One to One

the asylum, McMurphy causes a rather large disturbance to the regular and mechanised schedule of Nurse Ratched’s ward. During his time there, McMurphy manages to change the scene in the ward so that the patients become more empowered. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy evolves from a regular gambling con man to a hero to a saviour, characterised by his many selfless acts to protect and bolster the other patients. Although McMurphy seems to be just another reckless,…

McMurphy is the tragic hero portrayed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. By being fundamentally good and displaying a flaw that leads to his downfall in the book, McMurphy easily fits between Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero and the Modernist definition. McMurphy is a fundamentally good character, even though not noble of birth as stated in Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. McMurphy is full of personality, independent, and life affirming. In the beginning, he seems more…

The incorporation of religious themes into Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest depicts McMurphy as a Christ figure, serving to protect the patients from Nurse Ratched. Just as Jesus stood up for all people against the devil, McMurphy defends the patients of the ward against Nurse Ratched. As a “martyr or saint” would, McMurphy defends the patients regardless of the consequences (222). McMurphy “risk[s] doubling his stay in the nuthouse” to defend the patients against Nurse Ratched (220).…

fifty yards overhead, hollering at those below on the ground. McMurphy likes to have things go how he wants them to despite others trying to diminish his power, and this immediately sets up a conflict between Nurse Ratched and him. Laughing becomes one…

In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” Ken Kesey uses various aspects of the narrator, Bromden, to define identity and the struggles faced with finding identity. Kesey introduces various characters throughout the novel to challenge the reins society takes in restricting personal identity and ultimately uses these struggles to portray how the characters preserve through strength. Society is what defines identity, humans need to fit certain parts for society to work and function properly much like…

Having an altered perception of the world, Ken Kesey created the captivating novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In his novel Kesey has constructed a world within a psychiatric ward, which becomes a microcosm of society. In this world the assumed deaf and dumb Chief Bromden, and other timid patients are heavily controlled by Nurse Ratched, an authority apart of the powerful and dehumanising combine. Through figurative language, foreshadowing and motifs readers are warned about the influence…

In this film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest there was so many things happening to these mental institutions. So things that are just not right and other time the Medical staff tries to help them. So many methods the institution use for the patients. Some of the patient’s volunteer and other were brought in. There were some crazy scenes and some tragic scenes, but two have grab my attention because it was the most offensive. One of the sense is when one of the patients would not calm down the…

Nurse Ratched in numerous vulnerable positions as a result of his various pranks and schemes. The nurse is not one to easily relinquish her power and often bides her time before retorting with an impregnable force, from which Randle always miraculously recovers with another devious plot to elongate the war. The battles are categorized as either small ones, those with fleeting influence, or ones utilizing elaborate mind games paralleling nuclear weaponry. Circumstances like these are not meant to…

about the daily lives of those inside a 1960s psychiatric ward, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest paints a picture in the reader’s head of the ongoing escape patients pursue from their reality inside their ward. Author Ken Kesey uses symbolism to portray psychiatric patient Randle McMurphy’s escape from misery. Religious imagery, coupled with foggy weather and dark humor, lay a groundwork for a driving story element: conflict. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, McMurphy is successfully perceived…

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…