One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) Some films have been particularly noteworthy for breaking the Indian stereotype. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest featured an important contemporary role played by an Indian actor. In a scene where McMurphy (played by Jack Nicholson) gives a supposedly mute Indian Chief named Bromden (played by Indian actor Will Sampson) some Juicyfruit gum, “what the audience heard was far removed from the stereotypical ‘hows’ and ‘ughs’ and ‘kemosabes’ of tinsel moviedom” (Rollins and O’Connor, 1998:12):
Bromden: Ahh Juicyfruit.
McMurphy: Why you sly son of a bitch, Chief. Can you hear me, too?
Bromden: (Grinning) Yeah you bet.
McMurphy: Well I’ll be goddamned, Chief! They all think you’re deaf and dumb. Jesus Christ!
I repeat it, sir, let it come." "We must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!"
2. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, Kesey uses images of machinery to compare to Big Nurse, Miss Ratched, and the black boy because of the control they maintain in the ward and destroy the patients individuality. As Chief Bromden, the narrator, is thinking about over the years with Miss Ratched, he describes, “I see her sit in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend her network with mechanical insect skill, know every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get to the result she want” (Kesey 29). Miss Ratched is conveyed as a robot by the Chief with how she controls and knows how to control the ward and the people in it.
Bromden’s bias perspective, and Nurse Ratched’s caring intent prove that Kesey did not make her the antagonist of the story. Broaden turns to McMurphy for help and he brings more chaos than Nurse Ratched ever intended to endure. The nurse left after seeing her lack of control and order of the
Moment: “He twisted and thrashed around like a fish, back bowed and belly up, and when he got to his feet and shook himself a spray came off him in the moon like silver scales.” Pg 164 Fate. The one aspect that people try to change the most. The dappling with fate throughout Ken Kesey’s novel One
I say in a hurry. “Ray gun? why do you need the ray gun Acteon?”. “A MARTIAN TOOK MOM!” I say now screaming in frustration and anger.
“[Calls] Hey, Murphy! [laughs aloud] Murph ain’t a bad guy. He’s my best buddy, see? I mean, he gets kinda crazy sometimes, but that’s all.
1."And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do. You can't hunt, you can't sing—" "I'm chief. I was chosen."
“Dooby Scoo.. Whatever will we do!? " "My task-force has it under control." He replied calmly "As my most trusted adviser and highly decorated soldier, I beg of you.
***** Milam: "When we got to that gin, it was daylight, and I was worried for the first time. Somebody might see us and accuse us of stealing the fan. "
A main theme in Ken Keesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is rebellion. In the book, rebellious actions by the main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, representing the carnival side of society, goes against the Big Nurse who represent the strict chains of society. However, what I find ironic is the fact that a woman, in fact the most feminine character in the book, is the enemy or the oppressor. During the 1950’s this was the complete opposite. The feminist movement hadn’t taken a prominent standing yet and men were in power.
Irrational madness can be good Being mad and acting out doesn't always come with negative outcomes. As crazy as it sounds not only bad things happen when someones mad. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, Randle Patrick Mcmurphy is seen as eccentric. Mcmurphy is the leader of the other patients in the ward.
Ken Kesey’s figurative language in his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, illustrates that a broken individual can be made whole again. Throughout his life, Bromden has always been assumed to be deaf and dumb. When he speaks to people, their “machinery disposes of the words like they were not even spoken” (181). Here, Kesey’s metaphor represents the effect that Bromden’s words have on a mind plagued with societal expectations. Bromden is a large, Native American man that does not conform to the mold set by the Combine.
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”.
Weather in literature is often used to symbolize the mood or mental state in which a character experiences. For example, rain is commonly associated with sadness. As it is commonly identified, fog is a cloudy element of weather that affects one’s ability to see clearly, however, it is also used in literature to represent a character’s lack of clarity. Throughout One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the motif of fog is used to represent the mental instability and confusion Bromden experiences under Nurse Ratched’s ward. As the story progresses and Bromden gains confidence, the fog diminishes and he is able to overcome the Big Nurse.
Moral Lense Literary Analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The 1950s, the context of which One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey, was written, was called the Era of Conformity. During this time, the American social atmosphere was quiet conformed, in that everyone was expected to follow the same, fixed format of behavior in society, and the ones who stand out of being not the same would likely be “beaten down” by the social norms. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey argues that it is immoral for society to simply push its beliefs onto the people who are deemed different, as it is unfair and could lead to destructive results. First of all, it is unjust for people who are deemed unalike from others in society to be forced into the preset way of conduct because human tend to have dissimilar nature.