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Published in 1962, Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, has become a staple in high school curriculum despite its old age. The book follows Chief Bromden, a quiet and passive man with a half Native American heritage, and Randle McMurphy, a hot-headed gambler who likes to defy authority. Despite its publication date, several of the themes present in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest are still universal to this day. The defiance of authority is one of the themes that can be seen in many books in this current day. McMurphy’s single man rebellion against the cruel power of Nurse Ratched and his questioning of why the patients live so passively, following her commands without a fight, is still applicable even in the twenty-first century. Another …show more content…
theme of the book would be the mistreatment of individuals that do not conform to the rules of society. Bromden is sent to live within the ward due to his heritage and Dale Harding voluntarily checks himself in, in order to get rid of his homosexuality.
In both cases, they are in the ward due to the fact that they are to be assimilated into society and brought back out if they can blend in. This theme is still present to this day as minority groups in the population are still discriminated against and forced to assimilate into the ‘bigger’ culture. One aspect of the book that questions its placement in high school curriculum would be the language and actions against the women surrounding the characters of the book. Kesey writes women as either purely objects to satisfy the sexual needs of men or as abusive controllers. McMurphy believes that once Billy Bibbit loses his virginity, he will become a ‘real man’. Kesey enforces this belief as after Bibbit does loses his virginity to Sandy, he loses his stutter and as a result escapes the control of his mother. Sandy’s character, however, is solely reduced to being created for the purpose of aiding Bibbit and she is not given the same character development as any of the other male characters. Additionally, Harding tells McMurphy that he “lacks the sexual ability to make the grade as adequate
rabbits”.(Kesey, 113) Harding believes that the reason why he cannot function well in society is because he lacks the sexual ability to have sex with women. Kesey enforces the fact that he believes that only men that have sex are ‘normal’ and men that do or have not and abnormal. Despite the themes that the book brings up as well as Kesey’s messages, a major reason for its popularity was due to the time period that it was published in. The 1960s were a time where the general population’s need to differentiate themselves from corporate businesses and the government was at an all time high. McMurphy’s defiance at Nurse Ratched’s authority resonated with the youth of the generation and propelled the book to success. The mainstream consumption of the text caused electroshock therapy, then used as a treatment to provide relief from mental disorders, to be viewed as an immoral and horrific act. The views of the book transferred to the readers and led to a backlash against the United State’s psychiatric treatment system. Many institutions began to lessen the amount of live in patients and drugs were created to provide relief to mentally ill individuals without the dangers of the shock treatment. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest allows its readers to understand the impact of literature on culture and its subsequent effects on a whole generation of individuals.
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...
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.
“We are victims of a matriarchy here my friends…” (Harding). A matriarchy is a social order where women have power. In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest the women are portrayed as the power figures and have the power manipulate, or control the men in the ward, as shown by the characters of Nurse Ratched, Mrs. Bibbit, and Vera Harding.
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
The word “power” is defined in many ways. There is not a specific statement that defines what power is or what it’s supposed to be. Power can make or break a person or even an entire nation. Power is a measure of an entity’s ability to control the environment around itself, including the behavior of other entities. Ken Kesey, the author of the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, shows us the difference in power and control among the strong nurses and the men in the psychiatric ward. The men who are placed in the ward are controlled by Nurse Ratched, who takes control of situations the same way she did when she was an army nurse. Nurse Ratched is used to the men on the ward obeying her until a man named R.P. McMurphy is admitted. McMurphy is a strong man who had power and control in the outside world and continues to show his power and control once he is in admitted which creates a lot of conflicts within the story. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
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.
When norms of society are unfair and seem set in stone, rebellion is bound to occur, ultimately bringing about change in the community. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest demonstrates the conflict of individuals who have to survive in an environment where they are pressured to cooperate. The hospital's atmosphere suppresses the patients' individuality through authority figures that mold the patients into their visions of perfection. The ward staff's ability to overpower the patients' free will is not questioned until a man named Randal McMurphy is committed to the mental institute. He rebels against what he perceives as a rigid, dehumanizing, and uncompassionate environment. His exposure of the flaws in the hospital's perfunctory rituals permits the other patients to form opinions and consequently their personalities surface. The patient's new behavior clashes with the medical personnel's main goal-to turn them into 'perfect' robots, creating havoc on the ward.
What is the deciding factor in determining what is sane: what is natural, or what is socially acceptable? In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and later the movie the novel inspired, this conflict is ever present in its Oregon setting of a psychiatric hospital. Throughout the novel, characters with minor quirks and disabilities are shamed and manipulated by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched in an attempt to make them “normal”—that is, conforming to her rigid standards. In fact, the only time these characters overcome their personal challenges is when they are emboldened by the confidence of an outsider, McMurphy, who encourages embracing natural instincts and rejecting conformity. In one particularly apt scene, McMurphy’s recounting
In Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Kesey makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: the effects of sexual repression, woman as castrators, and the pressures we face from society to conform. Through these points, Kesey encourages the reader to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the reader realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as "crazy."
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?
Violence and death surrounds everyone, from movies to books to news. These subjects are particularly prevalent in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Kesey's main goal for writing the novel was to show his readers the atrocities within mental health wards. However, he managed to have a greater impact in young adults' lives than ever imagined. Although there are instances of death and violence in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it should be included in high school curriculum because exposure to these topics helps teenagers to properly deal with similar situations in their own lives.
Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a story about a band of patients in a mental ward who struggle to find their identity and get away from the wretched Nurse. As audiences read about the tale, many common events and items seen throughout the story actually represent symbols for the bigger themes of the story. Symbols like the fishing trip, Nurse, and electroshock therapy all emphasize the bigger themes of the story. The biggest theme of the story is oppression. Throughout the course of the story, patients are suppressed and fight to find who they really are.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ed. John Clark Pratt. New York: Viking-Penguin, 1996. Print. Viking Critical Library.