One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Movie Analysis

The myth of freedom is introduced as a major theme in both the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the film "The Graduate." Each work has evidence on how society controls us based on the conformities and what is "normal." Throughout these stories you can notice patterns on how higher authorizes empower and overrule people in society, which create restrictions towards who the characters are as people. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest recognizes how higher authorities are controlling every aspect of their lives, and McMurphy challenges the theme of freedom, in numerous ways, within an enclosed environment. One of the first rebellions McMurphy starts is gambling around the ward with cigarettes; these helped the men feel like they had some power over their lives again. McMurphy also used sexualized playing cards; these cards represent rebellion against authority as it …show more content…
The majority of the patients are freely signing theirselves to gain beneficial results from the program and do not believe this place is a prison cell, but also a place that feels safer than the outside world. Harding is another man in the ward, but says he's voluntary, not committed; others throughout the asylum state that they are voluntary as well. "'Sure!' He screams again. 'If we had the g-guts! I could go outside today, 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!'" (65). Most patients believe this place is keeping them safe and away from modern day society, no matter if they were tricked to be there. Besides if the patients believed it was their way of getting help, it's still a place where they are locked away from their own freedom; they are trapped by locks and walls and are confined in this place for so called