bring about equality between the patients and head nurse, she holds onto her self-proclaimed right to exact power over her charges because of her money, education, and, ultimately, sanity. The patients represent the working-class by providing Ratched, the manufacturer, with the “products” from which she profits—their deranged minds. The patients can even be viewed as products themselves after shock therapy treatments and lobotomies leave them without personality. The negative effects of the hospital’s organizational structure are numerous. The men feel worthless, abused, and manipulated, much like the proletariat who endured horrendous working conditions and rarely saw the fruits of their labor during the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom and United States in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century (“Industrial Revolution” 630).
In the film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest we get a glimpse of how a medical institution is run. Throughout, the film it shows how these characters have conformed to these now social norms that they live with everyday. The men have certain times each day they take their medicine, when they wake up, and overall what they do. They have become accustomed to these daily routines and rarely deviate from these, until a new member comes Randle McMurphy joins the institution.
1. Discuss the control devices used by Big Nurse on the ward and by the Combine in general.
One of the reasons Rick was excited on finding the Toad was because the Toad happened to be considered special to Wilbur Mercer. “Wilbur Mercer is the messianic figure of Mercerism, a religion that encourages fusion with other humans in order to share in suffering and persecution. By fusing with Mercer, humanity is able to draw on the power of the collective in order to survive.” (gradesaver.com) The empathy box was a means of “fusing” with Wilbur Mercer and it was first introduced into the story in chapter 2. John Isadore, a character in the story, is in his apartment and feels lonely and choses to use his empathy box. During his fusion, Isadore is described as feeling community as he works with Wilbur Mercer, climbing up towards the top of this hill which has no end in sight. “This fusion of their mentalities oriented their attention on the hill, the climb, the need to ascend.” (Dick, 22) This experience that
Accordingly, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a tragic portrayal of a working-class hero's moral ascension and the implications for contemporary American males of that messianic encounter with society's limitations upon personal freedom.” (Baurecht, William C.). People were bullied by others for being different, for example Bromden was very quiet at the start, but by the end he started to open up. Once McMurphy had arrived, he showed others that they didn’t need to listen to the Big Nurse because she was just trying to control them. He had made it much more enjoyable for the patients who felt miserable. The environment in the mental hospital was not the greatest as Bromden states, “The things I’ve had to clean up in these meetings nobody’d believe; horrible things, poison manufactured right out of skin pores and acids in the air strong enough to melt a man, I’ve seen it.” (Pg. 131, Kesey). This related to the prison system in our society because the police do not treat the prisoners fairly just because they are different from others. The police even beat the people in the prison if they see anyone dong something they don’t like. Just because they made a mistake doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a second chance to learn and improve. The nurse had taken advantage of her power and tortured who ever came in her way and did not
“The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak” (Kesey 60).
In Ken Kesey's, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” the main character, Chief Bromden, is stuck in a mental institution and is labeled as a vegetable, meaning that he will never be “fit” enough to leave the institution and conform back into society. The novel focuses on Bromden’s internal struggle to accept Randle McMurphy’s rebellious actions toward Nurse Ratched and McMurphy’s urge for the patients to break free from the nurse’s tyranny over the ward. Sia’s song, “Breathe Me” can relate to what Bromden experiences throughout the entire novel regarding to loneliness and and a lack of self-confidence. The lyrics, “Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found” resemble Bromden’s condition because his mental illness, schizophrenia, causes him to imagine fog that supposedly protects him from the insanity in the ward.
In Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Kesey makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: the effects of sexual repression, woman as castrators, and the pressures we face from society to conform. Through these points, Kesey encourages the reader to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the reader realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as "crazy."
As all movies are created based on a book, there always seems to be changes and conflicting ideas. However, they still have the same main idea to the story line. The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey and the movie directed by Miloš Forman deal with the main idea of society's control of natural impulses. The author/director want to prove that this control can be overcome. Although the movie and the book are very different from each other, they still have their similarities.
One of the many examples of feminism throughout the novel is the way women are treated by men. The novel was written in the early nineteenth century when men played the leading role in society. All women were supposed to do was follow the instructions of men and do nothing le...