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Analysis in one flew over the cuckoo's nest
Analysis in one flew over the cuckoo's nest
Literary analysis of one flew over the cuckoo's nest
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Isabella Lumaj
Mr. Corcoran
Points of View
10 November 2015
Meaning of Life
The comparison of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Man’s Search for Meaning are that in life we all need/have a purpose. McMurphy, Chief Bromden, and Nurse Ratched all relate to the quote perfectly in many ways. Purpose and meaning of life is what people need to be able to live the fullest.
First, McMurphy can be compared of the quote “ What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.” McMurphy in the beginning of the book is brought out to be this man who had no purpose in life. He would go to many different institutions waiting to be released and didn’t really care. “What he needs is not
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the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him...People sometimes lack the awareness of a meaning worth living for,” McMurphy finds meaning through the ward he gets to make close relationships with the men in the ward and finds meaning through it. “First Charles Cheswick and now William Bibbit! I hope you’re finally satisfied. Playing with human lives--gambling with human lives--as if you thought yourself to be a God!” (pg.318). That quote from the book is when Bibbit dies and Nurse Ratched tries to make McMurphy think it's all his fault when really it was hers. McMurphy really cared for Bibbit and it made him attack Nurse Ratched. “To life he can only respond by being responsible…,” from the start when McMurphy joins the ward he creates relationships with the men and he feels like he's responsible for them since he finds meaning through them. McMurphy gives men the confidence and courage they need. “Sefelt and Fredrickson signed out together Against Medical Advice, and two days later another three Acutes left, and six more transferred to another ward” (pg.319). Second, Chief Bromden’s comparison of the quote is how he is an “existential vacuum.” “They are haunted by the experience of their inner emptiness, a void within themselves; they are caught in that situation which I have called the ‘existential vacuum.’ This existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom,” this is reminiscent of Chief Bromden and the fog.
The fog for Chief Bromden is what to he refers to as being where he is “invisible,” which isn’t true since he is such a tall/big man. The fog to him is his comfort zone where he pretends to be deaf-and-dumb. “I thought maybe he was laughing at how weak I looked. But then’s when I remember thinking that he was laughing because he wasn’t fooled for one minute by my deaf-and-dumb act” (pg.24). As said in the quote “call of a potential meaning,” Chief Bromden finds his potential meaning when McMurphy comes to the ward. McMurphy could tell from the very first time he saw Bromden that he was not deaf-and-dumb. McMurphy helps Bromden gain his confidence and realize that he is actually big/tall and not small/short. Bromden gains his confidence and courage and escapes the ward to find his family. “I remember I was taking huge strides as I ran, seeming to step and float a long ways before my next foot struck the earth. I felt like I was flying. Free.” …show more content…
(pg.324). Third, Nurse Ratched is explained very well by this line from the quote, “Sometimes the frustrated will to meaning is vicariously compensated for by a will to power.” Before McMurphy, everyone in the ward knew Nurse Ratched as being a nice lady who did charity work on the weekends, which was not true.
“That she even further services mankind on her weekends off by doing generous volunteer work about town. Preparing a rich array of charity” (pg.61). When McMurphy was put in the ward he made everyone realize that Nurse Ratched was more interested in control and punishment than therapy. “We are victims of a matriarchy here, my friend, and the doctor is just as helpless against it as we are. He knows that all Ratched has to do is pick up that phone you see sitting at her elbow and call the supervisor” (pg.63). In Nurse Ratched's case power/control is what fills her void. She doesn’t need love or meaning in her life she just needs
power. Life is not always fair and it's a struggle especially if you don’t have the mental strength or health to deal with it. People should be surrounded by others who help them grow and to know they have a purpose in life. McMurphy, Chief Bromden, and Nurse Ratched are all perfect examples in showing how their life was changed by one person. Works Cited Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: A Novel. New York: Viking, 1962. Print. Frankl, Viktor. Man's Search for Meaning. N.p.: n.p., 1959. 166-72. Print.
The novel that Kesey wrote is focused on how Bromden’s past memories should not let him down, but to gather his strength and let go of the past to start anew. Kesey builds up the encouragement through the help on McMurphy in order for Bromden to face reality with the hallucinations, to Nurse Ratched’s authorities, and the use of symbolism.
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
Chief Bromden is a six foot seven tall Native American (half) who feels very small and weak even though by physical description, he is very big and strong. Chief does not have enough self-confidence and he is not independent. That is what makes him so small and weak. When Randle McMurphy, the new inmate in the asylum comes in, Chief is reminded of what his father used to be: strong, independent, confident and big. "He talks a little the way papa used to, voice loud and full of hell " (16) McMurphy helps Chief gains back his self-confidence and teaches him to be independent.
Bromden, the narrator, always vies himself as small, even though he’s actually a large person. To him, McMurphy is big, which he says metaphorically. In the passage, McMurphy makes the patients big: “It started slow and pumped itself full, swelling the men bigger and bigger. I watched, part of them, laughing with them- and somehow not with them. I was off the boat, blown up off the water and skating the wind with those black birds, high above myself…” (Kesey 249-250). People who are small are weak and powerless, like Bromden and the patient’s, scared and willing to submit to power. Meanwhile, people who are big, like McMurphy, are confident and not afraid. McMurphy made the men “bigger”, more powerful, just by laughing and giving them confidence. All in all, the metaphor and contrast between being big and small reveal how McMurphy made them stronger and more confident just by being
Nurse Ratched is portrayed as the authority figure in the hospital. The patients see no choice but to follow her regulations that she had laid down for them. Nurse Ratched's appearance is strong and cold. She has womanly features, but hides them “Her Face is smooth, calculated, and precision-made, like an expensive… A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing putting those big, womanly breasts on what would have otherwise been a prefect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.” (11) She kept control over the ward without weakness, until McMurphy came. When McMurphy is introduced into the novel he is laughing a lot, and talking with the patients in the ward, he does not seem intimidated by Miss Ratched. McMurphy constantly challenges the control of Nurse Ratched, while she tries to show she remains in control, He succeeds in some ways and lo...
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
McMurphy’s initial view of the mental hospital, is that he sees it as a new opportunity to take control and become the leader of the place. This desire of his is seen almost immediately when he enters the
In the book as McMurphy progresses, he goes through many stages where he is rebellious, then docile, then rebellious again. This is due to the fact that he learns exactly what it means to be committed and what it takes to be released. Then he begins to see that all his ward mates (I don't know what you want to call them) are counting on him. becomes rebellious again. These reactions to his environments encourage McMurphy is not crazy but intelligent and quick. This is exactly the case. way a character such as McMurphy should act. In the movie, McMurphy is not only wild but rude. He tried to never be outright rude in the book. aggravating for the nurse) yet in the movie he was. He never stopped being. wild in the movie, leading you to believe that maybe in fact he is crazy.
R.P. McMurphy is a lively, rebellious, and rational patient that has recently been escorted into the insane asylum. Once in the bin, Randle becomes the self-proclaimed champion of the rights of the other ward patients, his adversary being Nurse Ratched (New York Times). He scrutinizes the asylum and the patients deciding that he needs to lighten the atmosphere. According to Filmsite, Movie Review McMurphy encourages the patients to participate in activities that will heighten their spirits and change their monotonous routines. McMurphy decides to challenge Nurse Ratched when he notices that the patients of the ward are overly organized and controlled through a rigid set of authoritarian rules and regulations that McMurphy questions: “God Almighty, she’s got you guys comin’ or goin’. What do you think she is, some kind of champ or somethin’?”--- “I bet in one week, I can put a bug so far up her ass, she don’t know whether to s—t or wind her wrist watch” (OFOTCN). Entertainment Weekly implies that McMurphy is unwilling to surrender to Nurse Ratched’s belittling power and rebels against corr...
In Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” characters were subjected to conformity, however those that evade submission are able to realize their personal desires and as a result set a precedent for those that come after. Personal desires are ever changing due to an individual's circumstances and the influence of peers. The author is able to exemplify how an individual must transform their personal desires in order to succeed in undermining conformity. McMurphy’s personal desire transitions throughout the course of the novel, evolving due to his surroundings and circumstances he faces. He develops a sense of responsibility for the other men when he realizes they are playing a “rigged game”(pg 54) which they have no chance of winning.
By bringing in McMurphy, readers can see how truly changing the concept of power can be, but also show that power does not have to be evil and bad. McMurphy’s influence of the patients on the fishing trip shows that good power even has the capabilities of changing the lives of people. On the other hand, Nurse Ratched is also a symbol of power, but the power instilled by Nurse Ratched is very menacing and dark. An example of her power is when she “turns on the fog machine”. Nurse and her assistants are shown instilling their power like during moments “They’re at the fog machine again but they haven’t
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.
McMurphy in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is used primarily to benefit
Kappel, Lawrence. Readings on One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print.
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.