Free Essays on One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey was both a novelist and a short story writer, and is best known for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Although many people disagreed with Kesey’s stereotypes toward women and blacks, â€Å"the book is considered a masterpiece of contemporary American literature for its disjointed, colloquial prose style, its tightly constructed plot, and its exposition of modern social ills† (Marowski 223-4). Kesey was inspired to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from his experience at a mental institution. Kesey was both â€Å"captivated and revolted† by the treatment the patients received (Tanner 261-2 ). Kesey discovered in certain cases that the doctors and nurses’ treatments were ironically hurting the patients rather than helping them gain back their sanity. After studying the corrupt culture of mental institutions, Kesey creates a character, Nurse Ratched, to help explain his experience at the hospital. Kesey created the hospital to conf orm the patients rather than to heal them, allowed Kesey to justly portray the grotesque treatments the patients received. Through characterization, symbolism, and use of theme, Kesey portrays his characters through an overbearing matriarchal society. The matriarchal society was headed by Nurse Ratched or better known as â€Å"Big Nurse†. â€Å"Big Nurse is certainly a personification of some negative aspects of our society, and she is just the principal figure among a number of domineering and manipulating females in the novel† (Tanner 261-62). She was the head of the hospital ward, and governed the staff and patients with an overbearing amount of force and intimidation. â€Å"Big Nurse is the ward superintendent and is the ultimate authority demanding obedience and perfect order from everyone† (One). By demanding absolute cooperation from the patients, this control allowed Big Nurse to undermine the men and slowly make their condition worse than it was befo... Free Essays on One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Free Essays on One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey was both a novelist and a short story writer, and is best known for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Although many people disagreed with Kesey’s stereotypes toward women and blacks, â€Å"the book is considered a masterpiece of contemporary American literature for its disjointed, colloquial prose style, its tightly constructed plot, and its exposition of modern social ills† (Marowski 223-4). Kesey was inspired to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from his experience at a mental institution. Kesey was both â€Å"captivated and revolted† by the treatment the patients received (Tanner 261-2 ). Kesey discovered in certain cases that the doctors and nurses’ treatments were ironically hurting the patients rather than helping them gain back their sanity. After studying the corrupt culture of mental institutions, Kesey creates a character, Nurse Ratched, to help explain his experience at the hospital. Kesey created the hospital to conf orm the patients rather than to heal them, allowed Kesey to justly portray the grotesque treatments the patients received. Through characterization, symbolism, and use of theme, Kesey portrays his characters through an overbearing matriarchal society. The matriarchal society was headed by Nurse Ratched or better known as â€Å"Big Nurse†. â€Å"Big Nurse is certainly a personification of some negative aspects of our society, and she is just the principal figure among a number of domineering and manipulating females in the novel† (Tanner 261-62). She was the head of the hospital ward, and governed the staff and patients with an overbearing amount of force and intimidation. â€Å"Big Nurse is the ward superintendent and is the ultimate authority demanding obedience and perfect order from everyone† (One). By demanding absolute cooperation from the patients, this control allowed Big Nurse to undermine the men and slowly make their condition worse than it was befo... Free Essays on One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest The story of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest takes place in a mental hospital. The main character is Randall McMurphy; he has led a troublesome life and been in and out of jail. He was put into the asylum because he committed assault and battery. He is a tall man with red hair, and has many tattoos. He is also a very loud and outspoken. McMurphy appears to be normal compared to everybody else but he can not leave until he gets the permission of nurse Ratched. McMurphy likes to gamble and feels he has an advantage over the other characters. He wants to be the main guy at the ward so he asks â€Å"Which one of you claims to be the craziest? Which one is the biggest loony? Who runs the card games?† (p. 22). McMurphy begins to cause problems with nurse Ratched and complains about things. McMurphy try’s to change their schedule so they can watch the World Series and do their work at night. McMurphy gets mad because the other patients will not stand up to the nurse. Bi lly Bibbit tells McMurphy that nothing he is doing will do any good in the future. But McMurphy says he can escape through the tub room by breaking the window. Nurse Ratched says, â€Å"That is exactly what the new patient is planning; to take over. He is what we call a manipulator†¦ a man who will use everything to his own ends†¦ this is an institution for the insane.† (p. 29-34). A man named Cheswick who stood behind McMurphy died shows McMurphy his friends need him. The rest of the patients are attempting to help McMurphy escape but McMurphy wants to leave with permission. Then his plans are set back when he tries to help his friend out who does not want to take a shower. But, a fight breaks out and McMurphy is sent to have Electro-shock therapy. Something went wrong with the therapy and McMurphy comes back brain dead. So his roommate suffocates him with a pillow to put him out of his misery. McMurphy was a man who liked to be in charge and not pushed around. He would ... Free Essays on One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, raises the issue of social morality in that it pits the moral structure of one man against that of the mental institution that is his society. When Randle Patrick McMurphy arrived at the mental institution, he immediately set things on edge by mocking the staff policies and joking with the patients. His gregarious demeanor and cheerful attitude was in marked contrast to a ward full of men who are shy, frightened mice that can hardly chuckle, and who live in constant terror of the Big Nurse and her indirect attacks. Nurse Ratched is a firm believer in structure and she dehumanizes her patients for the sake of her own empowerment. McMurphy believes that they are human and deserving of rights and equal treatment. This fundamental difference in their moral structure is the basis of the conflict between McMurphy and a society represented by the Big Nurse. By deliberately presenting himself as violently insane, R.P. McMurphy got himself out of the prison work farm and into what he thought would be an easy stint in an institution for mental illness. Over the course of his stay in the ward, McMurphy found that the patients were more robot-like than human in their actions and thoughts. The power that controlled them was the â€Å"Big Nurse,† Mrs. Ratched. One of the patients, Chief Bromden even says, â€Å"I see her sit in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend her network with mechanical insect skill, know every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get the results she wants† (pg. 30). The hospital was extremely structured. The patients daily lives were monotonous, they were perceived as brain-dead and were treated as such regardless of their true state of mental health. McMurphy felt that each patient was regarded as a â€Å"lab rat,† in that they were treated with u nnecessary procedures and giv...