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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. Many examples were shown throughout the film of a controlled/total environment. One of the four characteristics is status hierarchy, this being power structure. In the film, Nurse Ratchet was an example of this. She had all the power in the institution, and whatever she said the men knew to obey. Randle McMurphy did not like this at all, he tried to change this routine, and overall he thought he could be the power structure. …show more content…
This meaning making someone be like everyone else. The men at the institution were all depersonalized, they had been there for such a long time that they conformed to these certain norms and they all acted somewhat the same. Towards the end of the movie, due to McMurphy's violent acts, he was shocked so intently that he became a totally different person. He then became much calmer, meaning that he now had a different personality. The medical institution that all these men were in focused a lot on routines and schedules. Adjustment, the third characteristic, was what these men had to do when they were in the facility. Each day the men took their medicine with the sound of the same certain music that was played, so they knew each time it played it was their time to take it. When McMurphy first came to the institution he was used to the outside world environment that when he came to the medical institution he had to adjust certain parts of his daily routine and conform to
From the moment McMurphy enters the ward it is clear to all that he is different and hard to control. He’s seen as a figure the rest of the patients can look up to and he raises their hopes in taking back power from the big nurse. The other patients identify McMurphy as a leader when he first stands up to the nurse at her group therapy, saying that she has manipulated them all to become “a bunch of chickens at a pecking party”(Kesey 55). He tells the patients that they do not have to listen to Nurse Ratched and he confronts her tactics and motives. The patients see him as a leader at this point, but McMurphy does not see the need for him to be leading alone. McMurphy is a strong willed and opinionated man, so when he arrives at the ward he fails to comprehend why the men live in fear, until Harding explains it to him by
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
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.
The theory of the Therapeutic Community is that the group can “help the guy by showing him where he 's out of place; how society is what decides who 's sane and who isn 't so you got to measure up (p.49).” If a person has a quality that makes them stand out from the rest of the people (if they have a stutter, or have feminine features even though they 're men, or if they like to gamble) then society deems them insane and unfit for society. These are the people who go to the ward for “fixing”. All people in society have to be a certain way, they can 't have any qualities that makes them stand out and it is crucial that by the time they come out, they have no personal liberty because a person who has freedom of mind threatens the control of those in charge (Mcmurphy has personal liberty and that is why he is able to threaten the control of Nurse Ratched.) He makes a bet with the other patients that “I can get the best of that woman-before the week 's up-without her getting the best of me (p.79)” and because he has his own personal freedom, he is able to do just what he said he 'd do. The next morning Mcmurphy woke up early, ruining Nurse Ratched 's beloved schedule an walking around with nothing but a towel around his waist and his underwear
As a human being we are constantly reminded in our life span to "Live our lives to the fullest". At lease once in your life i'm sure you've heard of the saying "seize the day". It means you should live your life to the best of your abilities. You should strive to learn new things and live a satisfying life so you have no regrets in life. Many romantics strongly believe in this theory. They feel that you should take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way and that there are so many good things in the world. Our society today is a very realistic one. People get up in the mornings and go through their daily routine. They wake up, get ready, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed and do the same thing over and over in their lifetime that many feel they have wasted their lives. Only when one sees this pattern and wants to change it can they have a more fulfilling life. Society is responsible for putting this ideal lifestyle into effect and controlling our lives. In One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, by Ken Kesey, and the film Dead poets Society, there is a similarity in the main characters experiencing the realizations of society and its institutions, which are imposed by Nurse Ratchid and Mr. Noland. Nurse Ratchid and Mr. Noland are realists affected by society and therefore use conformity to their advantage of control. While the very romantic McMurphy and Mr. Keating rise up as leaders expressing individuality against conformity. The outspoken Bromden and Todd fight for freedom and responsibility ending in success as characters; all characters fighting against the institutions society has imposed.
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) The character McMurphy as played by Jack Nicholson, McMurphy’s is a criminal who is troubled and keeps being defiant. Instead of pleading guilty, McMurphy pleads insanity and then lands inside a mental hospital. Murphy reasons that being imprisoned within the hospital will be just as bad as being locked up in prison until he starts enjoying being within by messing around with other staff and patients. In the staff, McMurphy continuously irritates Nurse Ratched. You can see how it builds up to a control problem between the inmates and staff. Nurse Ratched is seen as the “institution” and it is McMurphy’s whole goal to rebel against that institution that she makes herself out to be.The other inmates view McMurphy like he is god. He gives the inmates reason to
The hunger to win can be a very powerful thing. As demonstrated through Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy are in constant war for this power over the patients of the ward. McMurphy attempts to give the patients more confidence while Nurse Ratched attempts to keeps things the way they were before he ever showed up. McMurphy’s constant rule breaking has caused Nurse Ratched to slowly break down and lose control over the patients which has declared him as the winner of the war.
Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is a novel containing the theme of emotions being played with in order to confine and change people. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about a mental institution where a Nurse named Miss Ratched has total control over its patients. She uses her knowledge of the patients to strike fear in their minds. Chief Bromden a chronic who suffers from schizophrenia and pretends to be deaf and mute narrates the novel. From his perspective we see the rise and fall of a newly admitted patient, RP McMurphy. McMurphy used his knowledge and courage to bring changes in the ward. During his time period in the ward he sought to end the reign of the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched, also to bring the patients back on their feet. McMurphy issue with the ward and the patients on the ward can be better understood when you look at this novel through a psychoanalytic lens. By applying Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence to McMurphy’s views, it is can be seen that his ideas can bring change in the patients and they can use their
Gibson and Mika Haritos-Fatouros, they inform readers about psychologist Stanley Milgram’s studies. “Milgram proposed that the reasons people obey or disobey authority fall into three categories. The first is personal history family or school backgrounds that encourage obedience or defiance. The second, which he called “binding,” is made up of ongoing experiences that make people feel comfortable when they obey authority. Strain, the third category, consists of bad feelings from unpleasant experiences connected with obedience,” ( Milgram 247). Although the nurse isn’t harmful the patients still feel obligated to respect and obey her. The complication begins when McMurphy joins the group. First of all, Randle McMurphy is not disturbed, he’s not crazy. He’s just a rebellious man who doesn’t follow any orders. He had the group steal a bus and steal a boat to go fishing and so he could spend time with his old friend Candy. He doesn’t respect Nurse Ratched and always seems to have a problem with her. He causes everyone to speak up, which isn’t a bad thing but causes disorder and the patients act up. For example, the scene where Cheswick starts yelling at the nurse and disobeys her orders doesn’t sit down and pouts about not getting his cigarettes back. From the start of the movie to the middle it seems that they were gaining a new authority figure, McMurphy himself. “The Greek example illustrates how the ability to torture can be taught. Training that increases binding and reduces strain can cause decent people to commit acts, often over long periods of time, that otherwise would be unthinkable for them” (Gibson, Haritos-Fatouros 249). The rebellious Mac has an influence on the rest of the ward to think it is okay to be against the rules. The quote “You bargained your freedom for the comfort of discipline,” (Jones Gibson, Haritos-Fatouros 247) has a similar meaning to McMurphy's actions. Mac gets a bit out of
McMurphy represents the coming freedom for people like the characters in the novel as society changes around them and becomes more open to people with differences and disabilities. As society became more informed about those with disabilities they started treating an caring for them better in hospitals like the one in the story. In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey the character Randle McMurphy represents the freedom of the natural world coming into a very civilized and up tight situation in a mental hospital which represents the mechanical society of the time. McMurphy goes against every rule and expectation the manipulative and power hungry nurse Ratched has made and tries to overthrow this very civilized system the nurse has put in place. Freedom is in a constant battle with civilized society, similarly to McMurphy continually fighting against nurse Ratched and her rules and expectations throughout the
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).
The movie director, Milos Forman, also portrays this element in his movie adaptation of the story, and does so successfully. It is crucial that Forman had successfully presented this element in the movie. Forman realized the importance of McMurphy’s unwavering voluntary leadership in the plot of the novel, that he is the driving force behind the future of the patients in the ward. If Forman had portrayed McMurphy stepping down as a leader midway into the storyline, he would have presented a movie that is anti-climactic and would distort the conclusion of the story. Therefore, in order to preserve the original plot of the novel, it is essential that Forman accurately presented McMurphy’s desire to show the patients the world beyond their psychiatric
There were no heroes on the psychiatric ward until McMurphy's arrival. McMurphy gave the patients courage to stand against a truncated concept of masculinity, such as Nurse Ratched. For example, Harding states, "No ones ever dared to come out and say it before, but there is not a man among us that does not think it. That doesn't feel just as you do about her, and the whole business feels it somewhere down deep in his sacred little soul." McMurphy did not only understand his friends/patients, but understood the enemy who portrayed evil, spite, and hatred. McMurphy is the only one who can stand against the Big Nurse's oppressive supreme power. Chief explains this by stating, "To beat her you don't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as sson as you loose once, she's won for good. And eventually we all got to lose. Nobody can help that." McMuprhy's struggle for hte patient's free will is a disruption to Nurse Ratched's social order. Though she holds down her guard she yet is incapable of controlling what McMurphy is incontrollable of , such as his friends well being, to the order of Nurse Ratched and the Combine.
In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the combine and the ward in psychiatric hospital are two communities with starkly different principles. The Combine consists of those who are associated with the government, such as Nurse Ratched, the black boys, and Dr. Spivey. Scanlon, Dale Harding, Cheswick, Billy Bibbit, Chief Bromden, and Randle McMurphy are all patients on the ward. McMurphy has himself committed to the ward, even though he is mentally stable, because he is too lazy to do the work in prison. After McMurphy joins the ward, the patients become more inquisitive and enthusiastic, as he brings a scheming, boisterous energy to a group with low-self confidence. Ultimately, McMurphy’s self-serving, impetuous attitude in the ward