One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Themes

Words: 399
Pages: 2
Open Document
We need to see ourselves or hear our own voices in a text to truly appreciate the ideas of its creators.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest directed by Milos Forman relates the director’s ideas through the story of the main protagonist, Randle Patrick McMurphy. McMurphy is an incarcerated convict who fakes craziness to get transferred to a mental hospital. McMurphy soon finds a highly conformed and oppressed community which he looks to disrupt. During his course of disruption, he becomes attached to the other patients and starts to support their betterment. However, at every step his efforts are halted by the main antagonist Nurse Mildred Ratched. The themes Forman uses are: power does not ensue wisdom, freedom is a state of mind and the stripping …show more content…
It relates to the mental hospital and more specifically Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched rules with an iron fist, but it does not necessarily mean she is right. An example of this is when, after Billy has committed suicide, Nurse Ratched addresses the wards patients with, “The best thing we can do is go on with our daily routines.” An emotionally stirring event such as Billy’s suicide is shut down abruptly and harshly by Nurse Ratched. The abrupt and harshness of Nurse Ratched’s action shocks the audience. The audience can't help but feel sympathy towards Billy, a character that we have become attached to. But when Nurse Ratched rejects any grievance, it triggers anger in the audience. This allows the audience to experience McMurphy’s emotions, which, after she has delivered her directive, pushes him to choke Nurse Ratched. We relate to this, and therefore are emotionally triggered by this, because we can sympathise with what McMurphy is feeling, because we too have experienced similar situations. Death is very sacred and is treated with the utmost respect. However, if someone should dishonour the dead, such as reject a grievance and withdraw from it,such as Nurse Ratched, we would show anger towards it, which therefore triggers an emotional response from the audience. And with all Nurse Ratched’s power she chooses to, unwisely, dishonour Billy. We can also see other examples of unwise decisions by sources of
Show More

Related Documents: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Themes

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Theme

A novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" written by Ken Kesey opens the eyes of readers to the harsh reality of life showing attempts of opposition to the system, which suppresses the human desire to feel the freedom and to live up to the hilt, but not to exist and to be the puppet of the system. One of the key points of this story is resistant nature of the protagonist, who refuses to obey the "mill" (system) and goes ahead. Examples: conflicts with the nurse, violation of order of the system,…

Words 168 - Pages 1

Essay on Important Themes in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Chief broke out in the end, because McMurphy gave him that confidence. McMurphy brought life into the institution and he helped the inmates gain self confidence because near the beginning when the nurses did the group meetings no one would speak up but later on in the movie, one of the patients (. ) asked for his cigarettes and demanded that he get them right away and also made valid statements as to why he should get them back and also when ratchet told him to keep calm he calmed down right away, this…

Words 744 - Pages 3

Comparison Of Mice And Men And One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Compare and Contrast Of Mice and Men/One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Both Of Mice and Men and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest share many similarities like the isolation of the characters, the freedom and confinement of them both mentally and physically, and the effect women have on the male characters. Though these themes have much in common in both stories, but there are some major differences. Some are in the details of how the characters deal with those problems; others are in how it all ends…

Words 594 - Pages 3

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Critical Lens Analysis

harmful or hurtful it can be. In the two One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, and Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, they both show specific details that can be used to back up the critical lens quote. The themes and literary elements in the two novels are very similar, both novels can back up the critical lens quote by reinforcing that too much power can be a dangerous thing when not used correctly. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author, Kesey gives the reader an understanding…

Words 563 - Pages 3

Essay about Prosecution of Nurse Ratched

demonstrated across the evidence presented, her need of control over colleagues and patients across the entire facility, disregarding her medical responsibilities and ultimately disregarding her Hippocratic Oath. This oath, taken by all physicians swearing by a number of healing gods in order to medically practise, states that practitioners must uphold specific ethical standards at all times. The accused prevailed her obsessive tendencies1 over the Hippocratic Oath, and as a government funded institute…

Words 882 - Pages 4

The Role of Men and Women in Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest Essay

aspects of life. While this may be an appealing notion, it is nonexistent in society. Strong men are seen by women as abusive and dominating, while strong women are seen by men as castrating and emasculating. The text of Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in many ways, conforms to the structure of conventional male myth and asks the reader to accept that myth as a heroic pattern. From a masculinist perspective, it offers a charismatic hero in Randle Patrick McMurphy, a figure of spiritual…

Words 1160 - Pages 5

"One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" Theme Essay

from growing and developing. This quote can easily be related to a theme in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which is a story about a man named Randle McMurphy who fights an over controlling Nurse Ratched, a ward nurse who uses strict rules to control her patients in a mental hospital. Her rules are absurd, unjust, and they give her too much power. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey explores the theme that some rules should be bent and broken in order for people and society…

Words 1594 - Pages 7

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Comparative Essay

compare for my New Hollywood analysis are 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and 2015’s Suffragette. Though they were filmed forty years apart and are about contrasting subjects, they both share the theme of rebellion. As far as structure goes, a notable difference between the two films is that in one, a new person is brought into a group and begins the rebellion, whereas in the other, a new person joins a group of rebels. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jack Nicholson’s character, McMurphy (“Mac”)…

Words 1019 - Pages 5

Comparing Power In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest And

through elections. Which is because we do not want that much power being in the wrong hands. So what happens if too much power is given to one person or group of people? In Ken Kesey’s Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Arthur Miller’s the Crucible power is given to the wrong people. Arthur Miller would approve of Ken Kesey’s writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because of the similar representation…

Words 1950 - Pages 8

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Research Paper

Protest Power can be shown through words or actions. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a great example of characters protesting power. The book and the movie give multiple examples of the characters protesting power, these instances are portrayed very differently. Given the possibilities that power and protest is a shared theme in the novel and film versions of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, other key similarities and differences exist if one considers the the fishing scene and the baseball scene…

Words 1012 - Pages 5