POWER AND CONTROL IN 'ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST'
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a 1975 film based on the story written by Ken Kesey under the same name. The story revolves around Randle McMurphy as he experiences the life of an inmate at a mental institution, trying to escape the hard labour he had been sentenced with. Along the way he befriends the inmates, the giant Indian Chief who is believed to be deaf and dumb, the shy and stuttering Billy Bibbit, as well as many others all suffering from their own illnesses. The antagonist of the story is Nurse Ratched, the over controlling and cold head nurse of the institution. It becomes a battle of wills as McMurphy tries his hardest to break the shells of his fellow inmates and Ratched …show more content…
One of the main way it shows this is in the power of the institution, in this case, the psychiatric hospital in which the story is set. The hospital has power and control over all of its patients, however during the duration of the movie, it is discovered that man of the inmates are free to leave on their own accord, having voluntarily entered the hospital. This proves as a shock for McMurphy, who is in the hospital for however long Ratched and the orderlies see fit. The institute enforces its power over the inmates by physical means, the bars on the windows, tall barbed wire fences, heavy objects that the patients cannot move, all for the patients safety. It also has strict rules, whether that be that patients are not allowed in the nurses’ station (where the medication is distributed), the volume of the music, which channels are on the television or what changes are made to the daily routine. The institute also uses more drastic measures to control the patients, electroshock therapy is used on the patients who are deemed unruly or a disturbance, and those who are seen as violent or dangerous are lobotomised, rendering them a vegetable. McMurphy challenges all of these, unlocking windows, climbing over fences, narrating imaginary baseball games when his plea to change the routine to watch it is overruled. Thus, he starts to break the level of control the institution over the patients, simultaneously …show more content…
As head nurse, Ratched is granted a tremendous amount of power over the inmates. She is in control of a majority of what goes on within the institute; she recommends those who are in need of electroshock therapy, when they are released and more. She also has the power to control when medication is given, what privileges the inmates are granted and the amount of cigarettes that they receive. In particular, Ratched has power over Billy Bibbit, whose mother she has known for a long time. Also, she has control over McMurphy, as she is the one who is to assess whether he is crazy, or when he should be released. As the movie progresses, her power diminishes, even the meekest of the patients standing up and persistently asking for his cigarettes after she repeatedly tells him to sit quietly. During the final segments of the movie, Ratched attempts to reinstate her power attempting to make an example out of Billy in front of the inmates, which causes Billy to commit suicide. This leads to McMurphy strangling her, causing him to be
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a 1975 film based on the story written by Ken Kesey under the same name. The story revolves around Randle McMurphy as he experiences the life of an inmate at a mental institution, trying to escape the hard labour he had been sentenced with. Along the way he befriends the inmates, the giant Indian Chief who is believed to be deaf and dumb, the shy and stuttering Billy Bibbit, as well as many others all suffering from their own illnesses. The antagonist of the story is Nurse Ratched, the over controlling and cold head nurse of the institution. It becomes a battle of wills as McMurphy tries his hardest to break the shells of his fellow inmates and Ratched …show more content…
One of the main way it shows this is in the power of the institution, in this case, the psychiatric hospital in which the story is set. The hospital has power and control over all of its patients, however during the duration of the movie, it is discovered that man of the inmates are free to leave on their own accord, having voluntarily entered the hospital. This proves as a shock for McMurphy, who is in the hospital for however long Ratched and the orderlies see fit. The institute enforces its power over the inmates by physical means, the bars on the windows, tall barbed wire fences, heavy objects that the patients cannot move, all for the patients safety. It also has strict rules, whether that be that patients are not allowed in the nurses’ station (where the medication is distributed), the volume of the music, which channels are on the television or what changes are made to the daily routine. The institute also uses more drastic measures to control the patients, electroshock therapy is used on the patients who are deemed unruly or a disturbance, and those who are seen as violent or dangerous are lobotomised, rendering them a vegetable. McMurphy challenges all of these, unlocking windows, climbing over fences, narrating imaginary baseball games when his plea to change the routine to watch it is overruled. Thus, he starts to break the level of control the institution over the patients, simultaneously …show more content…
As head nurse, Ratched is granted a tremendous amount of power over the inmates. She is in control of a majority of what goes on within the institute; she recommends those who are in need of electroshock therapy, when they are released and more. She also has the power to control when medication is given, what privileges the inmates are granted and the amount of cigarettes that they receive. In particular, Ratched has power over Billy Bibbit, whose mother she has known for a long time. Also, she has control over McMurphy, as she is the one who is to assess whether he is crazy, or when he should be released. As the movie progresses, her power diminishes, even the meekest of the patients standing up and persistently asking for his cigarettes after she repeatedly tells him to sit quietly. During the final segments of the movie, Ratched attempts to reinstate her power attempting to make an example out of Billy in front of the inmates, which causes Billy to commit suicide. This leads to McMurphy strangling her, causing him to be