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One flew over the cuckoo's nest summary psychology
One flew over the cuckoo's nest summary psychology
Analysis of one flew over the cuckoo's nest
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In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey delves into the predominate theme of power, and how it is used to manipulate and coerce to the point in which one individual rules over all others. This relationship is embodied in the power struggle between Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy. Before McMurphy arrives at the hospital, Nurse Ratched's strict routine works to maintain order within the hospital. However, with the introduction of McMurphy into the ward, chaos and change ensues. Mcmurphy’s blatant sexuality and individuality undermines the authority of Nurse Ratched, and in turn, the patients begin to discern their own power. Consequently, the pressure of the expectations of those around him ultimately forces McMurphy to forfeit …show more content…
his own dreams of freedom when he violently attacks Ratched and rips her uniform to reveal her femininity- damning evidence that Ratched is not indestructible. Although McMurphy dies as a result, his sacrifice becomes an inspiration to the other patients and breaks the power Nurse Ratched holds over the men. This achieves Mcmurphy’s goal in obtaining freedom for the patients in the ward by realizing the fragility of Nurse Ratched, and in turn, their own strength. From the start of the novel, Mcmurphy brazenly asserts his sensuality by his pride in having had a fifteen-year-old sexual partner, and his Moby-Dick boxer briefs- all of which denote masculinity and freedom.
Mcmurphy’s sexuality battles against the perceived notion that one must be desexualized when living in a civilized society. Mcmurphy’s blatant virility and his “extraordinary physical presence” (Flick) is further juxtaposed against the sterile ward that is “...a factory for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods and in the schools and in the churches” (Kesey 40). By quelling the sexuality of the patients, it is implied throughout the novel that the oppression of natural impulses leads directly to insanity. Devoid of natural expressions of sexuality, Harding even states that the patients are “... comical little creatures who can’t even achieve masculinity in the rabbit world” (Kesey 67). Consequently, Ratched is able to maintain her power because the patients themselves believe that they are “insane”. By refusing to conform to society’s norms, Mcmurphy “comes in bigger than life and restores the inmates’ power” (Flick). Mcmurphy’s resistance to Nurse Ratched’s desire to extinguish any semblance of virility allows the other patients to slowly regain their own sexuality and recognize their own power to resist her authority. This is illustrated as Mcmurphy jokes that Bromden’s erection is proof that he is getting bigger already. McMurphy later presents the ward with
Candy Starr, who exudes feminine sensuality and awakens the repressed sexuality of the patients. McMurphy observes that the patients can become individual, robust men if they can be receptive and aware of their own sexuality without fear of experiencing shame. Therefore, his ultimate objective— to diffuse his independence to the others—is able to be accomplished. McMurphy progressively becomes identified with Christ as he continues to sacrifice himself for the welfare of the patients- losing his own free will in the process. Just as Jesus did by taking his twelve disciples to sea, Mcmurphy forces the patients to fend for themselves during the fishing excursion, allowing them to realize that they are capable of being independent men who can rely on their own strengths. The fishing trip allows the men to learn how to confront and survive the outside world, allowing them to view themselves as men, not powerless patients. However, McMurphy helps the ward to regain their sanity at the risk of losing his own. Under the pressure of the other patients’ expectations, McMurphy ceases to be himself into what the others think he is. Chief makes it clear that McMurphy is not acting on his own when he brutally attacks Ratched, but in harmony with the wishes of the ward, as he states “ It was our need that was making him push himself slowly up from sitting… rising and standing… obeying orders beamed at him from forty masters” ( Kesey 304). By forfeiting his life, “ Mcmurphy’s death [exhibits] his successful efforts to establish a community of men” ( Flick). Though Mcmurphy permanently breaks Ratched’s power by exposing her human-ness, “... it is a success demanding forms of personal commitment” ( Flick) as he sacrifices his own desire to escape for the liberation of the group. Mcmurphy’s death allows the patients on the ward to recognize their own independence and force. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy’s sexuality and individuality allows the men to rebel against Nurse Ratched and her attempt to extinguish the freedom of the men on the ward. Though Mcmurphy ultimately loses his life and his own free will in the process, the patients are able to see the cracks in Ratched’s authority and are able to recognize their own sense of self.
In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, role reversal puts a woman, Nurse Ratched, in control of the ward, which is important in creating a contrast to traditional power. Within the ward Ratched has ultimate power by “merely [insinuating]” (p. 63) a wrongdoing and has control of the doctors. Soon after the first confrontation with Randle McMurphy (Mack), her power is demonstrated through the submissive and obedient manners of all there (152). Ratched is shown as having great power within the ward and outside, despite that time periods constriction of being a women, showing an important contrast to traditional power structures.
The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey tells a story of Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of a mental institution, and the way her patients respond to her harsh treatment. The story is told from the perspective of a large, Native-American patient named Bromden; he immediately introduces Randle McMurphy, a recently admitted patient, who is disturbed by the controlling and abusive way Ratched runs her ward. Through these feelings, McMurphy makes it his goal to undermine Ratched’s authority, while convincing the other patients to do the same. McMurphy becomes a symbol of rebellion through talking behind Ratched’s back, illegally playing cards, calling for votes, and leaving the ward for a fishing trip. His shenanigans cause his identity to be completely stolen through a lobotomy that puts him in a vegetative state. Bromden sees McMurphy in this condition and decides that the patients need to remember him as a symbol of individuality, not as a husk of a man destroyed by the
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...
In Ken Kesey’s novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, he engages the reader with Nurse Ratched’s obsession with power, especially against McMurphy. When Nurse Ratched faces multiple altercations with McMurphy, she believes that her significant power is in jeopardy. This commences a battle for power in the ward between these characters. One assumes that the Nurses’ meticulous tendency in the ward is for the benefit of the patients. However, this is simply not the case. The manipulative nurse is unfamiliar with losing control of the ward. Moreover, she is rabid when it comes to sharing her power with anyone, especially McMurphy. Nurse Ratched is overly ambitious when it comes to being in charge, leaving the reader with a poor impression of
Power and control are the central ideas of Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There are examples of physical, authoritative and mechanical power in the novel, as well as cases of self-control, and control over others. Nurse Ratched is the ultimate example of authoritative power and control over others but R.P. McMurphy refuses to acknowledge the Nurse’s power, and encourages others to challenge the status quo. The other patients begin powerless, but with McMurphy’s help, learn to control their own lives. Many symbols are also used to represent power and control in the book, such as the ‘Combine’, ‘fog’, and the imagery of machines.
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.
If the patients saw that Ms. Ratched could get angry, and that she was hiding her personality, they would realize that they are not rabbits after all, and that she is not a “good strong wolf”, as they previously believed. When patient R.P McMurphy, the hospital patient that tries to remove all of Ms. Ratched’s power, arrives on the hospital ward, he makes no effort to hide his personality, and the patients begin to recognize how Ms. Ratched hides her personality, in the novel, Chief Bromden says, “He stands looking at us, back in his boots, and he laughs and laughs. In the novel, Ms. Ratched just removed the tub room, which was used as a game room, from the patients, this angered McMurphy, so he decided to do something subtle to get revenge on Ms. Ratched. In the novel, it says, “The Big Nurse’s eyes swelled out as he got close. . .
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
In the novel, Kesey suggests that a healthy expression of sexuality is a key component of sanity and that repression of sexuality leads directly to insanity. For example; by treating him like an infant and not allowing him to develop sexually, Billy Bibbet's mother causes him to lose his sanity. Missing from the halls of the mental hospital are healthy, natural expression of sexuality between two people. Perverted sexual expressions are said to take place in the ward; for example; Bromden describes the aides as "black boys in white suites committing sex acts in the hall" (p.9). The aides engage in illicit "sex acts" that nobody witnesses, and on several occasions it is suggested that they rape the patients, such as Taber. Nurse Ratched implicitly permits this to happen, symbolized by the jar of Vaseline she leaves the aides. This shows how she condones the sexual violation of the patients, because she gains control from their oppression. McMurphy's sanity is symbolized by his bold and open insertion of sexuality which gives him great confidence and individuality. This stands in contrast to what Kesey implies, ironically and tragically, represents the institution.
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
In the film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the audience is shown the character of Mc Murphy who brought out the conflict of authority, obedience, and disobedience. The film introduces Nurse Ratched as head of the ward and the main authority figure. What this essay will focus on is if Nurse Ratched really ever is negligent? She is simply just doing her job. Would Mcmurphy be considered to be the so-called “evil” character in the film? When he arrives he causes so much chaos between the patients and the nurses. Would the audience agree Mcmurphy is even responsible for a patient's death within the ward?
The novel, which takes place in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, centers around the conflict between manipulative Nurse Ratched and her patients. Randle McMurphy, a transfer from Pendleton Work Farm, becomes a champion for the men’s cause as he sets out to overthrow the dictator-like nurse. Initially, the reader may doubt the economic implications of the novel. Yet, if one looks closer at the numerous textual references to power, production, and profit, he or she will begin to interpret Cuckoo’s Nest in a
Power, and its irrefutable ability to deprave those who wield it, is a central theme in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, which both explicitly examine the consequences of absolute power and the moral corruption that later ensues. Both authors assert that absolute power ultimately results in a blind acceptance of the actions of governing forces. Whilst Slaughterhouse Five exposes the horror of wars incited by almighty governments, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest presents the dangers of dictatorial control and ethical corruption in mental institutions. The emergence of Christ-like figures in each novel can also be attested to the unquestionable power exercised by omnipotent groups in both texts.