Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest offers an ironic portrayal of mental health and mental illness. The story of Randle McMurphy, told through the eyes and ears of Chief Bromden, shows how restrictive social norms and behavioral Continue Reading...
Ken Kesey One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey was written after its author worked as an orderly in a psychiatric ward. Yet the novel also demonstrates significant research that manages to elevate it to the level of a serious critique. Publi Continue Reading...
Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is set in a mental hospital in the 1960's. The main character, Randle Partick McMurphy has conned his way into the hospital trying to get an easier sentence from his mo Continue Reading...
It is through this opportunity that the novelist reveals the extent to which Nurse Ratchet actually dominates the rest of the staff as much as she dominates the daily lives of the patients. In some ways, she represents the hypocrisy of mental instit Continue Reading...
Despite his being the most lucid among the inmates, he was still not immune to psychiatric intervention that led to his eventual defeat against Nurse Ratched. This makes society all the more oppressive, not accepting any dissent or differing perspec Continue Reading...
For his trouble, Murphy receives a frontal lobotomy as a "treatment" for his unwillingness to cooperate and abide by the rules and norms, a touch that gives him a Christ-like quality that gives his ultimate fate as that of a martyr to the cause of t Continue Reading...
The fog is actually generated by two painful experiences in Chief's past: first, the fog in his mind is a recurrence of the brain treatments ordered by Nurse Ratched, and secondly, the fog is a direct reference to the actual fog machine of World War Continue Reading...
Winston is impressed by a man named O'Brien who is supposed to be very powerful member of the party, but he believes in his heart that O'Brien is actually a member of the Brotherhood which is a group dedicated to overthrowing the Party (Orwell, 197 Continue Reading...
He is the narrator of the novel, so the reader is privileged to understand how sane he really is, despite the fact he has been subjected to horrible electroshock treatments, which are administered more as punishments than as treatment. Chief Bromde Continue Reading...
Once again, research reveals a healthcare setting where professionals are supposed to be trained to help those with mental deficiencies. But something is wrong here. This is not comparable with Cuckoo's Nest, but it reflects bad management, which le Continue Reading...
REFERENCES One Flew Over the Cucoo's Nest. (1990). Retrieved October 2010, from Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/ One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (2010, January). Retrieved October 2010, from AMC Greatest Films Filmsi Continue Reading...
It takes an encounter with madness to appreciate the finer things in life and through successful characterization, Kesey brings this issue to the forefront. The struggle between man and those wishing to control him is not new because it is intrinsic Continue Reading...
beat generation are several strong principles, the most notable is associated with the founder, Jack Kerouac and his definition of the generation as a whole. The road" has been a powerful metaphor for freedom from the constraints of ordinary life, Continue Reading...
Here we see how McMurphy's effect works on Bromden. Elaine Ware observes, "Kesey exposes the hospital as a chamber of tortures. Bromden receives no help from the hospital because the environment is conducive to mental illness, not to mental health. Continue Reading...
Lupack points out that conventional male and female roles are "comically reversed" (Lupack 96), emphasizing the "underlying principle of ironic contrast and the reason for the novel's universal appeal... madness is sanity and sanity is madness" (96) Continue Reading...
Their methods, however -- regicide, then more murders to cover up the first one, and finally a desperate civil war in an attempt to kill the throne -- are not exactly worthy of nobility. All prophecies are eventually fulfilled; though Macbeth reigns Continue Reading...
Tom Wolfe's rigorous journalistic approach, combined with his masterful exploration of a stream-of-consciousness narrative marks "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" as one of the most effective and compelling investigations into the psychedelic experie Continue Reading...
