Who Is The Antagonist In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Words: 982
Pages: 4
Open Document
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Analysis Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, tells the story of patients in a mental hospital. It was the 1960s and the characters are ruled by the Big Nurse. All the patients obey her command despite the agony she brings, until one new patient shows up, named McMurphy. He brings new life to the ward and stands up against the nurse. Eventually, he brings all of the patients on his side to rally against authority. The three most relevant elements in this novel are character development, the use of imagery, and the bountiful symbolism. The story is narrated by a Native American whom everyone thinks is deaf. “If my being half Indian ever helped me in any way in this dirty life, it helped me being …show more content…
“I hear the high, cold, whistling wet breath of the fog machine, see the first wisps of it come seeping out from under McMurphy’s bed” (Kesey 81). At this time, the narrator is having a hallucination and is describing what he is experiencing. The reader can feel the cold, wet breath of fog and can hear the high whistling of it very clearly. Now, Chief Bromden is talking about Big Nurse. “Her face is still calm, as though she had a cast made and painted to just the look she wants. Confident, patient, and unruffled. No more little jerk, just that terrible cold face, a calm smile stamped out of red plastic; a clean, smooth, forehead, not a line in it to show weakness or worry…” (Kesey 101). The picture of the face can be easily created in a reader’s mind. They can see the patience in her as she strikes a simple fear into her patients. The narrator has flashbacks to his childhood often. “Everything else looks like it usually does - the chickens fussing around in the grass on top of the ‘dobe houses, the grasshoppers batting from bush to bush, [and] the flies being stirred into black clouds around the fish racks” (Kesey 181). Ken Kesey uses language that clearly suggests what he means. He uses the words ‘fussing, batting, and stirred’ to describe the scene. Imagery brings the book to life for a reader, but symbolism provides a deeper …show more content…
During a therapy meeting, McMurphy describes what he thinks of it. “The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin’ at it, see till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers” (Kesey 55). He compares the flock to the patients. During the meeting, when one man shares his weakness, the others “chickens” will attack him instead of helping him. The patients are the chickens in McMurphy’s eyes. “When they first used the fog machine on the ward, one they bought from Army Surplus and hid in the vents in the new place before we moved in. I kept looking at anything that appeared out of the fog as long and hard as I could, to keep track of it…” (Kesey 117). The fog in this case, is one of the narrator’s hallucinations. The fog represents a blanket that keeps the patients from rebelling or acting up because they can’t find their way through the thickness of it. Finally, Bromden talks about the Combine and the Big Nurse. “Working alongside others like her who I call the “Combine,” which is a huge organization that aims to adjust the Outside as well as she has the Inside…” (Kesey 30). The narrator views the Combine as society. The society put the patients in the hospital because they cannot function in the regular world. But then, they get put in the hospital and the Combine tells them how to live life and doesn’t give them a chance to learn how to live normally. Symbolism is the one of the biggest
Show More

Related Documents: Who Is The Antagonist In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Controversy

Avery Powell Mr. Irby English 3 15 May 2024 Keeping Kesey’s Cuckoo's Nest. Eugene O'Neill once said, “There is no present or future, only the past, happening over and over again – now". If Eugene is right and history is an endless cycle, then schools requiring students to read books with valuable messages and historical knowledge is unnecessary. On the other hand, say Eugene is incorrect, then what would teaching future generations important history through books do? This answer is undeniable…

Words 2474 - Pages 10

Gray In 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

patients also face another wave of this suffering simply because of their heritage. Lord's assessment highlights that the novel doesn't have one standout character or situation representing its time, nor a clear hero or villain. Yet, it effectively contrasts the East and West Coasts and individualism and community. The literary value of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" justifies its retention in the school's curriculum despite objectionable material, as it offers valuable insights into societal power…

Words 1342 - Pages 6

Essay about Cc Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Essay In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey –the author- compares the characters with animals due to their behavior. At the beginning of the book, after a group therapy session McMurphy uses the metaphor “peckin’ party” when comparing the actions that happened in the meeting. In the session the nurses and doctors were ganging up on Bromden, he used the metaphor “peckin’ party” because when a chicken gets the sight of blood on another chicken it…

Words 781 - Pages 4

One Flew Over The Cuckoo

INTRODUCTION One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is about the protagonist Randle P. McMurphy,38, who has been transferred from prison to Oregon’s Mental Hospital and the antagonist Nurse Ratched who oversees the institution’s patients (Zaentz, Douglas, and Forman 1975). The film itself won an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Actor totaling to five awards. Surprisingly, the author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey, was…

Words 1359 - Pages 6

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Themes

We need to see ourselves or hear our own voices in a text to truly appreciate the ideas of its creators. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest directed by Milos Forman relates the director’s ideas through the story of the main protagonist, Randle Patrick McMurphy. McMurphy is an incarcerated convict who fakes craziness to get transferred to a mental hospital. McMurphy soon finds a highly conformed and oppressed community which he looks to disrupt. During his course of disruption, he becomes attached…

Words 399 - Pages 2

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest And Gilgamesh Comparison Essay

two pieces of work that I chose to compare was “The Epic of Gilgamesh” which is an epic story from Mesopotamia which is always referred to as the best and oldest literature work even today. The other piece is the modern fil known as, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” which was written by Ken Kesey and the film was directed by Miloš Forman. Even though the two-literary works are similar though the time constraint between them yet they still are similar in various ways. Both works revolve around…

Words 951 - Pages 4

Compare the Ways Plath and Kesey Present Psychological Disorders and ‘Minds Under Stress’ in the Bell Jar and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Essay

‘One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘The Bell Jar’ can be linked considerably. Both the novels in question are products of the author’s own experiences and the specific culture in which they were written. They both draw upon similar events throughout, yet the philosophy and reason behind them is often significantly contrasting. However, it cannot be argued that their presentation of psychological disorder and the pressure that it forces on the mind are intrinsically linked due to the circumstances…

Words 3257 - Pages 14

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Comparison Essay

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: a critical comparison of the film and the novel Not even a multiple Academy Award-winning movie can be as personal and intimate as a beautifully written book. Character depth, behavior and physical characterization can hardly be portrayed as extensively and skillfully in movies as in books. Throughout the whole history of cinematography, many movies have been based on bestsellers and literary masterpieces. Even though many books are often considered almost perfect…

Words 740 - Pages 3

Cuckoo's Nest

In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the author describes an all-male mental ward in the 1960s, that has been under the longtime dictatorship of a controlling nurse. Throughout the book, Kesey paints a misogynistic image of women through extensive description in which women are in a constant power struggle with masculinity. As a member of the counterculture movement in the 1960s, one could expect that in his novels Kesey would write about items like sexuality, hallucinogenic…

Words 1006 - Pages 5

Character Analysis: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak” (Kesey 60). This quote from Ken Kesey’s (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) illustrates that the weak are simply prey to be eaten and used by those with more power; the weak are used as a stepping stool for the strong to gain more control. In this novel the patients are the weaklings, whereas the staff of the mental hospital are the strong who are preying on the weak. Randle McMurphy, a boisterous rebel, turns the hospital upside down by convincing…

Words 1967 - Pages 8