In the film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there are four characteristics of a controlled environment. These include; status hierarchy, depersonalization, adjustment, and institution. Viewers can see these ideas through different scenes and situations in the movie. The overall movie stems from institutionalization, because it is set in a psychiatric hospital, which keeps the patients there confined to a strict environment and schedule. Doctors and nurses look at small traits or changes as something significant, whereas in the real world that small trait would appear as a norm and be overlooked.
Sleep Paralysis Sleep Paralysis is a common sleep condition that causes people to be physically paralyzed while being mentally awake. Even though the symptoms were diagnosed over 300 years ago it was recently discovered that brain chemicals allow this to happen. While there are many theories over sleep paralysis that are influenced by cultures and religions, the Three Factor-Model is one that is validated by science. The dictionary defines sleep paralysis as a condition in which, upon waking, a person is aware of the surroundings but is unable to move. (The American Heritage Science Dictionary) When someone has experienced sleep paralysis they not only have the paralysis, they often have other symptoms that come along with it.
The acute patients are the ones whose illness is thought to be short in duration, unlike the chronic, whose illness is long-lasting. Some of the acute patients voluntarily committed themselves in the hospital and usually hang out together and play cards during the day. These men include Dale Harding-an intelligent, obedient and responsible patient, Charlie Cheswick-an anxious fretful patient, Billy Bibbit- the young stutterer, and Scalon-a bushy-haired, heavy bearded patient. The other patients also in the same ward include Chief Bromden; a large Native American who was thought to be deaf and dumb, Martini; delusional disorder patient, Max Taber; a hostile and belligerent patient, Bancini; a patient who is always tired, Colonel Matterson; a wheelchair-bound patient, Sefelt and Frederickson; both epileptic, and Miller- a patient who is always dancing around the
The chief’s face starts out from being dimly lit and the light is concentrated on the windows, emphasizing that the hospital is a jail-like institution. When Chief attempts to wake McMurphy up, the fill and key light illuminates half of his face and eventually it lights up the entirety of Chief’s face. In comparison, McMurphy’s face is dimly lit after the lobotomy and gets darker when his life ends, showing that the ‘light’ has left him. The change of lighting symbolizes the recovery of Chief and also his final step from unreason (the alternate social norm) to reason, where he is now able to speak and integrate back to the social structure of Western culture. The final shot is also used to connote that the hospital is a cold, dark place and it solidifies the viewer’s negativity towards mental institution.
The movie titled Awakenings was directed by Penny Marshall and was a story by Oliver Sacks. Awakenings is the story of a doctor’s extraordinary work in the Sixties with the group of Catatonic patients he finds languishing in a Bronx hospital. Speculating that their rigidity may be Akin to an extreme form of Parkinsonism, he seeks permission from his sceptical superiors to Treat them with L-dopa, a drug that was used to treat Parkinson’s disease at the time. In the year 1969, Dr. Malcolm Sayer is a dedicated and caring physician at a local hospital in the New York City borough of The Bronx. Because of working extensively with the catatonic patients who Survived the 1917-1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica,
Shutter Island, a psychological thriller, directed by Martin Scorsese incorporates techniques throughout the film to reveal the truth in Shutter Island. The film is based on a missing patient investigation but the truth shows it is a psychological experiment on Andrew to bring him back to sanity. By analysing certain scenes including the opening scene, Teddy and Chuck are addressing Dr Cawley, and whist Teddy and Chuck are interviewing the patients. These three scenes assist in displaying Shutter Island through film techniques such as camera angle and mise en scene. The opening scene uses camera angle techniques and symbolism to expose that Teddy is a prisoner on Shutter Island.
Based on the book of Oliver Sacks, “Awakenings” made its way to the big screen. Watch it with a person who cries at a drop of a hat, and you would certainly need a box of tissues ready. It is much like letting a hypersensitive person talk to a physically disabled person. The “Awakenings” was set in 1969. Malcolm Sayer applied for a research position in the Bainbridge Hospital’s neurology laboratory but instead got accepted as a doctor for the hospital needed one badly.
While reflecting at the end of day, Shukhov perceives the day’s events optimistically, however, the concluding sentences highlight the author’s underlying pessimism of the Soviet system and specifically on the circumstances prevalent in the gulag. Shukhov’s humble, simplistic reflection that “it is almost a happy day”(139) is at odds with the dire conditions of the prison camp. He is thankful that he overcomes his fever, escapes the cells, builds a wall, and receives extra food. He has enough to smoke and is the recipient of Tsezar’s generosity. It does not take much to satisfy Shukhov.
By writing while experiencing the effects of hallucinogenic drugs, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest shows the struggles faced throughout the nineteen-fifties and sixties while also finding multiple ways to show the readers his realist views on life. Throughout the span of his life, Ken Kesey faced struggles, but persevered through until the end. Kesey was born on September 17th, 1935 in La Junta, California, to Frederick A. Kesey, and Geneva Smith (“Biography.com”). Kesey graduated from Springfield High School, and then Stanford College and the University of Oregon where he graduated (“Biography.com”). While in the University of Stanford he wrote unfinished works.
One flew over the Cuckoos nest is a narrated by Chief Bromden, he is a patient in Oregon Psychiatric Hospital; where he has been residing for 10 years. The voice of One flew over the cuckoo’s nest is almost incoherent as Chief Bromden has hallucinations which cause him to believe he is in a fog; he has also created an intricate conspiracy theory that the world is a machinery called The Combine. Chief Bromden is a troubled man whom is constantly under the thumb of Big Nurse and the black boys in white suits; they will not hesitate to through him in seclusion, so that Big Nurse doesn’t have to deal with him and so that the black boys can eat his meals. The hospital is an all male facility; the only females are the authority figures whom are in charge of all of the