Mental Illness In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Due to the structure in place by Nurse Ratched’s orders, all patients must participate in therapeutic meetings, where they have a group discussion with the nurse and Dr. Spivey. These discussions specifically target one patient where the others proceed to humiliate them. When Bromden narrates a meeting of this nature, Harding, another patient, is the one under harsh criticism, “The group is still tearing into Harding when when two o’clock rolls around” (Kesey 53). In the ward, the nurse has created an environment where the patients do not feel safe. She pits them against each other using methods such as the therapeutic meetings, which cause the patients to feel as though they cannot trust one another. These elements keep the nurse in power, as many of the patients fear being the target of one of these meetings and worry that they will again be betrayed by others. By introducing order through these activities, Nurse Ratched undermines the safety of the patients that should be under her care and keeps them silent. Nurse Ratched's oppressive order is not only seen in a literal sense, but also through the attitudes of the patients under her care. Chief Bromden describes the nurse as being “able to set the wall clock at whatever speed she wants just by turning one of those dials“ (Kesey 70). Nurse Ratched’s control over the patients’ lives extends to the point where

In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey provides a storyline about personal experiences he saw occur in a mental asylum. Ken Kesey worked as a staff member in an insane asylum in Oregon. When he wrote the book, he was providing personal memories about the patients and other workers into a story. The entire novel is about patients that are checked into a mental asylum, and their unwillingness to act against the nurse. Throughout the novel, there is a theme of “manipulation” implied. The theme that manipulation is only a powerful tool if the victim is weak enough to not resist it is revealed through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and the patients in the mental institution.

In the book One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, Nurse Ratched (One of the main characters) is a main factor of bringing fear into other patients. A film called The Ward there are also patients that are scared of the doctor operating on them. Both the doctor and Nurse Ratched are very alike as they put so much fear in the patients with their aggressive looks and that is why patients go from enjoying their entrance to the ward, then fearing for their lives. In the film the doctor also has a soft side which is not shown as much within the film but Nurse Ratched also has a soft side which nobody sees which means both these film and novel have a great connection within them. When people enter a mental ward for the first time they immediately become intimidated from the way they see how it looks. Sometimes they might see crazy people that could potentially attack them or just creepy staff or overwhelming doctors. In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest, the ard that the patients are in have specific rules. One of the rules is

Ken Kesey’s book titled “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” encapsulates the theme of insanity. The book questions not only the reader, but humanity on “What is insanity?” and therefore “What makes a person insane?”. An example of these moral questions is best displayed in the quote “Tell me why. You gripe, you bitch for weeks on end about how you can’t stand this place, can’t stand the nurse or anything about her, and all the time you ain’t committed. I can understand it with some of those old guys on the ward. They’re nuts. But you, you’re not exactly the everyday man on the street, but you’re not nuts.” [McMurphy pg.195]. Throughout the book, we, as the reader, can see that there is a fine line between normality and insanity. In fact, the

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb. The question of sanity becomes apparent when McMurphy, a confident gambler, who might have faked psychosis in order to get out of the work farm, is assigned to the mental hospital. He quickly stirs up tension in the ward for Nurse Ratched by encouraging the men to have fun and rebel against her rules.

In order to demonstrate the detrimental impact of societal institutions such as the mental hospital and the federal government on their subordinates, Ken Kesey captures the patients’ endeavor to become whole again as they temporarily escape the Combine’s clutches within his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. At the beginning of Part 3, it appears Nurse Ratchet’s regime is nearly toppled and that the machinery has lost its control. In fact, McMurphy even draws “[laughs] out of some Acute who’d been scared to grin since he was twelve” and forms a basketball team for the inmates (175). Moreover, Chief Bromden speaks for the first time in years and achieves an erection after his pivotal conversation. Clearly, Kesey indicates the decline of the matriarchy and as a result, portrays the patients as regaining their masculinity. Formerly,

His rebellious and free mind makes the patients open their eyes and see how the have been suppressed. His appearance is a breath of fresh air and a look into the outside world for the patients. This clearly weakens Nurse Ratched’s powers, and she sees him as a large threat. One way or another, McMurphy tends to instigate changes of scenery. He manages to move everyone away from her music and watchful eye into the old tube room. He also takes all of the patients out on a fishing trip, and one night he turns her whole ward into a party room. These changes of setting help the patients of the ward escape some of Nurse Ratched’s domination. In the end, thanks to McMurphy, Chief is able to instigate a change of scenery for himself, and he escapes the ward

In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, focuses on the destruction of the patient’s way of life caused by Nurse Ratched emitting fog to continue running a perfect combine machine, or system, throughout the ward. Nurse Ratched has continued to run a perfect system on the ward, and now that McMurphy is determined to rebel against her, she makes a fog appear to stop rebellious actions from happening. After McMurphy failed to switch the television to the time when the World Series game is on, Nurse Ratched “[switched] the fog machine on” and has began rolling in quickly to where the patients are “lost in it” to feel “safe again” (101). In this particular spot, Kesey provides an image of how the fog affects the patients. The fog prevents

In Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’ the main character and narrator, Chief Bromden, is noticeably stuck inside his own head as he acts deaf and dumb to escape the pressures of being a part of something. As the novel moves on, for someone who’s perception of living is to stay transparent and withdrawn totally inside himself the Chief takes a transformation from his delusional mind and gains strength physically and mentally, creating a journey towards freedom and finally, breaking free from the ward and from himself. Kesey uses the transformation to unravel a number of ideas about the importance of freedom and explores how the pressures of society can lead individuals to conform within themselves. The theories Chief believes

Kesey has used characterisation to get the idea that in this novel there are aspects of venerability and strength. In Nurse Ratched’s case, Kesey has made it so that she is shown with strength and power over the whole ward, including the black men in white, other nurses, and mainly the patients. An example of Nurse Ratched’s power over the patients is when she says to Billy Bibbit, “What worries me, Billy, ' she said- I could hear the change in her voice- 'is how your mother is going to take this.” This shows how one sentence was able to debilitate Billy into begging Nurse for forgiveness and restraint of telling his mother. There is an obvious idea presented by Kesey that the Nurse is dominant over Billy, who has become very vulnerable. Nurse Ratched is shown as a character of strength by the way the writer has created her character. Nurse Ratched is also seen as a strong figure by the way the other characters talk about her, for example when Chief says “To beat her you don 't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as soon as you lose once, she 's won for good.” The writer has used this line to show us how both Chief and the other patient give her the strong and authoritative

The film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, prompts very important aspect of the human condition. In the movie, the protagonist, Mac McMurphy, is deemed dangerous, so the mental institute tries to suppress him (Kesey). The film highlights various aspects of human conditions like psychology, sociology and philosophy. The mental institute tries to suppress the mentally challenged people rather than to try to communicate with them. The warden employs subtle humiliation tactics to subdue the patients, which was challenged by Mac McMurphy (Kesey). The movie shows that there is a fine line between being normal and acting normal. The protagonist was forced to become a mental patient to make him less dangerous. The movie

Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is a novel that dramatically portrays insanity. Chief Bromden is a Native American who pretends to be deaf and mute, in order to narrate the novel. This novel begins with the coming of a new admission Raddle McMurphy he is introduced to an insane asylum where chief has been a patient longer. McMurphy is intelligent and observant. He stirs up the ward immediately by introducing friendly competition, gambling and encouraging the men to rebel. McMurphy bets with the other men in the ward that he can make Nurse Ratched lose temper without, getting sent to the disturbed ward, getting treated with electroshock or being lobotomized. Slowly McMurphy undermines Nurse Ratched’s system of control while being

The men on the ward are controlled and immaculated by the Big Nurse’s use of intimidation. It makes the men feel weak and frightened of her. In the novel, Nurse Ratched makes sure everybody follows her rules, “She accumulates her ideal staff: doctors, all ages and types, come and rise up in front of her with ideas of their own about the way a ward should be run, some with backbone enough to stand behind their ideas, and she fixes these doctors with dry-ice eyes day in, day out until they retreat with unnatural chills.” (29) She controls the hospital by manipulating the patients in order to fulfill her desires. Nurse Ratched succeeds at getting the patients and everyone else in the ward to do what she wants.

The literary fiction novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, focuses on a mental hospital in Oregon, and the patients that live there. It is told from the perspective of Chief Bromden, a schizophrenic, who compares society to a delusion he calls the Combine. The hospital is ran with strict rules, which are carried out by Nurse Ratched, or as the patients call her, Big Nurse. In the beginning of the book, another main character, Randle McMurphy, is transferred from a local jail into the hospital. Upon arriving, he immediately challenges the rules, and even sneaks in a prostitute. Because of his defiant nature, he often butts heads with the Big Nurse. His actions get bolder as the story progresses, and he is sent to Disturbed. Nurse

The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey tells the story of a group of patients in a 1960s psychiatric hospital. The novel is told from the perspective of one of the patients who, up until the very end of the story, is mute. This character is named Bromden and because of the fact that he doesn’t speak, people think he is deaf. Bromden is in the psychiatric hospital because, although its is unclear whether he actually is skitzophrenic, he has been diagnosed as such. Bromden and many other psychiatric patients live in this ward, under the “command” of Nurse Ratched, nicknamed “Big Nurse”. Nurse Ratched is very bossy and strict with the patients in the ward. Many of the patients find her intimidating, until a new patient shows up