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Prompt examples for one flew over the cuckoo's nest essays, the role of the nurse ratched character.

Analyze the character of Nurse Ratched and her role as an antagonist in the novel. How does she maintain control over the patients, and what does she symbolize?

Randle P. McMurphy: Hero or Antihero?

Examine the character of Randle P. McMurphy. Is he a hero or an antihero? Discuss his motivations, actions, and impact on the other characters in the story.

Mental Health and Institutionalization

Discuss the novel's portrayal of mental health and the consequences of institutionalization. How do the characters' experiences reflect broader themes in society?

Freedom and Rebellion

Explore the themes of freedom and rebellion in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." How do the patients' actions represent a struggle for personal freedom and autonomy?

Symbolism in the Novel

Analyze the use of symbolism in the novel. What do elements like the fishing trip, the fog, and the Combine represent in the story? How do they contribute to the narrative?

The Bromden Narration

Discuss the narrative style of Chief Bromden, also known as "Chief Broom." How does his perspective as a narrator influence the reader's understanding of the story?

Social Commentary in the Novel

Examine the novel's social commentary on issues such as conformity, power structures, and the treatment of mental illness. How does the story reflect the cultural and political context of its time?

The Climactic Ending

Discuss the significance of the novel's ending. What does the final act symbolize, and how does it impact the reader's interpretation of the story?

Adaptations and Film Interpretations

Compare and contrast the novel with its film adaptation(s). How do cinematic interpretations capture or alter the themes, characters, and messages of the original work?

Contemporary Relevance

Explore the contemporary relevance of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." How do the novel's themes still resonate with modern society, and what lessons can be drawn from its narrative?

The Motif of Power in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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Society and Free Will in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

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Mcmurphy's Problematic Character and Status in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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Racism, Sexism and Homophobia in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest"

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February 1, 1962

Randle McMurphy, Chief Bromden, Nurse Ratched, Dale Harding, Billy Bibbit, Doctor Spivey, Charles Cheswick, Candy Starr, George Sorenson etc.

“Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.” “All I know is this: nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.” “Good writin' ain't necessarily good readin'.” “They can't tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed.”

Sanity v. Insanity Institutional Control vs. Human Dignity Social Pressure and Shame The Combine: Machine, Nature, and Man Emasculation and Sexuality

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Essay

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

By ken kesey, one flew over the cuckoo's nest essay questions.

What do Nurse Ratched and McMurphy believe are the keys to defeating one another?

Answer: Nurse Ratched believes that letting McMurphy know how long he will ultimately stay in the joint without her permission to leave will inevitably force him to behave. McMurphy, meanwhile, believes that contesting Nurse Ratched for power and testing her sexual boundaries will make her "crack."

What do the black boys represent?

Answer: They seem to have no personality other than being vehicles for Nurse Ratched's hatred. They are her henchmen. They represent the dark anger, the overpowering rage, that lies inside of her and exists almost outside of herself after being buried for so long.

What is Nurse Ratched's primary technique of manipulation among the men of the ward?

Answer: She relies principally on emasculation to destabilize them. In the case of Billy Bibbit, for instance, she threatens to tell his mother of his behavior problems. She emasculates Harding by siding with his overbearing, domineering wife.

What is the purpose of EST in the context of the patients' individual treatments?

Answer: Electroshock therapy, as described by Chief Bromden, should be used only in the most extreme cases since it essentially induces seizure in order to clear the brain. But in the case of these inmates, Nurse Ratched uses it as punishment, somehow to "teach." If someone is not responsive, she is willing to take the next step and use lobotomy as punishment.

How might the story of McMurphy be understood as a religious metaphor?

Answer: McMurphy himself recognizes the Christian metaphor of his sacrifice and death for the sake of the other inmates. A number of explicit allusions back up this metaphor. McMurphy takes twelve disciples on the fishing trip, is betrayed by a Judas figure, wears a crown of thorns for his ultimate punishment, and is taken down and essentially killed by a repressive regime. He is a kind of Christ-figure in the novel even if the resurrection is Chief Bromden's and not McMurphy's.

Why is Chief Bromden the narrator instead of McMurphy?

Answer: If McMurphy were the narrator, he could not quite be telling the tell as a fable. He would be empowered to control the path of the narrative--if he were still sane. But Bromden, who has not been lobotomized but freed, recounts McMurphy's story and takes the lesson to the outside world. He becomes the messenger.

Chief Bromden believes in the "fog" and the power of the "Combine." Explain both in the context of the book's themes.

Answer: The fog is, on an individual level, a kind of mental dimness or confusion that also represents the thickness of delusion and suffering that prevents the inmates from seeing their true situation and their true selves. The Combine is, on a social level, a repressive institution and all the individual wheels and cogs in it that ensure that the inmates stay quiescent.

Does McMurphy forget to leave on the night of his escape, or is it a purposeful self-sacrifice?

Answer: When McMurphy supposedly oversleeps and is discovered, we must question the depth of his motivation to escape. McMurphy has found deep fulfillment in helping the men in the ward, especially Bromden, despite his increasing personal frustration. But he also has been letting his frustration distance himself somewhat from his initial efforts at leadership. McMurphy may well be the kind of person who is immoderate in his desires and who might end up oversleeping even while he might have preferred to escape.

What is the place of Nurse Ratched after McMurphy's lobotomy?

Answer: McMurphy has figuratively disrobed Nurse Ratched, disempowering her and because she has been exposed as human. Her power over the men is further broken, despite her clear victory over McMurphy as an individual. "Thoughts are free," but if part of one's brain has been removed, one does not even have much in the way of thoughts. Ratched has been stripped of much of her authority, her credibility in the overall institution has been further eroded, and Bromden finally gains the independence to escape.

Is Nurse Ratched the true villain of the story?

Answer: Nurse Ratched is nominally the villain, but she symbolizes a somewhat broken institutional system and the problems of a larger, repressive society that subjugates individualism to conformity. She is part of the Combine, and her place in the machine will likely be taken by another upon her demise. Still, she is particularly cruel at a level beyond that of the other doctors and nurses.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

what's the significance of the Santa Claus tale?

The Chief's Santa Claus tale is significant because it shows us that the Combine is capable of changing even an innocuous, innocent individual from a happy and content man into a conformist. This is part of hus argument that the Combine cannot...

Explain what Nurse Ratched means by the following comment: "Maybe after that take him to the electroencephalograph and check his head - We may find evidence of a need for brainwork.

Nurse Ratched is setting the stage for a lobotomy.

  Chapter 4 - 1. What is a “manipulator”? Why does Nurse Ratched smile to herself thinking about Mr. Taber? because of how she manipulated that situation to her own ends.       2. How does the Chief describe the aides, and their suitability to Nurse R

What is a “manipulator”?

a person who controls or influences others in a clever or unscrupulous way. Nurse Ratched manipulated the men on the ward to feel powerful.

Please submit each of your questions one at a time. Thanks.

Study Guide for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest study guide contains a biography of Ken Kesey, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Summary
• Character List

Essays for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.

• Treatment of the Theme of Power in Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'
• The Presence of Christ in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
• Treatment Of The Theme Of Sexuality In "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
• McMurphy v. Ratched: Not So Different After All
• Ken Kesey and the Eisenhower Administration

Lesson Plan for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• Introduction
• Main characters

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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Historical Context of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Other books related to one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

• Full Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• When Written: Late 1950s
• Where Written: Stanford University, while Kesey was a student of the creative writing program.
• When Published: 1962
• Literary Period: Beats
• Genre: Counterculture/Protest Novel
• Setting: Mental hospital in Oregon during the 1950s
• Climax: At the end of Part II, McMurphy violently rebels against Nurse Ratched’s decision to close off the game room. He punches through the glass window at the nurse’s station. It signals that McMurphy is beyond trying to get a rise out of Nurse Ratched for selfish reasons, but now believes she is a corruptive, evil force. It is here that McMurphy commits himself to truly rehabilitating the other men.
• Antagonist: Nurse Ratched
• Point of View: Chief Bromden (Narrator)

Extra Credit for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Movie Disputes. Kesey was originally involved in the film production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , but left after two weeks because of a monetary rights dispute. He refused to see the movie because Chief Bromden didn’t narrate it like in the book, and he disagreed with the casting of Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy. Kesey wanted Gene Hackman.

Wrestling Star. Ken Kesey was a champion high school and college wrestler, and even nearly qualified for the Olympic team, but because of a shoulder injury couldn’t compete.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Essays

Introduction Primarily a novelist of the 1960s, Ken Kesey had close affiliations with the alternative culture that was at variance with the social norms that dominated the decade. The novel is an allegory of creative unique personality versus repressive conformity. Kesey makes important and even...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: McMurphy One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with its meaningful message of individualism, was an extremely influential novel during the 1960's. In addition, its author, Ken Kesey, played a significant role in the development of the counterculture of the 60's; this...

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Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Thomas Evans 12-6-96 General Psychology Dr. Sabin In the movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, there was a character named McMurphy, played by Jack Nickolson, who was admitted into a mental institution for medical testing after having been convicted of...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Power Peoples' ability to use power to control and manipulate situations and people is a skill not many people have. Unfortunately this skill can lead to conflict as it did in Ken Kesely's novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest when McMurphy and Nurse Ratched meet...

Kesey's characterization of women is by no means fair. He perceives one type to be the bossy domineering woman, and the other type to be submissive whores. He is subjective to the inmates being futile, perceiving us to think that their wives and especially Big "Powerful" Nurse took away their...

There are three major conflicts in the novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey. Both internal and external in nature their causes, effects, and resolutions are explored in great detail. The cause of the conflict between Mac and Ratched begins immediately. As soon as McMurphy enters...

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As medical advances are being made, it makes the treating of diseases easier and easier. Mental hospitals have changed the way the treat a patient's illness considerably compared to the hospital described in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. " Please understand: We do not impose certain rules and...

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Power and control are the central ideas of Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. There are examples of physical, authoritative and mechanical power in the novel, as well as cases of self-control, and control over others. Nurse Ratched is the ultimate example of authoritative power and...

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ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS NEST Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental hospital. The main character, or protagonist is Randle P. McMurphy, a convicted criminal and gambler who feigns insanity to get out of a prisoners work ranch. The antagonist is Nurse Ratched...

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One flew East, One flew West, One died without a part of his brain. In my opinion the main theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is conformity. The patients at this mental institution, or at least the one in the Big Nurse's ward, find themselves on a rough situation where not following...

Laughter is a therapeutic form. In the novel One flew over the cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey laughter represents freedom and an escape from nurse Ratched's restrictions. Laughter also proves a vital role in helping the patients deal with their problems. Not only does it help them deal with problems...

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Jack Nicholson as Randall McMurphy: What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or something'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walking' around on the streets and that's it. This film presents an individual that chooses not to conform to modern society...

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Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950's Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this...

One flew over the Cuckoo's nest is a feature film that focuses on the issue of democracy being important to society. Democracy is the people's freedom to choice their ruler. In the film Randal Patrick McMurphy also known as McMurphy is a representative of democracy and Mildred Ratched also known...

While viewing the movie One flew over the cuckoos nest I experienced a wide variety of thoughts and/or feelings. In my opinion, this 1975 film portrayed a range of people with different disorders. Although the negative messages the movie relays outweigh the positive, I believe this movie gave a...

Final Exam Paper ? One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest In the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Jack Nicholson as R. P. McMurphy gives one of the most compelling performances in film history. As an inmate sentenced to a psychiatric ward for his outrageous behavior, McMurphy thinks he has the...

The movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest describes the inner details of a psychiatric ward. The total institution was extremely dull and also depressing watching how they were treated. The staff did not treat them as adults, but as children with no hope. The nurses were cold hearted and often...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, written by Ken Kesey in 1962, is a book about a lively con man that turns a mental institution upside down with his rambunctious antics and sporadic bouts with the head nurse. Throughout the book, this man shows the others in the...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental institution in the Pacific Northwest. Chief Bromden, or Chief Broom, narrates the novel. Chief is large half-Indian who has been on the ward for 10 years and has led everyone to believe he is deaf and dumb. We immediately discover his paranoia...

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The first part of the movie is the set-up. You get to find out what the movie is about, and the main characters get introduced. The conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy is already getting clear, and the tension between them is rising. You get all the information you need to understand the...

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• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Literature Notes
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest : The Film and the Novel
• Book Summary
• About One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Part 1: They're Out There
• Part 1: When the Fog Clears
• Part 1: The New Man
• Part 1: In the Glass Station
• Part 1: Before Noontime
• Part 1: One Christmas
• Part 1: First Time for a Long, Long Time
• Part 1: Come Morning
• Part 1: All Through Breakfast
• Part 1: There's a Monopoly Game
• Part 1: There's Long Spells
• Part 1: A Visiting Doctor
• Part 1: It's Getting Hard
• Part 1: There's a Shipment of Frozen Parts
• Part 1: I Know How They Work It
• Part 2: Just at the Edge of My Vision
• Part 2: The Way the Big Nurse Acted
• Part 2: In the Group Meetings
• Part 2: Up Ahead of Me
• Part 2: Whatever It Was
• Part 2: They Take Me with the Acutes Sometimes
• Part 2: I Remember It Was Friday Again
• Part 2: Crossing the Grounds
• Part 3: After That
• Part 3: Two Whores
• Part 4: The Big Nurse
• Part 4: Up on Disturbed
• Part 4: There Had Been Times
• Part 4: I've Given What Happened Next
• Character Analysis
• Randle Patrick McMurphy
• Nurse Ratched
• Chief Bromden
• Dale Harding
• Billy Bibbit
• Character Map
• Ken Kesey Biography
• Critical Essays
• The Role of Women in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• McMurphy as Comic Book Christ
• McMurphy's Cinematic Brothers in Rebellion
• Full Glossary for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Critical Essays One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest : The Film and the Novel

While retaining many of the novel's themes and motifs, the filmed version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest differs in several significant ways. The film, released in 1975, won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Screenplay Adapted from Other Material (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman), and Best Director (Milos Forman). Since its release, the film has been certified as one of the Top 100 American Films by the American Film Institute.

The film is also noted for its casting, which includes early cinematic appearances by such later respected actors as Brad Dourif (Billy Bibbit), Christopher Lloyd (Taber), and Danny DeVito (Martini). Other actors include real hospital superintendent Dr. Dean Brooks (Doctor Spivey), Will Sampson (Chief Bromden), Sydney Lassick (Charlie Cheswick), Marya Small (Candy Starr), and William Redfield (Dale Harding).

The most notable difference between the film and the novel is the story's point of view. In the novel, Chief Bromden is the narrator who reveals the story of the battle of wills between Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy. In fact, Chief arguably is the novel's hero who undergoes the most notable changes in the novel. While detailing the events in the mental institution, Chief reveals biographical information of his own life before his institutionalization. We learn that Chief is a paranoid schizophrenic, a war veteran, and whose white mother conspired with the U.S. government to emasculate his proud father, an American Indian whose name Tee Ah Millatoona translates as "Pine-That-Stands-Tallest-on-the-Mountain."

The filmed version discards Chief as the story's narrator, discards the background story of Chief, and relegates his character to a secondary — albeit important — character to McMurphy. In the film, McMurphy is clearly the hero.

Chief's delusional episodes of witnessing the inner workings of the Combine and its fog machines are eliminated in the film in favor of scenes written that omnisciently expand on McMurphy's character and his background, as well as expand on his charitable nature.

In addition, Chief eventually becomes fully communicative in the novel while muttering only one phrase — "Juicy Fruit" — in the film. This explains how McMurphy is able to bring Chief along on the fishing excursion in the novel, a detail not explained in the film.

The film also softens McMurphy's more objectionable behavior in the book. Instead, he becomes more of a roguish con man than an unpredictably fearsome individual prone to bursts of physical violence against others to achieve his ends. Also missing from the film are several key symbolic elements, including McMurphy's poker-hand tattoo that foreshadows his death. The tattoo depicts aces and eights, known as the dead-man's hand in accordance to the legend of the poker hand held by Wild Bill Hickock when he was murdered.

In the film, McMurphy boasts that he was conned into statutory rape by a teenaged girl who lied about her age. "But Doc, she was fifteen years old, going on thirty-five, Doc, and, uh, she told me she was eighteen and she was, uh, very willing, you know what I mean," Nicholson's McMurphy asserts. "I practically had to take to sewin' my pants shut. But, uh between you and me, uh, she might have been fifteen, but when you get that little red beaver right up there in front of ya, I don't think it's crazy at all now and I don't think you do either. No man alive could resist that, and that's why I got into jail to begin with. And now they're telling me I'm crazy over here because I don't sit there like a goddamn vegetable. Don't make a bit of sense to me. If that's what's bein' crazy is, then I'm senseless, out of it, gone-down-the-road, wacko. But no more, no less, that's it."

In the novel, McMurphy's boasts of being seduced by a nine-year-old girl are related with a sense of false bravado and world-weariness. His initial incarceration isn't for statutory rape, it's for being "a guy who fights too much and fucks too much." In the novel, McMurphy freely admits to conning his fellow patients for his own financial gain. The film only shows McMurphy winning cigarettes from his comrades.

Certain critical scenes from the novel are eliminated in the cinematic version. Of these, the suicide of Cheswick, is most notable. Cheswick's character was the first individual in the novel to receive invigoration from McMurphy's antics. When McMurphy decides to toe the line — that is, conform to Nurse Ratched's wishes — it is after hearing from the swimming pool lifeguard that the length of their mutual confinements is entirely at the discretion of Nurse Ratched. It is in the same pool that Cheswick — feeling abandoned and betrayed by McMurphy's subsequent conformist behavior — chooses to drown himself.

One scene not in the film is McMurphy's final con against the Acutes. In the novel, McMurphy manipulates Chief Bromden to lift the control panel after McMurphy takes bets from the Acutes that it can't be done. McMurphy, of course, had already hedged his bet by having Chief display his ability to lift the panel previously. When Chief performs the trick for the Acutes, he feels used and betrayed by McMurphy. The film balances a scene of McMurphy unsuccessfully trying to lift a basin with the scene of Chief lifting it successfully and flinging it through the window while avoiding the scene of Chief lifting it to win a bet for McMurphy.

Another sequence in the film differs greatly from the novel. The fishing episode in the novel is a planned event that Nurse Ratched repeatedly attempts to sabotage. Despite this, McMurphy convinces Doctor Spivey to join the group when the alluring prostitute Candy arrives with only one car. In the filmed version, McMurphy hijacks a waiting institutional bus and instructs the film's principal male cast to participate in an act of rebellion. As a result, the scene at the gas station, when McMurphy confronts the surly and abusive attendants, temporarily empowers the patients, and Doctor Spivey is not depicted. Additionally missing is the scene when the group passively endures the jeers and taunts of the fishermen at the dock.

In the film, McMurphy's character remains the same roguish noncomformist up until his lobotomy. The book, however, details Chief's observations of McMurphy's short-lived attempt to conform to Nurse Ratched's rules and the other patients' distrust of McMurphy engendered by Nurse Ratched, as well as McMurphy's increasing sadness and sensing of his own withering strength and impending doom.

The film also differs from the novel in its depiction of the events leading to McMurphy's introduction to electroshock therapy. The novel carefully establishes a character not in the film, Big George. George's obsession with cleanliness is established prior to the fishing excursion, and becomes a pivotal plot element when Nurse Ratched orders the African-American orderly, Washington, to administer an enema to George in the shower. Washington's threatening behavior toward George prompts McMurphy to reluctantly challenge the orderly. The resulting melee is the impetus for Nurse Ratched to send McMurphy and his accomplice, Chief Bromden, to the Disturbed Ward, where they receive electroshock therapy. The film employs the initial altercation between McMurphy and Washington as the impetus for Nurse Ratched to send McMurphy, Chief, and Charlie Cheswick (who doesn't commit suicide in the film) to the Disturbed Ward.

Perhaps the most telling difference between the film and the novel is the ending. The novel contains an episode missing from the film wherein Chief observes a dog sniffing gopher holes from the hospital window. The dog is distracted by a flock of geese forming a cross against a full moon. The dog chases the geese toward a road where it is implied the dog will confront an automobile with the inevitably tragic result that machine will triumph over nature. Coincidentally, this is the same course the Chief follows when he escapes from the hospital, giving the novel's resolution a degree of uncertainty as to whether the Chief will succeed in the outside world or succumb to a worse fate in a world increasingly overrun by dehumanizing mechanization. The film's conclusion, however, depicts Chief running from the hospital toward what the viewer assumes is happiness and liberty.

Exhibiting pronounced differences from the novel, the film nonetheless retains the themes of natural versus institutional, the battle of creative nonconformity against arbitrary and autocratic authority, the redemptive qualities of unrepressed sexuality, and the desultory effects of unbalanced feminine dominance.

While the film is generally regarded a cinematic masterpiece, Ken Kesey has vowed he will never view it due to disputes with the film's producers, Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz. Douglas's father, the actor Kirk Douglas, was the first actor to portray McMurphy in the 1960s stage version of the novel. Former Creedence Clearwater Revival singer-songwriter John Fogerty's perception of Zaentz's business practices, coincidentally, were the subject of a disparaging song and video entitled "Zaentz Can't Dance."

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Literature Comparison: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “1984” Essay

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Approximately at the end of the Second World War, after the world had seen the terrifying aspects of technology and science mirrored in the nuclear bombs, weapons of mass destruction and Mengele’s experiments, the human kind began to doubt that scientific progress alone can improve human society. After that, it became clear that unless steered in the right direction, science and technology can bring about unimaginable destruction and suffering. More importantly, the ignorance about science among the general population became the tool for exploitation masked by justice and good intentions.

There was a whole array of novels at that time that dealt with this topic, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Nineteen-eighty Four are just two examples. These two books deal with the hidden and not so easily observable side of the Enlightenment in that they explore the ways in which scientific knowledge provides tools for exploitation. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey tackles the problem of mental institutions and how the categorization into the sane and the insane can be used to secure conformity and docility.

Orwell, on the other hand, deals specifically with the problem of using new technologies for surveillance and control justified by common social goals and preventing crimes. It can be said that while both of these books address the issue of hidden methods of coercion, Nineteen-eighty Four provides a bleak vision of the future in which the whole of society is controlled in the same way as the mental health ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

In addition to the overarching theme of subjugation and enslavement through hidden methods, these two books have a number of common motifs. The first similarity, one can locate, can be termed as “subjugation for one’s own good”. The premise and excuse for limiting people’s freedom in both books is the idea that some people are not able to take care of themselves, and therefore, their will should be subjected to the will of others, who are more “reasonable”. One cannot reject this idea completely, after all, children do need to have parental guidance in order to avoid dangerous situations, and more capable people should lead those who are not so capable. However, the one who tries to absorb some other individual’s powers has the obligation to prove that such an act is legitimate.

Unfortunately, it is obvious that various manipulations can be utilized in order to take advantage of someone while pretending to be helping them. For that reason, George Orwell’s novel addresses the issue of propaganda, which is the most advanced stage of manipulation in which truth is distorted systematically in order to deceive an entire state. In 1984 , the whole of population is lead to believe that all of the repression exerted on them is for the common goal of “English Socialism”. Propaganda as a method of persuasion is very well described in the book.

For that reason, in Orwell’s vision of the future society the Government’s headquarters have the following inscription: “WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH” (Orwell 1977, pp. 131-132). This quotation shows how the linguistic potential of shifts in meaning is used to change value systems of people. The government tries to blur the lines between these antonyms by equating them in order to make people incapable of conceiving true slavery, ignorance and war which are constantly in front of their eyes.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , similar idea is carried out only in this case through false diagnoses of insanity. Insanity of another person makes for a good reason to take control over them, and impose one’s own will on them. However, the fact that in this society, the other’s insanity can be falsified precisely because it gives power is an issue Kesey uses as a motif in his book.

Unfortunately, since humans are social creatures, a view that a society has of an individual slowly becomes that individual’s view of the self as well. This is why we see sane characters only occasionally doubting the society’s view of them as insane. This is evident, for example in Brodmen’s words, “You’re making sense, old man, a sense of your own. You’re not crazy the way they think.”(Kesey, 1962, p. 106).

Another similarity of the two books is the theme of rebellion which gives hope. The two authors both believe that rebellion is one of the inextinguishable human impulses, and see it as a force which is in contradiction with power and the establishment. Here, in my opinion, the two authors stand out from the general pessimism about human kind prevalent in that period in that they show elements of humanism. After all, if there were no constant possibility of people rebelling against the establishment, authorities would have no need to fight it through the mechanisms of control. In Nineteen-eighty Four , Orwell skillfully selects his rebel protagonist, and makes him a member of the ruling party to show how humanity is an omnipresent force which is being suppressed constantly by the external forces, and also very often by antagonistic forces within the individual himself.

The protagonist, Winston, is a member of the ruling party but he recognizes that the system is evil and violent so he decides to fight it with all his powers. In addition, we might say that Orwell sees all of the humanistic characteristics of people, such as creativity and empathy, as signs that all is not lost. This is evident when Winston hears Red-Armed Prole Women singing. Here is what Winston thinks of their singing: “It struck him as a curious fact that he had never heard a member of the Party singing alone and spontaneously. It would even have seemed slightly unorthodox, a dangerous eccentricity, like talking to oneself” (Orwell, 1977, p. 180).

In Kesey’s novel, rebellion is also the protagonist’s main trait, and the author also makes a tight connection between humanity and rebellion. Just like singing in 1984 , in Kesey’s novel, laughter is one of the basic human impulses, and serves as a symbol of hope in a bleak picture of the human society. This is why Brodmen remembers humor and joking about politicians as a very powerful force in his childhood, and says “I forget sometimes what laughter can do.” (Kesey, 1962, p. 74)

As far as differences between the two pictures of the world are concerned, it is evident that while Kesey focuses on the problem of institutionalization of people, which is already present in our society, Orwell goes a step further, and imagines how the future society as a whole will look like if the present trends remain. Kesey sees the great problem and threat that mental institutions create, but does not discuss the whole of society at length. It is, however, natural to ask what kind of society would create the conditions for such institutions, but such a message is only implied. In Orwell’s book, the subjugation runs across the entire society. Here is how Orwell describes the social structure of the future world:

“Below Big Brother comes the Inner Party. Its numbers limited to six millions, or something less than 2 per cent of the population of Oceania. Below the Inner Party comes the Outer Party, which, if the Inner Party is described as the brain of the State, may be justly likened to the hands. Below that come the dumb masses whom we habitually refer to as ‘the proles’, numbering perhaps 85 per cent of the population.” (Orwell, 1977, p. 265)

In such a society, the mechanisms of control have clearly been taken to extreme because they have been imposed on the entire population.

In summary, these two authors belong to the current in the post-WWII literature in which the common motif is the worry about the downside of scientific and technological revolution. These two writers share the disappointment in the Enlightenment as the driving force of modernity, and examine the ways in which science can be used for manipulation. In both pictures of the world, the traditional ways of coercion and subjugation are abandoned, and people’s will is manipulated through subtle and implicit mechanisms of control, which turn to physical force only in extreme cases.

By avoiding force, which has its immediate reaction in rebellion and resentment, these mechanisms threaten to destroy the human conception of liberty. However, both of the authors share the hope for humanity, which is grounded in the tendency to rebel and all other essentially human characteristics such as creativity, humor, etc. Finally, Orwell’s portrayal is much more pessimistic since he sees these mechanisms of power conquering the entire society, while Kesey only discusses this problem as apparent in mental institutions, such as the ones we have today.

In the end, one should think about the fact that both of these authors leave some room for hope, and do not resort to utter pessimism and nihilism. In line with many humanistic thinkers they recognize that in addition to greed, envy and will to power, there are other positive human capacities that lead us to believe that humanity has a chance of survival. Orwell and Kesey see humor, art, empathy and creativity as traits that cannot be taken away from humans. Those traits are actually the ones that finally lead to rebellion against the oppressors.

What I, personally, value when it comes to these two writers, and what makes them stand out among other post-WWII writers is precisely the fact that they prevent us from falling into nihilism. The nihilism in literature, and social criticism of the post-WWII era was, in my view, very dangerous and counterproductive because it was serving the purpose of exploitation in that it was killing the enthusiasm and good will necessary for bringing about any positive change in the society. After all, the Cultural revolution and Civil rights movement at that time proved that all is not lost, and that there still is room for good ideas and intentions to flourish.

Kesey, K. (1962). One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, a novel. New York: Viking Press.

Orwell, G. (1977). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

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IvyPanda. (2020, June 3). Literature Comparison: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" and "1984". https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-comparison-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest-and-1984/

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1. IvyPanda . "Literature Comparison: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" and "1984"." June 3, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-comparison-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest-and-1984/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Literature Comparison: "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" and "1984"." June 3, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/literature-comparison-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest-and-1984/.