The Loved Ones

Nurse Ratched epitomizes an authoritarian leader with her superiority, and inability to collaborate with the other members of the ward. In attempt to assert her control over McMurphy, Nurse Ratched reminds him that, “‘You're committed, you realize. You are... under the jurisdiction of me... the staff." She's holding up a fist, all those red-orange fingernails burning into her palm. "Under jurisdiction and control—" (125). When threatened by McMurphy, she forces him to “realize” that he is…

As the author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey did not approve of the film that was later produced in honor of his piece of writing. There is an ongoing debate over whether the movie, or the novel, was a better piece of art. In the novel, Chief serves as the narrator, which allows the reader to get into the heads of the patients in the institution, and better understand their perception of what is going on in the ward. In the movie, you are better able to experience what…

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a film directed by Milos Forman. The film was formed based on the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest written by Ken Kesey. The movie, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is considered as the best American movie of the 20th century. The film was the second to win every five main Academy Awards that include Best Picture, Actor in a Lead role, and Actress in a Lead Role, Director and Screenplay after It Happened One Night in 1934. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest…

How the Ward is run is a clear clue to Kesey's questions of sanity, one reason is the Big Nurse Ratched who is the unofficial controller of the ward. Over the years, she manipulates and twists the patients against one another in group meetings that give little to no help to improve any mental illnesses they have. Her own abuse to her prowess shines throughout the novel such as, by the denial of fun activities that can improve the patients. Kesey shows a large symbol of irony as well with Nurse…

identity in a place where the guards refer to him as a serial number, Shcha-854. In spite of this, he must learn to hold on to the little humanity he has left. The limits the human body and spirit can take is, again, astounding, and is always more than one would expect. I feel it would do a disservice to those who have lived through dire situations like those that Ivan had gone through if I would compare his story to situations in my own life. Not once in my life have I gone through situations…

Joey Barcia Bagdanov AP Literature & Composition 23 September 2015 Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Section 1: (pages 1- 28) part 1:1 We are first introduced to Chief Bromden, a long-time patient of a psychiatric hospital run by the intimidating “big nurse”, Nurse Ratched. Chief Bromden is the son of a native-american man and white woman, who despite his large stature is terrified of the nurse and the ward employees. Because of Chief’s passiveness, most of the employees assume that…

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…

them. The political prisoners are conniving con artists whose strength is their strong bond and them being kept together. In the story the narrator describes the political prisoners claiming, “Span One was assertive and it was beyond the scope of white warders to handle assertive black men. Thus, Span One had got out of control. They were the best thieves and liars in the camp” (Head 127). Warders are intimidated by them because they are cunning and…

Our society tends to place judgement on a people who are different and reject the norms of society. In the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, the treatment of the patients to become “normal” in the asylum is voluntarily and involuntarily. Some of the patients are in the asylum due to their sexual orientation, having distorted speech and having physical and mental disabilities. The men that are in the ward are afraid to leave because of the judgment from the public or society.…

Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is a well known piece of literature published in 1962 containing the theme of how society has the power to decide whether a person is really insane or not because of the way an individual exhibits themselves. Power and control are a motif reoccurring in the story which is different than the definition applied in the outside world than on the ward in which power is usually defined as the authority given to someone holding a higher position. Through…