...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...
Words: 1039 - Pages: 5
...Ken Kesey was born in 1935 in Colorado. In 1946, his family moved to Oregon, where he become champion in wrestling, both in high school and college (Ken Kesey Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography). He attended Stanford University and later in 1960 Kesey volunteered in the experiment organized by U.S army, in which he was using drugs such LSD, mescaline, psilocybin and then reporting on their effect. He also spent some time communicating with patients in the hospital's psychiatric ward. It was an experience which encouraged Ken Kesey to write his 1962 novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” (the book I’m reading right now), which examined the abuses of the system against the individuals and the theory that patients weren’t insane, but...
Words: 1787 - Pages: 8
...Cynthia K. Nessmith Professor Shawana Stanford American Literature 2130 14 April 2013 Film adaptation of the American novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest novel was written by Ken Kesey in 1962. The film adaptation version was directed by Czech Milos Forman in 1975. My goal in this paper is not only to compare the film adaptation to the Novel but to also explain what I think the symbols represent, critic’s analysis, themes presented in this film, and the significance of the Novel. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest film’s setting begins with a police car driving down the road to people sleeping in bunk beds, ending with a glimpse of a drawing taped to the wall with a crazy face centered in it. A nurse enters a locked down facility, while another prepares medicine for the patients. The police car arrives at the facility with a prisoner in handcuffs that is released to the hospital staff. The characters in this film are as follows: Randall P. McMurphy played by Jack Nicholson, a rebellious convict with a loud mouth and a set of sexual playing cards. He’s courageous and challenges the staff/system of the mental hospital. Nurse Ratched played by Louise Fletcher is a calm, cold, well mannered, and soft spoken head nurse of the mental hospital that plays McMurphy’s enemy. Chief Bromdon played by Will Sampson is a big and tall Indian who is described as “deaf and dumb” (according to the character Billy). Billy Bibbit played by Brad Dourif is a young...
Words: 1717 - Pages: 7
...our views on different races change over time. Although I feel that the media makes a more conscious effort to remove degrading racial stereotypes from films, the acknowledgement of the existence of these stereotypes confirms that they are still present. After watching a movie from three different time periods, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Stand and Deliver (1988), and Our Family Wedding (2010), I have found that representation of race in film has largely remained the same, while the acknowledgement of existing stereotypes has become more obvious. The 1960’s-1970’s was a time characterized by Irish Mob Wars (Durney 2000), Hollywood conservative backlash films, and the ongoing misrepresentation of American Indians in film (Larson 2006). One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a movie is about a criminal who pretends to be crazy so that he can serve his sentence in the relatively comfortable confines of an insane asylum rather than a prison. We see the results of the historical events represented in characters from this movie such as Randle Patrick McMurphy, Mr. Turkle, the ward’s guards, and Chief Bromden. The Irish have been infamous for their mafia and organized crime, especially in the Cleveland area. Perhaps their most publicly recognized contribution to the media’s fascination with violence is the Mob Wars of the mid-1970’s (Durney 2000). These huge displays of violence prepped the audience of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to easily accept the character of McMurphy...
Words: 2080 - Pages: 9
...are ones who have gone over.” - Hunter S. Thompson. Explore the presentation of the troubled mind in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and the poetry of John Keats, with illuminating reference to Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “The Edge” described by Hunter S. Thompson is, he says, unexplainable. What seems clear is that ‘the Edge’ is at the limit of the human mind. It can’t be explained, Thompson says, because the only people who ‘really know where it is’ are the ones who ‘have gone over’ it, those who have died or else never returned to ‘reality’ and ‘sanity’. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, the poetry of John Keats, and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest all describe, in differing ways, states of mind on ‘the Edge’. When they were first published, the contemporary reception to Keats’s poems and to Wuthering Heights was remarkably similar. Keats was described as writing ‘the most incongruous ideas in the most uncouth language’ , while Bronte’s novel (published under the male pseudonym Ellis Bell) was called ‘too coarse and disagreeable to be attractive’, and described as ‘wild, confused, disjointed, and improbable’ with characters who are ‘savages ruder than those who lived before the days of Homer.’ These accusations of ‘uncouth’, ‘coarse’ and ‘disjointed’ writing suggest that both authors had already crossed one edge with their writing: the edge of what was considered acceptable or respectable literature. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, wrote...
Words: 3252 - Pages: 14
...April 26, 2016 Critique of 1950 America’s Society in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the author obvious intention can be easily seen in analogies the author draws. For example, he makes an analogy between the mental institution in the story and a small society, which is the very epitome of that period. He makes an analogy between the patients in the mental institution and the common people in 1950s American society. He also makes an analogy between the nurses and the authorities in mid-twentieth century of America. The rules in the hospital are same as the dogma and law in American society. The common people have to strictly follow the dogmatic rules and the autocracy; freedom does not exist. The patients in the book are like machines. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, using the analogy of a mental institution, suggests that 1950s American society is not free and that people need to rise up to try to change it. Firstly, the Big Nurse’s manipulation and subtle cruelty cannot give enough freedom for the patients. Secondly, the main elements of control are self-inflicted; the fear that holds them down is internal. Thirdly, McMurphy is a messianic figure, and his doom is inevitable. He brings liberation to others, and this is the true meaning to his own life. First, Nurse Ratched’s manipulation and subtle cruelty mirrors discrimination of the era. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the chief Bromden and the patients who are there are...
Words: 2451 - Pages: 10
...Albert Einstein once said, "All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual". One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a novel written by Ken Kesey is a story told in the perspective of a man named Chief Bromden, who has been in a mental hospital for 10 years, suffering from paranoia and hallucinations. Bromden’s worldview is obscured by his fear, and never has a clear view of the world while under the wing of Nurse Ratched at the hospital. With the arrival of Randle McMurphy, Bromden senses a different attitude about him. Randle McMurphy tells the patients that the Nurse is nothing to fear, protesting against her, and bringing out her inner rage. McMurphy later shows his leadership by taking a group of patients outside, and showing them their masculine...
Words: 1199 - Pages: 5
...The protagonist is usually the main character, the one that tells the story from memory, but in some instances, like in Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the main character is simply the narrator. Bromden is sometimes hard to understand,“Chief Bromden narrates, however, in ways that continually confuse the reader until he comes to appreciate how the logic of storytelling characteristic of a native point of view can manipulate different modes of discourse” The real protagonist was Randle McMurphy. Throughout the story, Chief Bromden describes the ward to the reader, but this only classifies him as the narrator. Randle McMurphy, a main character that came to the ward after pleading insanity, teaches the men how to find themselves. He shows them that they aren’t crazy and they could leave the ward when they were all ready, another lesson McMurphy taught the men. Nurse Ratched, an evil women that intimidates and mistreats the men, runs...
Words: 1193 - Pages: 5
...matter their age or place of origin are not written to be taken at face value. There is typically a deeper meaning or moral to the story that the author attempts to convey within the work without directly stating it. But, as the meaning becomes more convoluted, it has a higher potential to be lost on its audience. In order to prevent this disconnect with readers, authors employ allusions, or hidden similarities to popular works during a specific time period. Allusions can add depth to a story and at the same time, they can pass criticism on a certain facet of society. Religious allusions especially can be effective among intellectual populations, likely to subscribe to the idea of social change. Within the stories Teddy and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, authors J.D. Salinger and Ken Kesey allude to well-known religious philosophies to express the fundamentally good nature of their protagonists...
Words: 981 - Pages: 4
...During the early part of the 1900s, interest was piqued by Goltz’s experiment. It thrived during the 1930s and 1940s, yet around the 50s serious thought was put into the repercussions of such a surgery. The idea of lobotomization was shown in the 1972 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and it affected the main character, McMurphy, in much the same way people around the world were affected. McMurphy became practically a vegetable after the lobotomy. This film showed how lobotomies could transform a cheerful person and alter them into a moody person who hardly spoke. It goes to show how impactful and how negative lobotomies have been in the world of...
Words: 1185 - Pages: 5
...Big Brother is never seen and does not really exist, but he is used as the method of control by the government to maintain the power they desire over the citizens of Oceania. Comparing this to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched similarly uses manipulation and fear to control the ward. She does not hesitate to do what it takes to maintain control of the ward. Nurse Ratched uses intimidation and humiliates, and debases the men in the therapeutic meetings to keep herself in a position of control. In their daily group meetings, she will often pick out one man and make him feel so uncomfortable and force him to tell his life story, even if he has never done anything wrong. She will then make fear grow within them by asking leading questions, twisting their words and never shows any sympathy to what they are saying. By doing this, Nurse Ratched is ensuring that she keeps complete control and power over the group. At one point in the novel, when everyone starts shouting their secrets, Chief Bromden says, “It was better than she'd...
Words: 2172 - Pages: 9
...Darren Mah Mrs. Kirkeby English IV Honors 18 August 2014 The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey, narrates the story from the point of view of Chief Bromden, a character known to have cases of hallucinations and shows signs of being outside of reality especially when he begins to see the fog around him. Some of the strengths to using Bromden to narrate the events of the story are because of the fact that he has been “on the ward longer’n anybody” (Kesey 21). He is able to describe to the reader in detail of the daily routine of the patients and their exact times when he notes that “Six-forty-five the shavers buzz and the Acutes line up in alphabetical order at the mirrors…” (Kesey 33) or “Seven-thirty back to the day room” (Kesey 34). By appearing deaf and dumb, Chief Bromden is able to tell the readers about what goes on beyond the patient’s side of the ward when he informs the reader that “the staff usually don’t even notice me; I move around in my chores, and they see right through me…” (Kesey 131)....
Words: 556 - Pages: 3
...experienced electroshock therapy to ensure an accurate description in his novel. Kesey uses various characters throughout the story to show his opposition to shock treatments (Kesey, 1962). He also explains how this treatment is given as a form of punishment and abuse, as one of his characters explains, if one does not listen to the nurse’s orders, you will end up on the ECT machine. Kesey believes that shock therapies are not properly justified and can cause much damage to the patient. Even if it seems to work, the patient eventually relapses, which proves the treatment to be unsuccessful (Kesey,...
Words: 1507 - Pages: 7
...I read the very intriguing book One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. I chose this book because I saw the movie and was very moved by it, so when I saw that it was a book, I did not hesitate to embrace reading it. This controversial novel shows how much power that authority figures truly posses. This is portrayed when a criminal in the mid 1950’s, Randle “Mac” Mcmurphy pleads insanity and is therefore sent to a realistic mental asylum In Oregon, where he spent most of his time in the book. Randle then commences in his “hell raising” for the head head of staff, Nurse Ratched, against her strict ward policies along with her “disciplinary actions.” He then, as the book continues on, starts to display to his fellow patients that not all...
Words: 700 - Pages: 3
...nature to hope for the best in future situations and to always embellish our memories of the past. I think that this is our way of coping with the present. If we can convince ourselves that things were better at one point and therefore will be better at some point, then the present never seems too awful. This being said, it came as a surprise to me that such a fundamental mannerism of humans drove me so near insane. Novel after novel, I found that the characters who I actively despised were the ones who pretended that their lives were always perfect in order to escape the present. Take Blanche DuBois, from A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams. At one point in the play, Blanche cries, “I don’t want realism. I want magic!” and pardon my informality, but I HATED her for saying so. If only she had faced reality for one measly minute, she would have been able to see that the only way to fix her situation was to fight her plagued present. If...
Words: 576 - Pages: 3
