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In Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the acute are unable to better themselves on the hierarchy triangle. Nurse Ratched’s power prohibits from the acutes from having esteem, loving and belonging, and having their safety needs met. Therefore the patients on the ward incableable to be their best selves. The patients on the ward lack esteem and status for themselves. Kesey’s show this particularly in the sit down talk between Harding and Mcmurphy. Harding tells Randle “existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak. The rabbits accepts their role in the ritual and recognizes the wolf as strong.” (64 Kesey). Dale associates the rabbits himself and the other on the wad as rabbits. He claims that they’re inferior …show more content…
and to weak to stand up for themselves. Right after he states “we’d be rabbits wherever we were - we’re all in here because we can’t adjust to our rabbithood. We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place.”(64). Harding gives the nurse the status of a wolf. Randle brought self esteem to the ward. For example the situation that happened at the docks when they were waiting for Mcmurphy to finish with the capitan. “All our hard-boiled strength had just walked up those steps with his arm around the shoulders of that bald-headed captain.”(188). Once the sea men start yelling and harassing Candy, the patients become helpless to her aid. Their lack of courage and strength to speak up makes them late to Candy’s defense. “If we had the g-guts! I could go outside totoday, if I had the guts. My m-m-mother is a good friend of M-Miss Ratched, and I could get an AMA signed this afternoon, if I had the guts!”(151). Billy exposes himself about why he chooses to stay in the ward. This is significant because we learn how billy feel about the outside world and confines himself in the institution. Kesey portray the acutes shortage of love and belonging on the fishing trip. At the gas station they are made feel less by the service men. Chief say “I could see everybody was feeling pretty bad. The doctor’s lying made us feel worse than ever - not because of the lie, so much, but because of the truth.”(182). Here Chief tells the reader how they felt about being different from the rest of the world around them. “I know what you want me to think; you want me to feel sorry for you, to think she’s a real bitch. Well, you didn’t make her feel like any queen either.”(143). One may analyse the relationship between him and his wife misleading due his homosexualality. This also corresponds to the statement that miss harding makes about Dale not being able to satisfy her. In the Mental institution the patient don't feel that their safe in the ward.
Numerous suicides have occurred throughout the book. For instance, cheswick death can be seen as suicidal or as lack of protection given the aids. “neither the big lifeguard nor McMurphy nor the two black boys could pry him loose, and by the time they got a screwdriver and undid the grate and brought Cheswick up, with the grate still clutched by his chubby pink and blue fingers, he was drowned.”(135). This is unexceptable in a mental institution, in which their main priority are their patient. Another situation happens in disturbed upstair were a patient, “Cut both nuts off and bled to death, sitting right on the can in the latrine, half a dozen people in there with him didn’t know it till he fell off to the floor, dead.”(101). This goes to show how the that they find death more bearable than living in facility were they feel as if they have no control nor freedom over their lives. Lastly “He opened the doctor’s desk and found some instruments and cut his throat.”(245). Due to the nurses threats of telling Billy’s Mom about the altercation between him and candy, he finds it easier to take his life than to bare the shame of his action. All this could have changed if the nurse had taken a different approach to
it.
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
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
Kesey also uses characterisation to show power. The ‘Big’ Nurse Ratched runs the ward in which the central characters reside in a manner that induces fear in both patients and staff. The Nurse controls almost everything in the men’s lives; their routines, food, entertainment, and for those who are committed, how long they stay in the hospital. Nurse Ratched is the main example of power and control in the novel. The Big Nurse has great self-control; she is not easily flustered and never lets others see what she is feeling. Rather than accusing the men of anything, she ‘insinuates’. Although she isn’t physically larger than the ‘small’ nurses, The Chief describes Nurse Ratched as ‘Big’ because of the power she holds – this presentation of size is used for many characters.
The imagination is the reader’s most important tool on the path to enjoying a good book. One can only hinder their enjoyment of the story by disregarding the vivid images created by the mind. Nothing can compare to a landscape so exquisite that it would make a cinematographer jealous, or a prison so cold that you can see the inmates’ hot breath. However, some authors offer help for those who are creatively impaired. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the author, Ken Kesey builds such an effective tone, that the shifts in the attitudes of the characters can be detected.
Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950’s Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50’s, 60’s where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting’ & its significance towards Ken Kesey’s “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there is much controversy and bias present throughout the characters in the Combine. The patients have been rejected and forgotten about by society and left to rot with the antithesis of femininity: Nurse Ratched. But even Ratched isn’t immune to the scrutiny of the outside world, and she has to claw her way into power and constantly fight to keep it. With his own experiences and the societal ideals of the 1960’s, Ken Kesey displays how society isolates and ostracizes those who do not follow the social norms or viewed as inferior to the white american males.
Ken Kesey presents his masterpiece, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, with popular culture symbolism of the 1960s. This strategy helps paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind. Music and cartoons of the times are often referred to in the novel. These help to exaggerate the characters and the state of the mental institution.
Many authors use allusion in an effort to give a deeper meaning to a story by referring to another work, which has a similar theme. It can also be a way to further emphasize the main point and help the reader better understand and think more deeply about what they are reading. Throughout the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, he incorporates many references to the Christian Faith. Although it isn’t direct, his strong use of allusion and symbolism force us to infer. Randle McMurphy, an intelligent and observant asylum patient, makes his way into the Oregon State Hospital. Kesey utilizes the Christian Faith and Jesus Christ through the characterization and development of the main character, Randle McMurphy. This dominant, yet reformative asylum patient comes to the aid of his fellow men in attempt to change the ways of the ward.
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.
The dominant discourse of conformity is characterised predominantly by influencing to obey rules described by Kesey’ novel ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. At the start of the novel, all the acute and the silence chronic conform to Nurse Ratched’s rules before the arrival of McMurphy. Since, she was in complete control over the ward until McMurphy arrived. After he arrived, he begins to take control of the patients. He begins to take the role of leader, a leader that was unexpected. Kesey has foregrounded the character, McMurphy to be different thus creating a binary opposite that is represented in the novel. Kesey shows the binary opposites as being good versus evil. The former represents the con man McMurphy, and the latter represents the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. An example of this would be, “She’s carrying her wicker bag…a bag shape of a tool box with a hemp handle…” (pg.4), showing that Nurse Ratched is a mechanic. McMurphy is portrayed as being a good character by revitalising the hope of the patients by strangling Nurse Ratched. This revitalise the hope for the pa...
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
Throughout the sixties , America- involved in the Cold War at this time- suffered from extreme fear of communism. This caused numerous severe changes in society ranging from corrupt political oppression, to the twisted treatment of the minority. Published in 1962, Ken Kesey ’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , manages to capture these changes in the variety of ways. Kesey’s novel incorporates some of the main issues that affected the United States during the early and mid 60s. The government had no limits and was cruel to those who did not fit into society, including the mentally ill. The wrongful treatment of the people caused an eruption of rebellion and protest- thus the Beatnik era was born. The novel, written during this movement, sheds light on Kesey’s personal opinion on this chaotic period in US history . The treatment of mentally ill patients, the oppressive government, and uprising in the 1960s inspired Kesey while writing his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Fred Wright, Lauren's instructor for EN 132 (Life, Language, Literature), comments, "English 132 is an introduction to English studies, in which students learn about various areas in the discipline from linguistics to the study of popular culture. For the literature and literary criticism section of the course, students read a canonical work of literature and what scholars have said about the work over the years. This year, students read One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, a classic of American literature which dates from the 1960s counterculture. Popularized in a film version starring Jack Nicholson, which the class also watched in order to discuss film studies and adaptation, the novel became notable for its sympathetic portrayal of the mentally ill. For an essay about the novel, students were asked to choose a critical approach (such as feminist, formalist, psychological, and so forth) and interpret the novel using that approach, while also considering how their interpretation fit into the ongoing scholarly dialogue about the work. Lauren chose the challenge of applying a Marxist approach to One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not only did she learn about critical approaches and how to apply one to a text, she wrote an excellent essay, which will help other readers understand the text better. In fact, if John Clark Pratt or another editor ever want to update the 1996 Viking Critical Library edition of the novel, then he or she might want to include Lauren's essay in the next edition!"
He also made the other men comfortable with breaking the rules. When McMurphy rebels against the big nurse, the men see this as an opportunity to get their manhood back, because up until McMurphy arrived, the nurse used fear to gain control. McMurphy recognizes this can kind of repression has lead to the worsening of their mental conditions. “ ‘You’re gonna sit back and let some blue haired women talk you into being a rabbit?’ ‘Not talk me into it. No, I was born a rabbit. Just look at me. I simply need the nurse to make me happy with my role.’ ” (Kesey 91) In this quote, McMurphy is arguing with Harding about his identity in the ward. Harding feels beaten down into a small, harmless animals that do not disobey the rules of the hospital, made by the Big Nurse. Harding is so whipped into obedience by the ward, he truly believes he is this helpless and weak. His disbelief in his abilities is truly why McMurphy is drawn to him to help; to show him just how strong he could be. Even Kesey’s word choice to use “need the nurse” shows how long Harding has been feeling this way for. This speaks to society’s harsh views on individuality because Harding is suspected to be homosexual, therefore, going against the regularities of society in this time period of the 1950s. McMurphy plays the role of being a new light in the ward. He is one who does not easily abandon his uniqueness, no matter how odd or unconventional