One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Contrasting Representation of Thematic Elements in Fiction and Film

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Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest presents an allegorical representation of American society in the 1950’s. It is not without reason that a mental institution was chosen as the setting for this novel. Kesey experienced first-hand how these institutions function when he worked as an orderly in a California mental institution, observing the clearly determined hierarchy of power between the doctors, nurses, and patients. Classed as a counter-culture novel, readers enter in aware of the anti-mainstream nature of this novel. The cited text in this essay proves the anti-establishment bias that is presented through the characters, as per Mailloux’s first of three “moves” (Murfin 338).What I found as the overall emphasis of the movie was very different from the novel. While I usually identify from the perspective of a filmmaker, I see some major flaws in a truly accurate representation of this novel. Simplifying the “psychotic” nature that constitutes Chief Bromden’s internal monologue, the film focuses only on the disruption of order and schedule that Randle P. McMurphy introduces upon his arrival, sending Kesey into a fury. This was done at the behest of the director, Milos Forman, who responded with "I hate that whole 1960s drug free-association thing. That's fine in the book, which is stylized. But in the film the sky is real, the grass is real, the tree is real; the people had better be real too." While that decision still allowed the film to touch upon some of the major themes of the novel, specifically the clashing relationship of McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, I find it lacking, due to the fundamental structure those “drug-free associations” provide to the plot. The ability of the film and the novel to convey key elements ...

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Works Cited

Donaldson, Sarah. Filmmakers on film: Oliver Parker. The Telegraph. 31 Aug 2002. Web. 14 Jan 2014.
Goodfriend, Wind Ph.D. Mental Hospitals in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” A Psychologist at the Movies. Psychology Today. 22 May 2012. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
Gray, Richard. A History of American Literature. John Wiley & Sons. November 21, 2011. 28 December, 2014.
Lupack, Barbara Tepa. Take Two: Adapting the Contemporary American Novel to Film. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular, 1994. Print.
Murfin, Ross C. ”Reader-Response Criticism and The Awakening.” The Awakening, Kate Chopin. Case Studies In Contemporary Criticism. 2nd Edition. Ed. Nancy A. Walker. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000. 291-306.
Spurgin, Timothy. "Adaptation - From Fiction to Film." The Art of Reading. Chantilly: Teaching, 2009. 60-62. Print. Part 1 & 2.

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