Judith Guest’s novel, Ordinary People, and movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Milos Forman, both share a number of traits that correlate with one another . Such traits include vulnerability, perfection, and emotional imbalance. Both Ordinary People and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest captivate the emotions of the audience by addressing these three traits through a point of view, setting, and imagery. Since Ordinary People has two perspectives of a father and son, the point of view in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest focuses on Nurse Ratched’s confrontation with Billy. Furthermore, the vulnerability that Con develops after the death of his brother also applies to Billy when Nurse Ratched humiliated him in front of the other …show more content…
Both Cal and Con share different perceptions of the emotional turmoil after the death of Buck. Countering to the clip from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and the text in Ordinary People, both texts use exposition through two characters. However, one character who illustrates perfection would be Beth, the wife of Cal and the mother to Con. She dreads the fact that her other son died, and constantly blames the other one for being alive. Throughout the novel, Beth gradually falls apart because her mentality allowed her to believe that everything around her fell out of balance since Buck’s death rather than accepting the fact that Buck’s death actually happened. In a sense, Beth rejects Con just as Nurse Ratched rejects Billy. Furthermore, Nurse Ratched and Beth share similar traits when it comes to perfectionism. The idea of control becomes compelling to the two characters from different texts. The setting of Ordinary People takes place in the suburbs of Illinois rather than in a mental facility from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. These two distinct settings can indicate to the audience about how different life is for Con from Ordinary People and Billy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. One can recognize that Con has more freedom than Billy since Billy lives in a highly contained place. Despite the different settings, both Con and Billy suffer through similar mental disorders, which allow both …show more content…
Three elements that build the foundation of both characters are exposition, symbolism as well as perspective. With exposition the audience recognizes the use of traits such as vulnerability, emotional disorders, and perfectionism through the characters in Ordinary People and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Furthermore, symbolism also follows up with exposition with the dynamic between Nurse Ratched and Billy, and also between Con and Beth. Perspective is another element that applies to both Ordinary People and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because it enhances the relationships between Cal, Con, Beth, Nurse Ratched, and Billy in both