Category: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’S Nest

Whether classic or modern, the power of tragedy still works to capture our imaginations with unforgettable stories and biting social commentary. According to Aristotle, every tragedy is structured around three key events. These include hamartia, anagnorisis and peripeteia. Hamartia is commonly referred to today as a tragic flaw (Aristotle, 1998). It is the concept that a noble man will fall as a result of some inherent flawed portion of his character that causes him to make a particular mistake in judgment. This behavior or mistake will be the actual cause of his ruin. The eventual clarity of perception, when he realizes his mistake, is what is referred to as anagnorisis. In Aristotelian terms, this word translates to mean recognition (Aristotle, 1998).

This epiphany can reveal not only the true role of the protagonist in the wrongs occurring, but also the true nature of the characters around them. This concept leads naturally into the third element, that of peripeteia. Literally translated, the word means something akin to a sudden reversal based upon logic and intellect (Aristotle, 1998). It refers to a situation in which the hero ultimately loses as a result of this mistake, his fortunes are reversed from what they should have been. Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest presents a classic tragedy in that it features a main character who uses insanity to make sense of his world, but is tragically destroyed by the powers of the old regime he served to bring down.

McMurphy emerges as a tragic hero in that he is excessively proud of his own cleverness. However, he is considered an anti-hero because he doesnt really possess any abundance of traditional heroic characteristics, but ends up dying to defend justice. The typical hero is a weakling. The only way he can escape from the anxiety which plagues him is through a compulsive design. He loves this plan, and he compels others to fit into it. His concern for them is not benevolent; it is narcissistic (Malin 441). It is clear from the beginning of the story that McMurphy successfully feigns insanity to escape the hard work at the Pendleton Work Farm, Dont overlook the possibility that this man might be feigning psychosis to escape the drudgery of the work farm (Kesey 46).

However, he discovers the insane truth of the ward and Nurse Ratcheds controlling influence over it when he tries, but fails, to follow her rules. The reader knows McMurphy is faking his insanity because he only displays himself as insane around certain people, but displays humane actions such as helping Bromden grow: I want to know can you promise to lift it if I get you as big as you used to be? You promise me that, and you not only get my special body-buildin course for nothing, but you get yourself a ten buck fishing trip free! Although his insanity is a means of hopefully giving himself an easy sentence, McMurphy finds himself working for the greater good. Fiedler points out how McMurphy is in the eyes of his Indian buddy an ultimate Westerner, the New American Man (389). However, his excessive pride in his own cleverness coupled with the possibility of revenge drives him to his brutal end.

As McMurphy becomes more convinced of his nemesis evil, he becomes progressively more assertive which, in turn, led to Nurse Ratcheds increased determination to destroy him. The Oregon psychiatric hospital is a world completely dominated by this masochistic nurse who sits in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend[s] her network with mechanical insect skill, know[s] every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get the results she wants (30). The Terrible Mother of ancient mythology re-appears as a frozen and fearsome Big Nurse, in imagery as transparent as the glass cage surrounding her (Benert 472). McMurphy is successful in proving beyond doubt the manipulations of the offending party, destroying Nurse Ratcheds reign, but only at the cost of his own mind. McMurphys success is shown in his symbolic reveal of Nurse Ratcheds chest: screaming when he grabbed for her and ripped her uniform all the way down the front, screaming again when the two nippled circles started from her chest and swelled out and out (267). With her femininity exposed and her voice silenced, Nurse Ratched can no longer terrorize the patients of the ward. This moment is also the moment in which McMurphy receives his moment of truth, when he realizes he will never escape the asylum and he is sent in for a lobotomy, rendering him a vegetable, providing Ratched with a parting triumph.

In keeping with the heroes of tragedy, McMurphy also receives a strange reversal of fortune. It is expected at first that he will succeed in escaping the asylum until he gives his farewell party and falls into a drunken sleep. His lobotomy seems to be a complete defeat of the man and his purpose. What makes McMurphy a hero in the end, though, is not just his willingness to fight for the common man, but the recognition he receives for having done so. Bromden provides McMurphy with an honorable death by suffocating him following the lobotomy treatment, removing him as a tool of Nurse Ratched: I was only sure of one thing: he wouldnt have left something like that sit there in the day room with his name tacked on it for twenty or thirty years so the Big Nurse could use it as an example of what can happen if you buck the system (270). Although many of the men who might have remembered McMurphy have either transferred out of the ward or are now dead, such as Billy Bibbitt, Bromden still remembers McMurphy and recognizes the positive effect he had for everyone there. This hero is too much of an individual, too powerful, actually too successful for that. Though he does not escape, his ally, the Columbia Indian Chief Broom does, and in him the natural man ultimately triumphs (Barsness 434). Those who truly needed help transferred to facilities where they might actually get help while Nurse Ratched was rendered ineffective in the permanent loss of her voice, unable to assert her dominance into the future.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest illuminates for the reader the honor to be found in tragedy, appealing deeply to the senses. The character of McMurphy shows us that good sometimes disguises itself as a rebellious villain, that heroes can be found within even the most imperfect or unheroic figure. McMurphy had a great deal of energy for trouble, but when he was brought into the environment of the psychiatric ward, complete with its high level of manipulation and oppression, that energy suddenly shifted from being one of destruction and chaos to one of progress and change. In doing so, he managed to demonstrate the connections we all have to each other. The seeds of the madness of Keseys characters are in each one of us, sublimated, dormant, but waiting disconcertingly close to the surface (Waldmeir 420). McMurphy merely needed the right setting to put his energies to moral purpose. The case of McMurphy as a tragic hero is made as he first demonstrates he has excessive pride in his own cleverness as he is first able to con the system into giving him a soft sentence in the hospital instead of the prison and then is able to manipulate his way around Nurse Ratcheds strict authoritarian rules. The irony of the story exists in the fact that while McMurphy is able to prove himself honorable at the end in his defense of Billy and his attempt to stand up for the others, he is not able to enjoy the victory because he was himself destroyed by the villain he had brought down.

Works Cited

Aristotle. Critica Links. The University of Hawaii, (1998). Web.

Barsness, John A. Ken Kesey: The Hero in Modern Dress.

Benert, Annette. The Forces of Fear: Keseys Anatomy of Insanity.

Fiedler, Leslie A. The Higher Sentimentality.

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. New York: Signet, 1962.

Malin, Irving. Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.

Waldmeir, Joseph J. Two Novelists of the Absurd: Heller and Kesey.

Introduction

Written by Ken Kesey in 1962, One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest is a masterpiece that became an immediate success after its publication.

This is a story about a mental institution where mentally sick people are confined for easy management and treatment; nevertheless, at a closer look, the story deals with issues like insurrection against conformity among others that the United States of America was grappling with during this time.

All the characters in this story have some mental defects; nevertheless, others like Chief Bromden claim to be normal but after scrutiny the reader realizes that he is suffering from a common psychological condition; paranoid schizophrenia characterized by hallucinations among others as explained later in this paper.

This paper deals with the character, Chief Bromden, his life, health, sickness and gives a diagnosis coupled with suggested treatment of his mental health condition. Bromdens background gives insight to his possible mental health problem as exposited next.

Background

Chief Bromden is the longest serving patient in this Oregon mental institution where he has been confined for the last ten years. He says, Im the one been here on the ward the longest, since the Second World War (Kesey 17). As the story opens up, Bromden is paranoid, hallucinated, and ever fearing the unknown.

A fog that shields him from reality covers his life most of the time facilitated by humiliation he gets from other patients especially the Black boys and Nurse Ratched popularly known as the Big Nurse. He loathes meeting the Black boys; he actually prefers to stay alone and play deaf and dumb.

As aforementioned, fear of the unknown clogs Bromdens mind and he cannot hide it, not from the Black boys for they, got special sensitive equipment that detects my fear& (Kesey 3). His daily life is accustomed to bullying from the Black boys whom have nicknamed him Chief Broom due to his duties of mopping the floor. To confirm his suffering he says, One swats the backs of my legs with a broom handle to hurry me past (Kesey 3).

Bromden has every reason to be paranoid as he reveals the contents of the Big Nurses handbag, which she uses in her daily duties, wheels, and gears, cogs, needles, forceps, watchmakers pliers, and rolls of copper wires (Kesey 3). It is important to note that, this is a mental institution manned by the Big Nurse and the above-mentioned tools are to be used to torture patients including Chief Bromden.

On the other side, Bromden has personal issues far from the mental institution. He sees himself as a weak and small person despite the fact that he is 6 ft 8 tall. He admits that he used to be big but that is no more. His bigness has disappeared to where he knows not. His confidence has melted away and its place taken by unfounded fear; something that he openly admits.

He tries to remember the past but it brings equal fears as the mental hospital especially when he remembers a machine he calls Combine-a dark imagination of society as a conglobation of oppressive forces. Oppression to Bromden has been around since childhood.

He recalls a time back when he was ten and some government officials visited his father, Chief Tee Ah Millatoona to discuss a possibility of buying a tribe land. Unfortunately, Bromden was alone in the house and the government officers acted as if he did not exist and this traumatized him greatly.

Moreover, Bromden is named after his mother, Mary Louise Bromden, despite the fact that he had a father and people are named after their fathers insinuating a possibility of family problems. His past has nothing to celebrate; actually, &like always when I try to place my thoughts in the past and hide there, the fear close at hand seeps in through the memory (Kesey 6). This is the day-to-day life of Bromden coupled with trauma from electroshock treatments he received from the Big Nurse rumored to be around 200.

Diagnosis

Based on the information gathered from the background of Bromdens life, he is suffering from paranoia also known as paranoid schizophrenia in modern psychiatry. Paranoia is a thought process heavily influenced by anxiety or fear sometimes to the point of irrationality and delusion (Freeman & Garety 49).

Kantor adds that, Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself (96). From the background information about Bromden, it is evident that he suffers from paranoia. Bromdens thought process is based on unfounded fears and anxiety.

It is true at some point his fears are founded on threats and mistreatment from the Black boys and the Big Nurse; however, most of the time his fears are based on anxiety of uncertainty of events. Moreover, recent psychiatry has given important insight to this condition by indicating that it may result from persecutory beliefs. Bromden has every reason to belief in persecution.

As aforementioned, oppression has been around Bromden since he was ten years old during that incidence when government officials visited their home only to behave as if Bromden was not around. As a small boy, Bromden was just like any other child and research indicates that children hardly forget traumatizing events in their lives.

Therefore, there is a high probability that Bromden carried this experience into adulthood and that is how he became accustomed to persecutory beliefs. In another concealed indication, Bromden is named after his mother as opposed to the normal way of naming children after their fathers. This insinuates that there might have been family crisis with Bromdens mother dominating over his father thus causing Bromden trauma as a child. This again, is a source of persecutory beliefs.

The issue of fear leading to irrationality and delusion sets in here. Bromden admits that there is a cloud of fear that hovers over his head though he cannot say where it comes from. He says that whenever he tries to remember his past, the immediate fear clogs his mind (Kesey 6). These are unfounded fears.

He fails to explain what he calls, immediate fear and this aligns well with a paranoid person. Again, he admits to McMurphy that a fog that shields him from reality covers his life. He says, When the fog clears to where I can see, I am sitting in the day room (Kesey 8). This fog is only in his mind and that is why he realizes he is sitting in a day room after the fog in his mind clears  this is delusions.

Moreover, he assumes that the society is made of conglobation of oppressive people and calls them the Combine. This is still delusions founded on ones perception. The fact that the environment surrounding Bromden is hostile and oppressive, it does not mean the world is oppressive too. There are good people out there.

Paranoid schizophrenia fits Bromdens situation best compared to persecutory delusions and paranoid personality disorder. According to Kendler, Czajkowski and Tambs, Paranoid personality disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others (1589). The fact that Bromden came to trust McMurphy later in the story disqualifies this disorder together with persecutory delusions, which follows the same line.

Suggested Treatment

Like any other psychological disorder, paranoid schizophrenia has no laboratory tests. Therefore, psychologists prefer symptom management to curing the same and this proves the old adage; prevention is better than cure, right. Nevertheless, several intervention measures have been put forward to counter this condition in cases where symptom management is not applicable.

Parnas and Jorgensen note that antipsychotic medication is the first step towards paranoid schizophrenia treatment (625). This treatment counters the psychotic symptoms prevalent in individuals. The newest and better antipsychotic drug is perphenazine. However, this drug is expensive and Bromden would consider taking risperidone, quetiapine, olanzapine or ziprasidone for a period of eighteen months to improve the negative psychosis symptoms.

Alternatively, Bromden would use olanzapine or clozapine; however, full dosage takes longer time thus raising the issue of patient compliance to take the full dose. Nevertheless, as aforementioned, non-drug intervention is the best form of therapy in dealing with paranoid schizophrenia.

The best therapeutic interventions include both psychological and social interventions. Psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy is widely recommended and used in the treatment of paranoid schizophrenia (Moran 24).

Psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy improves self-esteem, self-believe, and insight. Given the nature of Bromdens situation, he is only disillusioned and psychotherapy tackles all these problems. Another option is, cognitive remediation, a technique aimed at remediating the neurocognitive deficits sometimes present in schizophrenia (Wykes. Brammer & Mellers 146).

This remediation has proved effective in the past and it would work for Bromden as well. Family members are another source of social intervention in this situation. Family members offer moral support and in most cases, they understand an individual better. Alternatively, education on the issue may help greatly once an individual understands how his/her problems work.

In other cases, where medication, psychological, and social intervention have failed, electroconvulsive therapy may be used (Greenhalgh, Knight, Hind, Beverly &Walters 150). Individuals may also consider movements formed by people suffering from the same condition like Paranoia Network. Finally, regular exercise has proved to be an all-time therapy, which counters most health conditions and paranoid schizophrenia, is not excluded.

Conclusion

One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest is a masterpiece revealing secrets that happens in mental institutions that many people do not know. Chief Bromden is one of the central characters; actually, he is the narrator of the story. From the beginning of the story, he is paranoid with a fog covering his mind most of the times.

Unfounded fears dominate his thoughts coupled with anxiety. Oppression has been around him since he was ten. Based on the evidence gathered in his background information, Bromden suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Fortunately, there are several measures to counter this condition. Among them is medication using antipsychotics, sociological and psychological interventions among others. Exercise can also play a big role towards dealing with this condition.

Works Cited

Greenhalgh, John, Knight, Cole, Hind, Dwight, Beverley, Charles & Walters, Simon.

Clinical and Cost-Effectiveness of Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depressive Illness, Schizophrenia, Catatonia and Mania: Systematic Reviews and Economic Modeling Studies. Health Technol Assess. 2005. 9 (9): 1156

Freeman, David & Garety, Paulson. Paranoia: The Psychology of Persecutory Delusions. Hove: Psychology Press, 2006.

Kantor, Martin. Understanding Paranoia: A Guide for Professionals, Families, And Sufferers. Westport: Praeger Press, 2004.

Kendler, Kelly, Czajkowski, Nemaja &Tambs, Knight. Dimensional Representations Of DSM-IV Cluster a Personality Disorders in a Population-Based Sample Of Norwegian Twins: A Multivariate Study. Psychological Medicine, 2004. 36 (11): 158391

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. New York; Penguin Group, 1976.

Moran, Missy. Psychosocial Treatment Often Missing From Schizophrenia Regimens Psychiatric News, 2005. 40 (22): 24

Parnas, Joel & Jorgensen, Andrew. Pre-Morbid Psychopathology in Schizophrenia Spectrum. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1989. 115: 6237

Wykes, Taylor, Brammer, Myles & Mellers, John. Effects on the Brain of A Psychological Treatment: Cognitive Remediation Therapy: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 2002. 181: 14452

Introduction

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was the result of Ken Kesey’s interest in the relations among sanity, insanity, and consciousness-altering drugs. He began writing the novel while employed as psychiatric ward attendant. Later he volunteered to take such drugs as LSD and peyote as a research subject. Kesey wrote the novel under the influence of peyote and LSD. (Carnes, 112) It is an indictment of American culture more than it is of mental institutions. It attacks conformity and established authority in a dense style replete with myths, parables, and ironic commentaries. Few contemporary novels achieved the status of classics or received such notoriety so quickly.

The 1962 novel established Kesey’s literary reputation overnight by calling public attention to the conditions and potential for abuse in the nation’s mental hospitals, where electroshock therapy and even lobotomy were still standard practices. (Porter, 127)

Literary Analysis

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a tragic yet inspirational account of one man’s self-sacrifice in a struggle against hypocrisy and oppression. Set on a ward of a mental hospital in Oregon, the novel depicts characters that could be found in many settings and a conflict between authoritarianism and individualism that is truly universal.

Ken Kesey tells the story through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a longtime patient who is uniquely knowledgeable about hospital routines and procedures and privy to staff secrets. As important as what Chief knows is what he does not know; he can only infer Randle McMurphy’s motives, a process of discovery that gives the novel its focus. A paranoid schizophrenic, Bromden reports his hallucinations faithfully; while they cannot be taken literally, they do make sense. As Chief says, his story is “the truth, even if it didn’t happen.” (Thomas, 19)

The action begins when McMurphy is admitted to Nurse Ratched’s ward for observation. Authorities at the prison farm where he had been a convict are not sure whether he is a psychopath or merely a malingerer. On the ward, McMurphy proves himself to be a master manipulator, hustling his fellow patients in card games and persistently challenging the authority of Nurse Ratched. (John, 89) The patients quickly accept him as a leader and begin to see him as their champion. Nurse Ratched is infuriated by this challenge to her authority, but she bides her time. McMurphy finds out that because he has been officially committed, Nurse Ratched and the hospital staff control his release, and he becomes more prudent and conformist. Nurse Ratched appears to have won, and McMurphy’s fellow patients understand and regretfully accept the change in his behavior.

McMurphy then learns that Dale Harding, Billy Bibbit, and many of the other patients on the ward have not been committed and are there voluntarily, and his behavior changes again. Once more, he is loud and irreverent, challenging Nurse Ratched at every opportunity. He charters a fishing boat, persuading ten of his fellow patients to sign up for a salmon-fishing trip despite Nurse Ratched’s opposition; he even persuades the staff doctor to go along. The trip is a great success: McMurphy spends time with a teenaged girl, one of the patients manages the boat masterfully, the men catch fish, and they are all able by the end of the day to hold their heads up in society. Nevertheless, this outing sows the seeds of disaster. (Thomas, 21)

Nurse Ratched demands that those who went on the trip undergo a particularly disagreeable hygienic procedure. One of the patients resists, and a fight breaks out between the staff orderlies on the one hand and McMurphy and Bromden on the other. In response, Nurse Ratched orders electroshock therapy for McMurphy and Bromden. When McMurphy refuses to apologize for his role in the fight, he is subjected to repeated treatments. (Porter, 130)

After McMurphy returns to the ward, Harding and the other inmates convince him to escape from the hospital to save himself from further retaliation by Nurse Ratched. McMurphy is determined not to leave, however, until Billy Bibbit has had a “date” with Candy, the teenager who went on the fishing trip with McMurphy and the other patients. McMurphy persuades the night orderly to let Candy and another young woman onto the ward with bottles of wine and vodka for a midnight party. Billy and Candy eventually disappear into the ward’s seclusion room, and everyone falls asleep. In the morning, Nurse Ratched discovers Billy sleeping with Candy and threatens to tell his mother. Billy pleads with her not to do so. He blames Candy, McMurphy, and the others for what has happened and then, when left alone, commits suicide. McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched and is dragged away by hospital staff members.

In the denouement, many patients leave the hospital or transfer to other wards. McMurphy is lobotomized; his mindless body is smothered by Chief Bromden, who then makes good his escape.

Thematic Analysis

The central theme of the story is how Chief Bromden becomes strong, self-confident, and sane again. This rescue and transformation succeeds because McMurphy treats him as a worthwhile, intelligent, and sane individual. In addition, McMurphy gives him the example of standing up to and occasionally beating the apparently all-powerful Combine.

That machine is the central symbol of evil in the story. The Chief accurately sees that the powerful in society subtly and unsubtly coerce people into becoming cogs in the machine. The Chief imagines the ruling part of the mechanistic society as a combine, which is a huge harvesting machine. It chews up the growing plants in the field and spits them out as identical products for sale. Thus, the Combine is the machinelike conspiracy that sucks people in, turns them into robots, and spits them out to carry out the Combine’s will in society. (Thomas, 26) In the cuckoo’s nest, the repair shop for the Combine, the same kind of oppression continues. The shop symbolizes the hidden oppression operating in the outside world. The patients are broken-down machines that the asylum seeks to adjust. The Big Nurse’s basic method is to destroy the patients’ self-confidence by making them admit their guilt, shame, and uselessness. (Porter, 134)

Into that repair shop McMurphy comes, a man free from the controls of the Combine because he has never stayed in one place long enough for the controls to be installed. He is an outsider, like the three geese flying overhead in the song: One flew east, one flew west, and one flew over the cuckoo’s nest. The last goose came and rescued the singer, just as McMurphy rescues the Chief, who is the singer of this novel-length song. (John, 88) The Chief, the narrator of the story, provides a central source of its power. Readers initially see the ward through the Chief’s psychotic haze. His fantastic visions show both his paranoia and how oppressive the asylum really is. (Thomas, 30) Then as McMurphy brings him back to sanity, the picture gradually clears, the fantastic visions becoming realistic. The Chief comes to see that his slavery is due not only to the Combine but also to his own capitulation. McMurphy’s refusal to give in provides the example the Chief needs to give him confidence in his own ability to live freely.

The Chief sees McMurphy as not only the goose who rescued the slaves from a cuckoo’s nest but also as other popular culture heroes. He speaks of him as a superman, calling him a giant come out of the sky to rescue them. Often the Chief describes him as a cowboy hero coming into town to gun down the bad guys. In particular, one of the patients identifies McMurphy as the Lone Ranger. The allusion that the Chief uses most to place McMurphy in the pantheon of heroes is that of Jesus, the self-sacrificing savior. On the fishing trip, for example, the group is called “McMurphy and his twelve,” and one patient tells them to be fishers of men. On the way back, the Chief sees McMurphy as a Man of Sorrows, doling out his life for his friends. (Thomas, 32) The shock treatment takes place on a table shaped like a cross, with McMurphy referring to their anointing his head and asking if he will get a crown of thorns. A patient speaks like Pilate, saying he washes his hands of the whole affair. The ward party is a Last Supper parody. In the end the powers destroy McMurphy by lobotomy, just as Jesus was killed by the Combine of his day. After that, the Chief (a big fisherman) escapes to tell his story, just as Jesus’ disciples escaped. (Carnes, 115)

Though the Chief’s portrait of McMurphy in some central ways alludes to Jesus, in a variety of other ways it provides a contrast. McMurphy is not simply a selfless savior but is also the fabled western American fighter, sexual braggart, and con man, which contrasts with Jesus’ nonviolence, chastity, and honesty. In particular McMurphy promotes sexual indulgence as a saving activity. In the story, however, the Chief realizes that sexual indulgence is what led to Billy’s death, thereby portraying his savior as far from perfect. (John, 84) That imperfection has led some critics to object to the novel as promoting immorality. Whether one considers that the novel promotes immorality or not depends on whether one takes McMurphy as a model for all that is good. The Chief does not. He sees the good and the bad in his rescuer. An even stronger criticism made of the novel is that it is misogynistic. The women in the novel are either tyrannical emasculators or sweet-natured whores. Certainly it offers no example of an ideal woman. It offers no model men either; McMurphy’s considerable weaknesses lead to his destruction.

Conclusion

The great value of the novel is that it provides a picture of a universal fact of human life. Oppression of the weak by the strong is a constant reality. Rebellion by the weak is occasionally successful and can appropriately be celebrated and encouraged by stories such as this. In the end, the two chief opponents, Big Nurse and McMurphy, do not provide the only two choices available to readers. Instead, the model is the Chief, for he gains his free life again and lives to tell the tale.

Kesey’s own experience as a night attendant on the psychiatric ward of a Menlo Park, California, veterans hospital added credibility to his charges, as did later rumors of the illegal shock treatment he took under the guise of research. His remark that the character of Chief Bromden had appeared to him in a peyote-induced vision fueled interest and controversy, especially when he revealed that he had volunteered for government-sponsored experiments that introduced him to a variety of psychomimetic drugs, including LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and psilocybin. Chief Bromden’s hallucinations echoed Kesey’s continued fascination with mind-altering substances and created a psychedelic style new to fiction. The ominous figure of the head nurse captured public imagination as did that of the irrepressible McMurphy, who personified the 1960’s concept of rebellion against conformity.

Works Cited

Porter, M. Gilbert. The Art of Grit: Ken Kesey’s Fiction. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1982: 127-134.

John Clark Pratt. Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Text and Criticism. New York: Viking Press, 1973: 84-90.

Thomas H. Fick, “The Hipster, the Hero, and the Psychic Frontier in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” in Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, Vol. 43, Nos. 1-2, 1989, pp. 19-32.

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. First published 1962: Signet edition 1986, New York. 37-45.

Carnes, Bruce. Ken Kesey. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University Press, 1974: 112-117.

One of my favorite novels is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey (1962). In the description of the book, it is written that it tells a story of a killer who pretends to be deaf and mute to escape a prison sentence. Generally, this description is correct. Nonetheless, the plot is much more complex, impressive, and even dramatic. This essay is dedicated to this novel because its end causes strong emotions and breaks the heart. In my opinion, the major value of a person’s life is freedom. Freedom to be what you are until it harms other people. The novel shows that freedom is so fragile because everyone could be easily deprived of it.

The story takes place in one of the American psychiatric hospitals in the late 1950s – early 1960s. The patient who pretends to be deaf, mute, and insane is called Chief Bromden. He is half-Native American and the narrator. The most crucial character of the novel is Randle McMurphy. He is put into the hospital as a punishment for being impulsive, rebellious, and prone to gambling and battery. McMurphy is a freedom-loving and passionate person, and he tries to break the rules that restricted him until those rules broke him.

It is also interesting to notice that Bromden frequently claims that the hospital installs wires into each patient to control everyone but McMurphy. In the beginning, it seems that Bromden is indeed crazy because, obviously, there are no wires, fog machines, and remote control. Still, by the end of the book, it becomes clear what Bromden is talking about. The character of Chief Bromden does not cause any emotions, whereas McMurphy captivates with his energy, keen mind, and internal freedom. McMurphy fights with the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, who keeps the patients and the staff members in fear and brutally manipulates them.

In the context of the book, our world is getting better because nowadays, no one could make a lobotomy to a person who is a little more feisty, humorous, and independent than others. People are fighting against violations of human rights, and biases on racial, religious, and gender grounds. However, the increased freedom of people gradually turns into a trap for humanity. If to omit this philosophical discussion, overall, life is becoming better because treatment methods are becoming more humane due to scientific progress and technological development.

Reference

Kesey, K. (1962). One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Penguin.

Introduction

The novel by Ken Kesey “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” due to acute themes it raises and the way the author develops them is quite an impressive piece of reading. This fact was confirmed by the success of the film of the same name directed by Milos Forman, which is considered by many experts to be one of the best American pictures.

The plot of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

The plot of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” revolves around the story of Randle McMurphy, a prisoner simulating mental disorder and sent to a mental hospital in which he hopes to have a nice time. Through the eyes of a schizophrenic patient of the hospital named Chief Bromdens, the author traces the development of friendship between McMurphy and some of the people undergoing treatment, as well as shows the opposition between patients and the oppressive staff of the ward. In essence, McMurphy and Chief Bromdens are the main protagonists of the novel, as their behavior and their life stories complement each other. For one, it is only McMurphy who with the help of his energy and resolution has managed to awaken Chief and to break his silence, which the Native-American had kept since the dramatic events in his personal family life in the past. In his turn, McMurphy, who initially offended Chief upon entering the ward, also quickly develops a liking for the tall and massive Indian, and in the episode, with the basketball game, they already act as friends supporting each other. On a deeper level, though, it is this friendship between those two unusual patients that helps them develop as characters in the novel. Indeed, for Chief, who before his encounter with McMurphy had been somewhat impersonal in his stance, the ideas in support of individuality proclaimed by McMurphy serve as a means to return to his lost state of moral freedom, which ultimately results in his physical liberation as well.

This progression of one of the novels’ characters reflects in an optimistic and invigorating way perhaps the main theme expressed by Kesey, namely that of the confrontation between freedom and control. On the other hand, McMurphy embodies an opposite aspect of this confrontation, as he walks the path of an open conflict with the main tyrant of the hospital Nurse Ratched, who aims to fully control her patients, and who does not disdain to use any means for that end, even such mean ones as the actual instigation of Billy Bibbit to commit suicide. It is this type of struggle that unites McMurphy and Chief, and which turns the Indian into McMurphys true ally, even though in a way that does not reveal itself until the end of the novel. More specifically, Chief serves as the demonstration of the longevity of noble ideas even in the absence of those who initially had introduced them. In the novel, this symbolic act of inheritance happens when after the assault on Nurse Ratched McMurphy is lobotomized and thus irreparably turned into a vegetative state. This event is the culmination of the novel, and when Chief finds McMurphy to be not like he used to be, he decides to fulfill what his friend had planned to do. But before he escapes, Chief feels that if he would leave McMurphy as he is, he would betray him, and would allow Nurse Ratched to establish her ultimate dominance over all the patients. And in the act that none of the readers could reproach, Chief suffocates his former friend with a pillow and then escapes after breaking the window with the help of the weighty fountain, which works to further increase his connection with McMurphys ideas, and which demonstrates that Chief has fully regained his force, and, metaphorically, his sanity.

In this way, we can see that without each other neither McMurphy nor Chief would be able to develop as characters, so their relationship is a critical component of the whole plot of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

References

Forman, Milos. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Warner Home Video, 1997.

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Viking Adult, 2002.

Whether classic or modern, the power of tragedy still works to capture our imaginations with unforgettable stories and biting social commentary. According to Aristotle, every tragedy is structured around three key events. These include hamartia, anagnorisis and peripeteia. Hamartia is commonly referred to today as a tragic flaw (“Aristotle”, 1998). It is the concept that a noble man will fall as a result of some inherent flawed portion of his character that causes him to make a particular mistake in judgment. This behavior or mistake will be the actual cause of his ruin. The eventual clarity of perception, when he realizes his mistake, is what is referred to as anagnorisis. In Aristotelian terms, this word translates to mean recognition (“Aristotle”, 1998).

This epiphany can reveal not only the true role of the protagonist in the wrongs occurring, but also the true nature of the characters around them. This concept leads naturally into the third element, that of peripeteia. Literally translated, the word means something akin to a sudden reversal based upon logic and intellect (“Aristotle”, 1998). It refers to a situation in which the hero ultimately loses as a result of this mistake, his fortunes are reversed from what they should have been. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest presents a classic tragedy in that it features a main character who uses insanity to make sense of his world, but is tragically destroyed by the powers of the old regime he served to bring down.

McMurphy emerges as a tragic hero in that he is excessively proud of his own cleverness. However, he is considered an anti-hero because he doesn’t really possess any abundance of traditional heroic characteristics, but ends up dying to defend justice. “The typical hero is a weakling. The only way he can escape from the anxiety which plagues him is through a compulsive design. He ‘loves’ this plan, and he compels others to fit into it. His concern for them is not benevolent; it is narcissistic (Malin 441). It is clear from the beginning of the story that McMurphy successfully feigns insanity to escape the hard work at the Pendleton Work Farm, “Don’t overlook the possibility that this man might be feigning psychosis to escape the drudgery of the work farm” (Kesey 46).

However, he discovers the insane truth of the ward and Nurse Ratched’s controlling influence over it when he tries, but fails, to follow her rules. The reader knows McMurphy is faking his insanity because he only displays himself as insane around certain people, but displays humane actions such as helping Bromden ‘grow’: “I want to know can you promise to lift it if I get you as big as you used to be? You promise me that, and you not only get my special body-buildin’ course for nothing, but you get yourself a ten buck fishing trip free!” Although his insanity is a means of hopefully giving himself an easy sentence, McMurphy finds himself working for the greater good. Fiedler points out how McMurphy is “in the eyes of his Indian buddy an ultimate Westerner, the New American Man” (389). However, his excessive pride in his own cleverness coupled with the possibility of revenge drives him to his brutal end.

As McMurphy becomes more convinced of his nemesis’ evil, he becomes progressively more assertive which, in turn, led to Nurse Ratched’s increased determination to destroy him. The Oregon psychiatric hospital is a world completely dominated by this masochistic nurse who sits “in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend[s] her network with mechanical insect skill, know[s] every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get the results she wants” (30). “The Terrible Mother of ancient mythology re-appears as a frozen and fearsome Big Nurse, in imagery as transparent as the glass cage surrounding her” (Benert 472). McMurphy is successful in proving beyond doubt the manipulations of the offending party, destroying Nurse Ratched’s reign, but only at the cost of his own mind. McMurphy’s success is shown in his symbolic reveal of Nurse Ratched’s chest: “screaming when he grabbed for her and ripped her uniform all the way down the front, screaming again when the two nippled circles started from her chest and swelled out and out” (267). With her femininity exposed and her voice silenced, Nurse Ratched can no longer terrorize the patients of the ward. This moment is also the moment in which McMurphy receives his moment of truth, when he realizes he will never escape the asylum and he is sent in for a lobotomy, rendering him a vegetable, providing Ratched with a parting triumph.

In keeping with the heroes of tragedy, McMurphy also receives a strange reversal of fortune. It is expected at first that he will succeed in escaping the asylum until he gives his farewell party and falls into a drunken sleep. His lobotomy seems to be a complete defeat of the man and his purpose. What makes McMurphy a hero in the end, though, is not just his willingness to fight for the common man, but the recognition he receives for having done so. Bromden provides McMurphy with an honorable death by suffocating him following the lobotomy treatment, removing him as a tool of Nurse Ratched: “I was only sure of one thing: he wouldn’t have left something like that sit there in the day room with his name tacked on it for twenty or thirty years so the Big Nurse could use it as an example of what can happen if you buck the system” (270). Although many of the men who might have remembered McMurphy have either transferred out of the ward or are now dead, such as Billy Bibbitt, Bromden still remembers McMurphy and recognizes the positive effect he had for everyone there. “This hero is too much of an individual, too powerful, actually too successful for that. Though he does not escape, his ally, the Columbia Indian Chief Broom does, and in him the natural man ultimately triumphs” (Barsness 434). Those who truly needed help transferred to facilities where they might actually get help while Nurse Ratched was rendered ineffective in the permanent loss of her voice, unable to assert her dominance into the future.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest illuminates for the reader the honor to be found in tragedy, appealing deeply to the senses. The character of McMurphy shows us that good sometimes disguises itself as a rebellious villain, that heroes can be found within even the most imperfect or unheroic figure. McMurphy had a great deal of energy for trouble, but when he was brought into the environment of the psychiatric ward, complete with its high level of manipulation and oppression, that energy suddenly shifted from being one of destruction and chaos to one of progress and change. In doing so, he managed to demonstrate the connections we all have to each other. “The seeds of the madness of Kesey’s characters are in each one of us, sublimated, dormant, but waiting disconcertingly close to the surface” (Waldmeir 420). McMurphy merely needed the right setting to put his energies to moral purpose. The case of McMurphy as a tragic hero is made as he first demonstrates he has excessive pride in his own cleverness as he is first able to con the system into giving him a ‘soft’ sentence in the hospital instead of the prison and then is able to manipulate his way around Nurse Ratched’s strict authoritarian rules. The irony of the story exists in the fact that while McMurphy is able to prove himself honorable at the end in his defense of Billy and his attempt to stand up for the others, he is not able to enjoy the victory because he was himself destroyed by the villain he had brought down.

Works Cited

“Aristotle.” Critica Links. The University of Hawaii, (1998). Web.

Barsness, John A. “Ken Kesey: The Hero in Modern Dress.”

Benert, Annette. “The Forces of Fear: Kesey’s Anatomy of Insanity.”

Fiedler, Leslie A. “The Higher Sentimentality.”

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. New York: Signet, 1962.

Malin, Irving. “Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Waldmeir, Joseph J. “Two Novelists of the Absurd: Heller and Kesey.”

Introduction

Written by Ken Kesey in 1962, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a masterpiece that became an immediate success after its publication.

This is a story about a mental institution where mentally sick people are confined for easy management and treatment; nevertheless, at a closer look, the story deals with issues like insurrection against conformity among others that the United States of America was grappling with during this time.

All the characters in this story have some mental defects; nevertheless, others like Chief Bromden claim to be normal but after scrutiny the reader realizes that he is suffering from a common psychological condition; paranoid schizophrenia characterized by hallucinations among others as explained later in this paper.

This paper deals with the character, Chief Bromden, his life, health, sickness and gives a diagnosis coupled with suggested treatment of his mental health condition. Bromden’s background gives insight to his possible mental health problem as exposited next.

Background

Chief Bromden is the longest serving patient in this Oregon mental institution where he has been confined for the last ten years. He says, “I’m the one been here on the ward the longest, since the Second World War” (Kesey 17). As the story opens up, Bromden is paranoid, hallucinated, and ever fearing the unknown.

A fog that shields him from reality covers his life most of the time facilitated by humiliation he gets from other patients especially the “Black boys’ and Nurse Ratched popularly known as the Big Nurse. He loathes meeting the Black boys; he actually prefers to stay alone and play deaf and dumb.

As aforementioned, fear of the unknown clogs Bromden’s mind and he cannot hide it, not from the Black boys for they, “got special sensitive equipment that detects my fear…” (Kesey 3). His daily life is accustomed to bullying from the Black boys whom have nicknamed him “Chief Broom” due to his duties of mopping the floor. To confirm his suffering he says, “One swats the backs of my legs with a broom handle to hurry me past” (Kesey 3).

Bromden has every reason to be paranoid as he reveals the contents of the Big Nurse’s handbag, which she uses in her daily duties, “wheels, and gears, cogs, needles, forceps, watchmakers’ pliers, and rolls of copper wires” (Kesey 3). It is important to note that, this is a mental institution manned by the Big Nurse and the above-mentioned tools are to be used to torture patients including Chief Bromden.

On the other side, Bromden has personal issues far from the mental institution. He sees himself as a weak and small person despite the fact that he is 6 ft 8” tall. He admits that he used to be big but that is no more. His ‘bigness’ has disappeared to where he knows not. His confidence has melted away and its place taken by unfounded fear; something that he openly admits.

He tries to remember the past but it brings equal fears as the mental hospital especially when he remembers a machine he calls Combine-a dark imagination of society as a conglobation of oppressive forces. Oppression to Bromden has been around since childhood.

He recalls a time back when he was ten and some government officials visited his father, Chief Tee Ah Millatoona to discuss a possibility of buying a tribe land. Unfortunately, Bromden was alone in the house and the government officers acted as if he did not exist and this traumatized him greatly.

Moreover, Bromden is named after his mother, Mary Louise Bromden, despite the fact that he had a father and people are named after their fathers insinuating a possibility of family problems. His past has nothing to celebrate; actually, “…like always when I try to place my thoughts in the past and hide there, the fear close at hand seeps in through the memory” (Kesey 6). This is the day-to-day life of Bromden coupled with trauma from electroshock treatments he received from the Big Nurse rumored to be around 200.

Diagnosis

Based on the information gathered from the background of Bromden’s life, he is suffering from paranoia also known as paranoid schizophrenia in modern psychiatry. “Paranoia is a thought process heavily influenced by anxiety or fear sometimes to the point of irrationality and delusion” (Freeman & Garety 49).

Kantor adds that, “Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself” (96). From the background information about Bromden, it is evident that he suffers from paranoia. Bromden’s thought process is based on unfounded fears and anxiety.

It is true at some point his fears are founded on threats and mistreatment from the Black boys and the Big Nurse; however, most of the time his fears are based on anxiety of uncertainty of events. Moreover, recent psychiatry has given important insight to this condition by indicating that it may result from ‘persecutory beliefs’. Bromden has every reason to belief in persecution.

As aforementioned, oppression has been around Bromden since he was ten years old during that incidence when government officials visited their home only to behave as if Bromden was not around. As a small boy, Bromden was just like any other child and research indicates that children hardly forget traumatizing events in their lives.

Therefore, there is a high probability that Bromden carried this experience into adulthood and that is how he became accustomed to persecutory beliefs. In another concealed indication, Bromden is named after his mother as opposed to the normal way of naming children after their fathers. This insinuates that there might have been family crisis with Bromden’s mother dominating over his father thus causing Bromden trauma as a child. This again, is a source of persecutory beliefs.

The issue of fear leading to irrationality and delusion sets in here. Bromden admits that there is a cloud of fear that hovers over his head though he cannot say where it comes from. He says that whenever he tries to remember his past, the immediate fear clogs his mind (Kesey 6). These are unfounded fears.

He fails to explain what he calls, ‘immediate’ fear and this aligns well with a paranoid person. Again, he admits to McMurphy that a ‘fog’ that shields him from reality covers his life. He says, “When the fog clears to where I can see, I am sitting in the day room (Kesey 8). This fog is only in his mind and that is why he realizes he is sitting in a day room after the fog in his mind clears – this is delusions.

Moreover, he assumes that the society is made of conglobation of oppressive people and calls them the Combine. This is still delusions founded on one’s perception. The fact that the environment surrounding Bromden is hostile and oppressive, it does not mean the world is oppressive too. There are good people out there.

Paranoid schizophrenia fits Bromden’s situation best compared to persecutory delusions and paranoid personality disorder. According to Kendler, Czajkowski and Tambs, “Paranoid personality disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others” (1589). The fact that Bromden came to trust McMurphy later in the story disqualifies this disorder together with persecutory delusions, which follows the same line.

Suggested Treatment

Like any other psychological disorder, paranoid schizophrenia has no laboratory tests. Therefore, psychologists prefer symptom management to curing the same and this proves the old adage; prevention is better than cure, right. Nevertheless, several intervention measures have been put forward to counter this condition in cases where symptom management is not applicable.

Parnas and Jorgensen note that antipsychotic medication is the first step towards paranoid schizophrenia treatment (625). This treatment counters the psychotic symptoms prevalent in individuals. The newest and better antipsychotic drug is perphenazine. However, this drug is expensive and Bromden would consider taking risperidone, quetiapine, olanzapine or ziprasidone for a period of eighteen months to improve the negative psychosis symptoms.

Alternatively, Bromden would use olanzapine or clozapine; however, full dosage takes longer time thus raising the issue of patient compliance to take the full dose. Nevertheless, as aforementioned, non-drug intervention is the best form of therapy in dealing with paranoid schizophrenia.

The best therapeutic interventions include both psychological and social interventions. “Psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy is widely recommended and used in the treatment of paranoid schizophrenia” (Moran 24).

Psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy improves self-esteem, self-believe, and insight. Given the nature of Bromden’s situation, he is only disillusioned and psychotherapy tackles all these problems. Another option is, “cognitive remediation, a technique aimed at remediating the neurocognitive deficits sometimes present in schizophrenia” (Wykes. Brammer & Mellers 146).

This remediation has proved effective in the past and it would work for Bromden as well. Family members are another source of social intervention in this situation. Family members offer moral support and in most cases, they understand an individual better. Alternatively, education on the issue may help greatly once an individual understands how his/her problems work.

In other cases, where medication, psychological, and social intervention have failed, “electroconvulsive therapy may be used” (Greenhalgh, Knight, Hind, Beverly &Walters 150). Individuals may also consider movements formed by people suffering from the same condition like Paranoia Network. Finally, regular exercise has proved to be an all-time ‘therapy’, which counters most health conditions and paranoid schizophrenia, is not excluded.

Conclusion

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a masterpiece revealing secrets that happens in mental institutions that many people do not know. Chief Bromden is one of the central characters; actually, he is the narrator of the story. From the beginning of the story, he is paranoid with a fog covering his mind most of the times.

Unfounded fears dominate his thoughts coupled with anxiety. Oppression has been around him since he was ten. Based on the evidence gathered in his background information, Bromden suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. Fortunately, there are several measures to counter this condition. Among them is medication using antipsychotics, sociological and psychological interventions among others. Exercise can also play a big role towards dealing with this condition.

Works Cited

Greenhalgh, John, Knight, Cole, Hind, Dwight, Beverley, Charles & Walters, Simon.

“Clinical and Cost-Effectiveness of Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depressive Illness, Schizophrenia, Catatonia and Mania: Systematic Reviews and Economic Modeling Studies.” Health Technol Assess. 2005. 9 (9): 1–156

Freeman, David & Garety, Paulson. “Paranoia: The Psychology of Persecutory Delusions.” Hove: Psychology Press, 2006.

Kantor, Martin. “Understanding Paranoia: A Guide for Professionals, Families, And Sufferers.” Westport: Praeger Press, 2004.

Kendler, Kelly, Czajkowski, Nemaja &Tambs, Knight. “Dimensional Representations Of DSM-IV Cluster a Personality Disorders in a Population-Based Sample Of Norwegian Twins: A Multivariate Study”. Psychological Medicine, 2004. 36 (11): 1583–91

Kesey, Ken. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” New York; Penguin Group, 1976.

Moran, Missy. “Psychosocial Treatment Often Missing From Schizophrenia Regimens” Psychiatric News, 2005. 40 (22): 24

Parnas, Joel & Jorgensen, Andrew. “Pre-Morbid Psychopathology in Schizophrenia Spectrum”. British Journal of Psychiatry, 1989. 115: 623–7

Wykes, Taylor, Brammer, Myles & Mellers, John. “Effects on the Brain of A Psychological Treatment: Cognitive Remediation Therapy: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Schizophrenia”. British Journal of Psychiatry, 2002. 181: 144–52

Synopsis

This is one of the greatest American films of all time – a $4.4 million dollar effort directed by Czech Milos Forman. Its symbolic theme is set in the world of an authentic mental hospital (Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon), a place of insurgence exhibited by a vigorous, flamboyant, wise-guy anti-hero against the Establishment, institutional authority and status-quo attitudes (personified by the patients’ supervisory nurse). [Forman himself noted that the asylum was a metaphor for the Soviet Union (embodied as Nurse Ratched) and the desire to escape.] Expressing his basic human rights and impulses, the protagonist protests against heavy-handed rules about watching the World Series, and illegally stages both a fishing trip and a drinking party in the ward – leading to his own paralyzing lobotomy.

Jack Nicholson’s acting persona is the heroic rebel McMurphy who lives free or dies (through an act of mercy killing).

The film’s title was derived from a familiar, tongue-twisting Mother’s Goose children’s folk song (or nursery rhyme) called Vintery, Mintery, Cutery, Corn.

The ones that fly east and west are diametrically opposed to each other and represent the two combatants in the film. The one that flies over the cuckoo’s nest [the mental hospital filled with “cuckoo” patients] is the giant, ‘deaf-mute’ Chief:

Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,

Apple seed and apple thorn; Wire, briar, limber lock, three geese in a flock.

One flew east, and one flew west, and one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

With an insane asylum standing in for everyday society, Milos Forman’s 1975 film adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel is a comically sharp condemnation of the Establishment urge to obey the rules. Playing fanatical to evade prison work detail, frenzied free spirit, Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is sent to the state mental hospital for assessment. There he encounters a diverse crew of mostly voluntary inmates, including intimidated mama’s boy Billy (Brad Dourif) and unvoiced Native American Chief Bromden (Will Sampson), presided over by the icy Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher).

Ratched and McMurphy recognize that each is the other’s worst enemy: an authority figure who equates sanity with correct conduct, and a nonconformist who is enigmatic enough to dismantle the system simply by living as he pleases. McMurphy’s message to live liberated or depart this life is ultimately not lost on one inmate, enlightening that escape is still possible even from the most tyrannical circumstances.

The patients are prearranged and controlled through a severe set of dictatorial rules and regulations that McMurphy questions.

In a spectacular, exhilarating, and unforgettable scene, McMurphy strains and struggles gallantly to pick up the tremendous load, gritting his teeth – but he cannot lift it. As he strides from the room, he turns toward the patients, refusing to concede defeat, maintaining by his example that it is better to try and fail than to meekly accept an poor status quo.

In the most well-remembered sequence in the film, McMurphy subversively pretends to be enjoying the second World Series baseball game on television in a contest of wills with the Nurse.

He inventively re-creates the play-by-play excitement of the game. His excitement proves infectious – the other patients join him and look up at the dark television screen that reflects their faces – they almost believe that the game is real.

In the film’s conclusion, inmate Chief Bromden realizes that “Mac” has had surgery on his brain. [A frontal lobotomy is the surgical severance of nerve fibers connecting the frontal lobes to the thalamus, a severe procedure commonly practiced in the 1930s-1950s on mentally-disordered patients.] He knows that McMurphy has lost his vital vigor and will never be able to escape with him to Canada. He hugs his friend and then ends his misery to free him from the bondage of his existence in an act of mercy killing. Bromden smothers and suffocates McMurphy with a pillow.

Then, with his tremendous strength and inspired by McMurphy’s liberating example, proving that a single person can still overcome oppressive conditions, he picks up the marble wash station from the tub room and smashes through the window with it.

He escapes from the cuckoo’s nest, flying away to the outer world – yet the world’s horizon is both threatening and liberating. The other inmates remain incarcerated in the locked ward of the hospital after everything that has transpired. [In the novel unlike the film, the inmates courageously leave the hospital for new lives in the outside world.]

R, 2 hrs 13 min.

The main conflict in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is described in three different ways:

1. As the struggle of the “sane individual in opposition to a fanatical establishment,” “man vs. mechanism,” and “a archaic, wild, unsocial, anti-family form of masculinity vs. sexless women, institutions, and the social order that want to tame it.”
2. Ken Kesey’s notion of the Combine—as demonstrated by President Eisenhower’s policies, and commercial America’s views on an proficient, disciplined, and yielding society—with Chief Bromden’s concept of the Combine—an omnipotent, all-seeing clandestine faction in the mental hospital, which watches and reins everything.
3. During the mid-1960s Kesey and his group, the Merry Pranksters, referred to those in their counterculture as being “on the bus.”
4. Kesey states that One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest helps the reader to “question truth” by “tearing away the fabric of what we’ve been told is reality and showing us something that is far more real.”

This paper analyzes the two films which are known as Lunacy and the one flew over the cuckoo’s nest. The responses of both the films are actually analyzed in the paper which would easily make it a response paper.

The story of lunacy revolves around the western front. This movie revolves around the scenario of an ideological debate and actually starts with a direct address by Svankmajer. Certain analyst actually believes that this film is not a successful film but this film fascinates the viewers. However, the director of the film actually believes that it’s a horror film and this cannot be classified as the work of art. He stressed on the point art can be classified as dead anyway. The entire film revolves around the ideological debate of running a lunatic asylum. However, it can be said that the first thirty minutes of the movie revolves around some preliminary business. But the majority of the film is based on the philosophies of Marquis de Sada and they are actually filtered through two stories based on Edgar Allen Poe. There are several psychological nightmares that are attached with this film. It’s a two hour movie and in the initial stages of the film people usually get bored from the film while everyone would rejoice the ending and the plot of the movie. The entire film is based on two stories which are known as the “The System of Doctor Tarr and The Premature Burial” by Edgar Allan Poe (Triska and Svoboda).

This movie is quite interesting and it is based on the scenario of insanity which actually means mental illness. The entire film is based on criminal who decided to move towards a mental institution to avoid prison work. However, the doctors ordered McMurphy that he cannot leave the mental institution unless and until he is found fit for the society. McMurphy’s relationship with other patients in the ward grew rapidly and such an environment started to prevail in the institution that differences were created between the authorities and the patients. The main character of this story McMurphy in collaboration with the head nurse tries to understand the mentalities of other patients in the ward. However, the entire movie revolves around the scenario of insanity and how people view insanity in others perspectives.

The next chapter of the book revolves around the scenario of the term society and the society is presented in a beautiful manner when McMurphy is admitted in the hospital. The social influences of other people are depicted in this chapter. The interactions of patients in the institutions were limited and many patients have differences with each other. They follow their daily routines and these daily routines are characterized by a society which is known as the society of order and regulations (Kesey and Faggen). In the similar manner the culture of this society is same and it is known as insane. However, McMurphy plays a vital role in the society and he develops relationships with other individuals of this society and an atmosphere is developed in which interactions are quite easy with each other.

In the similar manner it can be said that a proper group was actually formed and this group was led by McMurphy. The core characteristic of this group was that this group interacts with each other and they were involved in different activities. After a certain period of time this group becomes a primary group and the patients that were in this group possess common thoughts and desires. In the next chapters of this book cultures are philosophically defined in this book. These cultures and norms are prevalent in the entire story that focuses on the actions of McMurphy and other patients. The violation of norms was initiated by McMurphy when he engaged in a fight with certain other patients. In the similar manner he attached the hospital and that is the reason why he was given electric shocks to control his behavior and emotions.

The seventh chapter of this book discusses the scenario that medications were provided by the hospital staff to control the illness of the patients and usually the head nurse of the institution provides the medicine.

The number of wrong doings by the customers is characterized by the term deviance and the deviance of the patient is basically defined as the action, idea or attribute which is usually strange for the society. McMurphy was actually involved in a statutory rape and this situation is considered as the element of immorality which was committed by McMurphy. Because of this immoral act McMurphy was actually sentences to work in a camp. Furthermore, it can also be said that the element of group think is also present in the society of patients and McMurphy in many instances pressures the patients to follow his instructions.

The ninth chapter of this book discusses the element of bureaucracy in the society and how a society follows the structure of bureaucracy. The fifteen chapter of the text actually discusses the element of social reconstruction and how it is implemented in the entire scenario of this movie.The ideologies of the patients are discussed in this chapter and it actually depicts that patient’s need mental freedom and they also want changes in their institution. The patients of the institutions take collective actions against the administrations policies and regulations.

Thus, in a nutshell it can be said that society is comprised of different behaviors and different individuals with collective behaviors form a certain society (Kesey and Faggen). This book depicts how different characters and ideologies in a society are different from each other. Furthermore, if we analyze this movie then one can easily learn different sociological concepts. In the similar manner one can easily analyze the concepts related to mental institutions and the living methodologies of mental patients. This film depicts an analytical approach and it gives a deeper analysis of the aspect of lunacy and it also depicts that how it is perceived by the society (Kesey and Faggen). However, major aspects that are attached with sociology and psychology can be discussed through this film. Finally it can be said that through this film the sane side of life can easily understood.

Work Cited

Kesey, K and R Faggen. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Penguin Classics , 2002.

Lunacy. Dir. J Svankmajer. Perf. J Triska and K Svoboda. 2005.

In the decade of the 1960s there was a lot of complaints that came from the actors, directors and film enthusiasts. They clamour for a renaissance of Hollywood films. The movie industry was in a deplorable state, however, good fortune smiled on those who desperately wanted for change (Lev, 2000, p.5). In the 1960s up to the 1970s Hollywood went through a rebirth. It was known as the period of “great artistic achievement based on new freedom and widespread experimentation” (Kramer, 2005, p.1).

One of the best example of “New Hollywood” is the blockbuster entitled One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This film exemplified “New Hollywood” based on unconventional techniques seen in the way the plot, theme, visual style and even the people that worked on the project such as the director, cinematographer and actor in the lead role.

It is rare for a film to enjoy both critical and commercial success (Maltby, 2003, p.180). The Cuckoo’s Nest movie was embraced by the critics as one of the finest examples of Hollywood excellence. It won five major Oscar awards. But more importantly the masses gave their own feedback, giving the two thumbs up sign by voting with their money as they patiently brave the elements to stand in line to buy tickets and see the movie for the second and even the third time.

This was not only beneficial to the studio but also on the main actor Jack Nicholson himself and according to one report, “By 1978, Jack’s share of the Cuckoo’s Nest windfall grew to $15 million, becoming the kind of annuity that just kept on giving … completed on a $4.4 million budget, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest became the seventh-highest grossing movie ever” (McDougal, 2008, p.200).

Jack Nicholson, Milos Forman and Haskell Wexler came to Hollywood just at the right time when the movie industry in the United States was in the cusp of revolution. According to insiders, “The conditions for a revolution in Hollywood certainly seemed to be in place in the latter part of the sixties. There was the decaying regime: a studio system run by aging autocrats whose commitment to standardized technique and innocuous content seemed to make it impossible for genuine film artists to emerge in Hollywood” (Bernardino, 1991, p.1).

Aside from that there was tremendous pressure to change. The bottomline is falling in most studios and this simply means that if it cannot produce a good movie that people will pay to watch then the golden days are over and they will have to learn how to file bankruptcy.

According to film historians, “There was an external crisis: the initial challenge of television followed by the consolidation of its position as the mass medium, a situation which by the end of the sixties had led to truly alarming declines in the box office receipts of American movies” (Bernardino, 1991, p.1).

Aside from that there were the discontented masses, the baby boomers and the educated young adults who are more than willing to break free from social restrictions (Bernardino, 1991, p.1). As a result some of the most spectacular films in Hollywood history were made such as films like The Godfather (1972); The Poseidon Adventure (1973); Jaws (1975) and Star Wars (1977) among others (King, 2002, p.46).

Plot and Theme

This film is a byproduct of “New Hollywood” as evidenced by the plot and theme. One writer even said, “With its narrative emphasis on institutional politics, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, reflects interestingly on the institutional structure of New Hollywood cinema itself” (Morrison, 1998, p.212).

This is seen in the courageous use of material taken from a novel by Ken Kessey. It can be said that this is not the first time that a movie outfit dared to tell the story of mentally ill patients and the intriguing and sometimes frightening scenes inside a mental asylum. However, this is the firs time that a studio tackled the idea that the psychiatrists and the supposedly health experts are the villains and not the lunatics inside the mental institution.

According to the author of the novel the book shows how the said institution was used not to help people but to separate those who are not willing to conform to social rules (Kesey, p.1). This was depicted so well at the end of the movie when the character played by Jack Nicholson was reduced to a “vegetable” reducing what was once a bubbly character into someone who could no longer resist the people bent to subdue him.

The plot and theme of the movie is a perfect example of “New Hollywood” not only because it experimented on visual style, cinematography and other elements of production but more so because the whole story of the movie talks about going against the grain. The whole film is an illustration of how Hollywood used to stifle creativity and ingenuity in the movie industry and how powerful individuals are pulling the string and everyone involved are mere puppets.

“Old Hollywood” was defined using the character of nurse Ratched. The name itself is something that denotes the idea of a rat and a wretched place. A rat is understood to be a creature that cannot be trusted and can easily turn traitor because the “rat” is someone who cannot go against those in authority has to constantly obey rules and conventions.

The story is a revelation of how destructive is a dictatorship and why absolute power corrupts. Movies that came out from “New Hollywood” is also a dagger aimed at the old methods enjoyed by giant studios and directors and producers who became too powerful for their own good.

The theme and plot of the story can be summarized in one statement: “McMurphy never lets rules – or even common sense – stand in the way of good fun” (Fish, 1984, p.10). It is this desire to experience happiness and fulfilment that has inspired the producers and creators of this film.

Finally, the experimentation is also evident in the creation of the plot and theme of the movie. For instance, McMurphy was depicted as the suffering saviour. He seems to be portrayed as the Messiah but at the same time he is the worst example of what a Messiah should be, this is because he is uncouth, proud, and angry (Stone, 2000, p.92). But this ability to go against the conventional way of storytelling and film making sets this film apart.

Visual Style

Just like the other products of its time, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest can easily represent “New Hollywood” because of its striking visual style. If one will have an overview of the movies done in the 1950s there is a sense of predictability when it comes to how the director frames the shot and what are the things that are allowed to be within the frame.

One example is the way the characters are framed in the scenes using tight shots. The camera focuses intently on the face of McMurphy and so the audience can feel and experience the nuances of his gestures and mannerisms.

The same thing can be said with regards to the tight shot of Nurse Ratched. The visuals provided a complex character. She is soft-spoken and yet everyone is afraid of her. Even McMurphy at one point realized that he has met his match in Nurse Ratched.

It must also be pointed out that use of colour or the absence of it intensifies the meaning of its scene. The first time the audience were acquainted with Nurse Ratched she came in wearing a black coat and then when she was ready to get to work she was transformed into this nurse wearing all white.

This played well with the drab background of the mental institution and this is a good example of how directors in this particular era are not afraid to experiment on different techniques such as the different way they depicted violence. This can be seen in the way the main character was murdered, smothered by a pillow (Horwath, Elsaesser & King, 2004, p.143).

Director

This film is an example of “New Hollywood” because of the director on the helm of film production. Milos Forman is not American-born. This is layered with complex implications. First, he is not tied to the conventional way of doing American films. Secondly, he brought with him the techniques that he had learned in Europe. Finally, he is used to experimentation and trying out new techniques. This is why the feel of the film was different as compared to other products that came out of “Old Hollywood.”

Actor

The actor that they brought in to play the part of Randall Patrick McMurphy is no ordinary actor. He is different in the sense that Nicholson exudes this aura of rebelliousness. He is a person who does not seem willing to conform to social norms. There are other actors that can play this part convincingly well but they are actors that are easily identified with the current system.

But by bringing in Jack Nicholson as the actor in the lead role, the audience are immediately forewarned that this fellow will tend to break the rules instead of keeping them. Nicholson was not yet an established actor groomed by the studio. Nicholson is someone who is so talented and yet does not seem to fit in according to industry standards (Conner, 2002, p.6).

Nicholson’s facial features, his mannerisms and his acting was just perfect for the part. It gave credibility to what he was trying to project on the silver screen.

His character is desperately trying to go against traditions and norms and his superb acting allowed him to speak not only to the critiques watching the film but the ordinary people who felt that there is a need to experience freedom and not to be repressed by rules and traditions that has ensnared them for too long. Nicholson’s character is the personification of the challenge posed by those who are sick and tired of the “Old Hollywood” and are willing to stand up against institutional bullies.

A commentary on the character of R.P. McMurphy clarified why this movie exemplify “New Hollywood” and it says: “McMurphy’s sanity takes the ward by storm: none of the patients have met anyone like him … where the other patients were timid and quiet, McMurphy is cocky and loud; where they are unable to do more than snicker, his healthy laughter shakes the walls; where they are sexually repressed, he is self-proclaimed champion lover” (Fish, 1984, p.9).

Cinematographer

It was not only the actor and director that exemplify the new way of doing things in the “New Hollywood” it is also the cinematographers. The best example is Haskell Wexler who was the cinematographer of the said movie. Wexler typified the radical changes that were happening within the industry because he is a cinematographer who does not compromise easily when it comes to artistic freedom (Schaefer & Salvato, 1984, p.247).

His desire to experiment can be seen in the way he tried to capture the emotion of the scene using excellent camera work. One of the best example is the tight shot of Nurse Ratched as she lies on the floor after McMurphy tried to suffocate her.

Uncertainty Before Success

There was a tremendous degree of uncertainty when one is trying to do something for the first time. There was nothing like this movie in the history of Hollywood. If one will say that this is unprecedented, it would have been an understatement. A few days after the release here are some of the reactions from critics and moviegoers, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest detonated like a nuclear revelation, touching a universal nerve and elevating Jack to superstardom in the process” (McDougal, 2008, p.198).

The compliments kept coming and another commentary said, “Many theatres defied the usual one-week-in, next-week-out trend and extended the film for months … the movie opened in Stockholm on February 26, 1976, and didn’t close until eleven months later” (McDougal, 2008, p.198).

Conclusion

It is rare for a film to enjoy both commercial and critical success. The movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was able to accomplish this rare feat. The reason given is that it is the by-product of “New Hollywood” and the proof also that the movie going public is looking for something new.

This film exemplified “New Hollywood” because of the theme, visual styles, actor, director and cinematographer. Together they collaborated to create something unprecedented. The result was spectacular, it is one of the films that saved Hollywood and ushered in a new era in film making.

References

Bernardoni, J., 1991. New Hollywood. NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.

Conner, F., 2002. Hollywood’s Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Lucky Breaks, Prima Donnas, Box Office Bombs and Other Oddities. VA: Brassey’s, Inc.

Fish, P., 1984. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. New York: Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.

Horwath, A., Elsaesser, T. and King, N., 2004. The Last Great American Picture

Show: New Hollywood Cinema. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Kesey, K., 1962. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. New York: Penguin Books.

King, G., 2002. New Hollywood Cinema: An Introduction. New York: I.B. Tauris.

Kramer, P., 2005. The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars. UK: Wallflower Press.

Lev, P., 2000. American Films of the 70s: Conflicting Visions. TX: University of Texas Press.

Maltby, R., 2003. Hollywood Cinema. MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Morrison, J., 1998. Passport to Hollywood: Hollywood Films, European Directors. New York: State University of New York Press.

McDougal, D., 2008. Five Easy Decades: How Jack Nicholson Became the Biggest Movie Star in Modern Times. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Schaefer, D. and Salvato, L. 1984. Masters of Light: Conversations with Contemporary Cinematographers. CA: California University Press.

Stone, B., 2000. Faith and Film: Theological Themes at the Cinema. MA: Chalice Press.