One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel that features Randle McMurphy as an unscrupulous anti-hero in a mental hospital ward. Harrison Bergeron is a short story that highlights the main character, Harrison Bergeron, as an anti-hero in a fully dystopian society. McMurphy can be classified as charismatic and charming at times, but is very rebellious and wants to suppress his arch nemesis, Nurse Ratched. Harrison Bergeron has an unmatched obsession for overthrowing the government which attempts to suppress individual talents and people’s unique abilities. Both Randle McMurphy and Harrison Bergeron are what are known as unscrupulous anti-heroes. They both live in poor settings but rebel in different, public, ways. Randle McMurphy and Harrison …show more content…
In both novels, the situation that the characters are placed in is fertile ground for any unscrupulous anti-hero’s perfect rebellion. In McMurphy’s case, Nurse Ratched has a chokehold on all the patients and almost all the staff, even though she isn’t the formal leader. She is a master manipulator, and through this, creates a sense of total powerlessness. “All twenty of them, raising not just for watching TV, but against the Big Nurse, against her trying to send McMurphy to Disturbed, against the way she’s talked and acted and beat them down for years” (Kesey 81). McMurphy constantly disobeys her wishes and plots events, ranging from minor to major, that rebel against the Nurse. In Bergeron’s case, the government enforces harsh equality by handicapping their citizens with both physical and mental limitations. Bergeron goes against this by trying to break through these binding handicaps to free himself and others around him from the curse the oppressive government puts on him. “The music began. It was normal at first-cheap, silly, false. But Harrison snatched two musicians from their chairs, waved them like batons as he sang the music as he wanted it played. He slammed them back into their chairs” (Vonnegut 5). The quote portrays an example of Bergeron trying to break through the government’s dictatorial …show more content…
In both texts, the anti-heroes do not care about what they have to do to achieve their rebellion. They create a lot of collateral damage to reach their goals, as does any unscrupulous anti-hero. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy is shut down by Nurse Ratched through punishment and direct handling. He’s viewed as a dangerous threat and lots of actions are taken to stop him from becoming the authority figure. “What the Chronics are—or most of us—are machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant lot” (Kesey 13). In Harrison Bergeron, a much different approach is taken. The government is terrified of Bergeron and uses physical force to eliminate their threat, therefore killing him to maintain an “equal” society. “The minute people start cheating on laws, what do you think happens to society?” …A siren was going off in George’s head” (Vonnegut
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a film that can change your perspectives. Randle McMurphy’s side of this story is truly inspiring by the way he made the others feel about themselves. McMurphy lied and pretended to be crazy but rather that he is trying to manipulate the system in his advantage. He thought that being in the mental hospital would be more comfortable than going back to his normal life, he was serving a sit month sentence in prison, which haunts him later when he discovers the power of Nurse Matched manipulates him over so that she can send him for electroshock treatments and keep him committed as long as she likes. However, from what we see McMurphy is not a bad person as the nurse think he is.
“McMurphy eventually helps instill the other men on the ward with the confidence to face life again” (Slater 124). He comes to the realization of the power that Nurse Ratched has and becomes afraid; McMurphy succumbs to the pressures that all the other men have faced and conforms out of fear. Nurse Ratched spoke, “’Mr. McMurphy, I’m warning you!’” in “a tight whine like an electric saw ripping through pine” (Kesey 144). This supports that even if McMurphy is the leader or the strongest man alive, the fear of strength in large establishments destroys the confidence that McMurphy once had; it resulted in the thought of life and death-the outcome being death.
The narrative "Harrison Bergeron" is a piece of dystopian fiction wherein the government decides to enforce complete equality between its citizens. Although the story is told from a third person limited point of view, the story mainly focuses on Harrison, a fugitive of the law. George and Hazel, the parents of Harrison, are the only characters the author has omniscient insight on. As a result of striving for complete equality the government has complete control over people's actions and thoughts to be certain no one has an "unfair advantage" over others by making them wear handicaps. In Kurt Vonnegut's story, "Harrison Bergeron," symbolism, tone, and irony develop the theme of how complete equality is impossible and undesirable to achieve.
The story follows the lives of George and Hazel Bergeron from an outside perspective as they go through an average day wearing the government enforced handicaps. In this society the government rules all aspects of a citizen’s life including but not limited to media, thoughts, actions, and looks. The theme effectively portrays that when the government takes drastic measures cruel things
At the beginning of the novel, the rules in the ward are strict, and no one dares to go against them; the workers have the power, and the patients follow what they are told. Nurse Ratched exerts this power over the people by saying, “You’re committed, you realize. You are…under the jurisdiction of me…the staff” (Kesey 144). At the beginning of the novel, the power of Nurse Ratched and the staff is superior, and the patients on the ward do not fight for what they believe in. However, throughout the novel, McMurphy’s compelling and powerful ways transform the ward into a group of individuals who fight together for what they want in the ward.
Throughout “Harrison Bergeron”, Vonnegut describes handicaps that the government has forced people to wear to achieve ultimate equality throughout the society. This forced equality promotes violence because someone has to make sure the people are wearing their handicaps. If anyone goes against the government, they will get killed, just as Harrison did. For example, Vonnegut writes: “George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times.
The main theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is sanity versus insanity. The theme is apparent to the reader from the first scene, where McMurphy enters the room and says, “Which one of you claims to be the craziest?... Who's the bull goose loony here?”. He has lots of energy and is avoiding the black boys while the rest of the patients are just watching all the commotion quietly. After getting settled in the hospital McMurphy talks to the patients and tells them that they are men and should be able to stand up to the Nurse.
When she walked out into the real world she had no control over men, so this was her opportunity. McMurphy was not going to let this happen, so he fought back against it. McMurphy is slowly bringing down the reign of Nurse Ratched because he understands that she is similar to a totalitarian leader, and she had an enormous amount of power in her ward. Because McMurphy is a hard headed man, he cannot live with being controlled by anyone, which drives his actions of rallying the men against the Nurse. This is also seen when McMurphy breaks the glass window that protected Nurse Ratched from the patients on the ward.
McMurphy epitomizes a tragic hero throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because his hubris and his struggle to fight for his dignity leads to his
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, written by Ken Kesey, Randle McMurphy, a new patient, plans to take control over the ward and seize power from the strict and manipulative Nurse Ratched. Upon his arrival the patients begin to feel comfortable around McMurphy. He acts as a savior, standing up for himself and for the rest of the patients against Nurse Ratched. Despite the ward being a dismal and limited place, the presence of McMurphy's leadership gives the patients encouragement, individuality, and freedom.
The short story is based on how society is viewed equally, but handicaps are not viewed equally. The story is told from modern society because Harrison Bergeron believes that the society should be all equal to people.
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.
In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, is a perfect example of a tragic hero. Throughout the novel McMurphy sets himself up to be the tragic hero by resenting Nurse Ratched’s power and defending the other patients. He can be classified as a contemporary tragic hero, but he also includes elements of Aristotle’s tragic hero. McMurphy’s rebellious nature and ultimate demise are what truly makes him as a tragic hero.
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.
The movie was mostly focused on the feud between the warden/nurse Ms. Ratched and McMurphy. McMurphy tried to go against the hard-set plan set by the institution. More he tried to establish dominance and leadership within the group. This threatened the nurse’s ways of subduing patients, and they felt of less importance in their own institution. This led to a bitter rivalry and because of it the nurse tried to subdue, with same techniques as with other patients, McMurphy even after realizing that he was not a mentally unstable person.