Focusing on one flew over the cuckoo’s nest and Catch 22 compare and contrast Kesey and Hellers presentation of characters that search to challenge the infallibility of the establishment.
Catch 22 and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s nest both demonstrate and offer an insight into the methods taken by characters to defy the establishment. The authors use various characters to bring forth questions of how institutions like a psychiatric hospital and a small squadron in WWII aren’t trustworthy and dependable. With both authors having experienced these institutions themselves, they explore this key concept throughout their novels. The two main protagonist within these novels R.P McMurphy and Yossarian are both faced by similar conflicts, choosing …show more content…
Both novels have a key oppressive dictators that the protagonist aim to contest against. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s nest this contest is more apparent than in Catch 22, the dynamics between Nurse Ratched as the female matriarch and McMurphy result in a hilarious, tragic and liberating clash of egos that will not allow either one to back down. In the scene that McMurphy punches through the nurse’s glass window, this represents McMurphy asserting his male strength and hindering her well run machine. An alternative interpretation of this scene is that the punching through the glass is the use of phallic imagery, the Nurse usually emasculates the men by treating them as children to return the men back to normal functioning. Or what society deems as normal. McMurphy punching through her window signifies the men gaining their masculinity back. “For the first time she’s on the other side of the glass and getting a taste of how it feels to be watched” (Kesey, 1973. Part 2) The men in the ward gain temporary power and no longer feel the institutional control that the Nurse tries so hard to keep in place. McMurphy challenges the Nurses authority through his sexual freedom whereas the Nurse is reserved and sexually repressed, hindered by her “Big womanly breasts on what would be otherwise been a perfect work” (Kesey, 1973) McMurphy’s sexual nature is one aspect of his character the Nurse …show more content…
The hospital can be seen as Yossarians refuge a place where he can control and eliminate the chance of death. “They couldn’t dominate death inside the hospital but they certainly made her behave” The personification of death expresses Yossarians persistent concern over the matter. By the end of the novel we could suggest Yossarians motives have slightly changed having experienced the death of his companions he is now not solely focused on avoiding death but wants subvert a cruel military establishment. After the realization that Orr was crash landing his plane on purpose to flee to Sweden, this gives Yossarain the hope that he still can escape the establishments constraints, he decides to decline the two Colonels offer of a bribe and flee to Sweden rather than face an unjust court martial. Heller is suggesting the only possible way to escape the hold of such establishments is to run away as Yossaraian, Orr and maybe even Clevinger all did so. Which relates to Yossarians early method of fleeing the mission by pretending to be ill. Tackling such institutions head on as McMurphy did only results in the establishment eventually wearing a person down till they are no longer able to fight back. McMurphy lost his soul resulting in the Chief taking his life however all of McMurphy’s selfless acts leads to the freedom of the
Catch 22 and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s nest both demonstrate and offer an insight into the methods taken by characters to defy the establishment. The authors use various characters to bring forth questions of how institutions like a psychiatric hospital and a small squadron in WWII aren’t trustworthy and dependable. With both authors having experienced these institutions themselves, they explore this key concept throughout their novels. The two main protagonist within these novels R.P McMurphy and Yossarian are both faced by similar conflicts, choosing …show more content…
Both novels have a key oppressive dictators that the protagonist aim to contest against. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s nest this contest is more apparent than in Catch 22, the dynamics between Nurse Ratched as the female matriarch and McMurphy result in a hilarious, tragic and liberating clash of egos that will not allow either one to back down. In the scene that McMurphy punches through the nurse’s glass window, this represents McMurphy asserting his male strength and hindering her well run machine. An alternative interpretation of this scene is that the punching through the glass is the use of phallic imagery, the Nurse usually emasculates the men by treating them as children to return the men back to normal functioning. Or what society deems as normal. McMurphy punching through her window signifies the men gaining their masculinity back. “For the first time she’s on the other side of the glass and getting a taste of how it feels to be watched” (Kesey, 1973. Part 2) The men in the ward gain temporary power and no longer feel the institutional control that the Nurse tries so hard to keep in place. McMurphy challenges the Nurses authority through his sexual freedom whereas the Nurse is reserved and sexually repressed, hindered by her “Big womanly breasts on what would be otherwise been a perfect work” (Kesey, 1973) McMurphy’s sexual nature is one aspect of his character the Nurse …show more content…
The hospital can be seen as Yossarians refuge a place where he can control and eliminate the chance of death. “They couldn’t dominate death inside the hospital but they certainly made her behave” The personification of death expresses Yossarians persistent concern over the matter. By the end of the novel we could suggest Yossarians motives have slightly changed having experienced the death of his companions he is now not solely focused on avoiding death but wants subvert a cruel military establishment. After the realization that Orr was crash landing his plane on purpose to flee to Sweden, this gives Yossarain the hope that he still can escape the establishments constraints, he decides to decline the two Colonels offer of a bribe and flee to Sweden rather than face an unjust court martial. Heller is suggesting the only possible way to escape the hold of such establishments is to run away as Yossaraian, Orr and maybe even Clevinger all did so. Which relates to Yossarians early method of fleeing the mission by pretending to be ill. Tackling such institutions head on as McMurphy did only results in the establishment eventually wearing a person down till they are no longer able to fight back. McMurphy lost his soul resulting in the Chief taking his life however all of McMurphy’s selfless acts leads to the freedom of the