One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest – The Movie

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest – The Movie

The movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, tells the story of McMurphy, a convict, who is sent to a mental institution because he believes he is insane. In actuality McMurphy, is sane when he comes to the mental ward, he only wants to get out of the work that jail time entails. It is believed that his stay in the mental ward is what drives the man insane. While in the mental ward, he interacts with the patients of his ward and ends up changing their worlds completely. When two different societies are combined, they undoubtedly will change one another. This is the case when McMurphy coming from the "real" world, a society where a person can do what he pleases, is associated with the mental ward patients, whose lives are completely controlled by their nurses and their routines. McMurphy and the patients have a significant effect on each other.

The mental ward and the world that McMurphy comes from are completely different. The mental ward is completely based on rules. The patients' lives are based on the routine that their nurse, Nurse Ratched, has established for them. Nurse Ratched believes that the rules she sets for the patients are in their best interest or getting better. The nurses have entire control over the patients. They are locked into their beds every night, get up at the same time, they eat at the same time, and they watch tv at the same time every day. The patients follow Nurse Ratched's rule without ever questioning them. Basically, they have no minds of their own. McMurphy comes from a society almost opposite of the mental ward. He has lived his whole life doing what he wants. He has never had a nurse hovering over him telling him what he has to do at all time. Being in prison shows that McMurphy has a hard time living by the rules. So living by strict rules of the mental ward is going to be even harder for him.

Living in the mental ward is very hard for McMurphy at first. The patients and McMurphy cannot understand one another so socializing with them is hard for him. When he begins to interact with them, he has a profound effect on the patients of the mental ward.

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