Compare the ways in which psychiatric institutions and mental illness are presented in Barker's 'Regeneration' and Kesey's 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'.

Compare the ways in which psychiatric institutions and mental illness are presented in Barker's 'Regeneration' and Kesey's 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' The novels 'Regeneration' by Pat Barker and 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' by Ken Kesey are both centred on events that take place within psychiatric institutions. The protagonist of 'Regeneration' is Siegfried Sassoon, a soldier protesting against war who is sent to Craiglockhart psychiatric institution for assessment because of his views. In comparison, 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' focuses predominantly on Randle McMurphy, a character who seems to have contrived to get himself admitted to a mental hospital in Oregon to escape the rigours and hardships of prison life. An immediate similarity between both these characters is that neither Sassoon nor McMurphy appears to be truly insane, and consequently one might say that they do not belong in a mental hospital. In 'Regeneration' Sassoon presents the British government with his Soldier's Declaration, an act of 'wilful defiance' signalling his refusal to fight. The Soldier's Declaration is a document that proclaims that it is wrong for soldiers to keep fighting when the war could be ended on diplomatic terms. This poses a problem for the government. One course of action for them would be to shoot Sassoon for desertion. However, this would be unwise, since shooting

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Discuss the presentation of McMurphy in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and Offred in "The Handmaid's Tale" in their response to an authoritarian and oppressive environment.

Sophie Anderton Discuss the presentation of McMurphy in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" and Offred in "The Handmaid's Tale" in their response to an authoritarian and oppressive environment. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, published in 1962, is the formation of both the personal experiences of its author, Ken Kesey, and the specific culture in which it was written. Kesey developed the novel while he attended Stanford University as a graduate student. The novel was partially inspired by Kesey's part-time job as an orderly in a Palo Alto veterans' hospital. It was also as a student where Kesey began participating in experiments that involved the use of LSD. This use of LSD provoked Kesey to have hallucinations while working as an orderly. Kesey hallucinated seeing a large Indian mopping the floors of the hospital; this hallucination prompted Kesey to add the character Chief Bromden as the novel's narrator. The novel in some sense forms a bridge between the bohemian beatnik movements of the 1950s and the 1960s counterculture movement. Kesey was significantly inspired by the beatnik culture around Stanford, and in the novel Kesey deals with a number of themes that would be significant in the counterculture movement, including ideas of freedom from repressive authority and a more liberated view of sexuality. Kesey himself became a highly influential counterculture figure as

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Textual analysis of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

Reading the Media: Textual Analysis Assignment Submission details: 1000 words on a close reading of a sequence of a film/documentary/new media text of your choice Film: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Directed by Miles Forman Starring Jack Nicholson One Flew Over The Cuckoo?s Nest is not a film that adheres to a strict set of generic conventions. However, my understanding of the film as a media text was helped when I recognised that it is a film that follows a classic Hollywood narrative. Mimetic theories of film narration can be applied to One Flew Over The Cuckoo?s Nest, as the narration style is the presenting a spectacle that is being told through the eyes of the characters. This is in contrast to diagetic theories of narration which, in the words of Plato ?the poet himself is the speaker and does not attempt to suggest to us that anyone but himself is speaking?(Bordwell 1985) The narrative structure of the scene I am analysing could be described as one that follows Bordwell's description of the classic Hollywood narrative. According to Bordwell (1985) ?the introduction [in a classic Hollywood narrative] phase typically includes a shot which establishes characters in space and time?. In this scene, the director shows first where the lead character (Jack Nicholson in the role of RP McMurphy) is, before showing viewers through a series of cut shots the

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,

Over time, society has neglected as well as welcomed ideas to the understanding of normal. Society merely fosters ideas to help maintain a balance in the understanding of what is right and wrong. Through strictly basing laws that revolve around their ideas, society can balance the ideas that they wish to neglect in an attempt to live in the "ideal" world. Many ideas are belittled and labeled as taboos and the sole factor that affects their label is time. Time is a major factor on the ideas and the evolution of their understanding. The main problem with society is the labeling of the people that follow the ideas that they neglect. Sanity and Insanity easily fall into the category of welcomed and neglected ideas. Society needs to control the rebels that believe in the neglected ideas through labeling them as insane. Insanity is a mystery in itself, it is not completely understood and yet many interpret it in many ways. Two infamous authors that best interpret insanity in their own astounding ways are Ken Kesey and Sylvia Plath. These two authors point out the negative interpretations made by society on the insane. They use their characters to portray the negative understanding of mental illnesses. In Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey uses his main character to emphasize the negative aspect of the treatment towards the mentally insane. In Plath's The Bell Jar, Plath

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Throughout Ken Kesey's tremendous novel, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", the character of Chief Bromden develops from: a damaged, diminished man to a fully reformed human being.

Jason Henry - 6DH2 Throughout Ken Kesey's tremendous novel, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", the character of Chief Bromden develops from: a damaged, diminished man to a fully reformed human being. Randle McMurphy, a brawling gambling man enters the terrifying grey world of the institute, but he is there by choice after pleading insanity to escape prison. The arrival of McMurphy contributes to the progression of Bromden's maturity. At the beginning of the novel Chief Bromden's paranoid character is emphasised by the repetition of his fear of the combine and the thick clouds of fog which it emits to control the patients. Chief Bromden's fear of the machinery which makes up the combine is revealed in the description of nurse Ratched when she is first introduced to the novel, "She's got that bag full of a thousand parts she aims to use in her duties today - wheels and gears . . ." This shows the paranoia of chief Bromden as he believes the nurse is trying to implant machinery into the patients to make them a part of the "combine". This word choice helps to emphasise that the Chief is afraid of being combined and his humanity taken away. Chief Bromden believes that when the "combine" begins to lose its grip on the patients it emits a thick fog to subdue the patients. "They start the fog machine again its snowing down cold and white all over me like skimmed milk..." This

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compare 2 2oth century stories about enclosed rooms

Comparing two 20th century short stories about enclosed rooms We have been introduced to a selection of 20th century short stories based on enclosed rooms. In this essay I am going to compare the similarities and differences between The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the Judge's House written by Bram Stoker. The Yellow Wallpaper is written by a woman suffering from a nervous breakdown in the form of a journal. By making it in the form of a journal you can see the woman's rapid decrease in mental health. This is very different from The Judge's House, which is written in third person so you never really feel the full emotion of the main character. The Judge's House is about a student looking for a quiet house in a town where he has no connections to anybody he knows so he can fully concentrate on his studies. He finds a desolated house with an almost ghostly atmosphere, which he thinks the perfect destination for his studying. This is similar to The Yellow Wallpaper because it is also about trying to find complete isolation for the lady suffering the nervous breakdown. Her husband is a physician and decides that the best thing for his wife is to spend a few months on an estate where she can cure her depression. She

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How do directors of 'Rain Man' and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' shows and convey powerful emotions? In both films, 'Rain Man' directed by Barry Levinson, and

Jasmin Belkarty 'Rain Man' and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' English Essay How do directors of 'Rain Man' and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' shows and convey powerful emotions? In both films, 'Rain Man' directed by Barry Levinson, and 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' by Milos Forman, the audience can see very powerful, dramatic emotions. The directors show and convey the emotions using effective media devices, such as use of diagetic and non-diagetic sound, lighting, different camera shots. They also use symbolism- for example water- to make a greater impression on the audience, show the emotions of each of the main characters. Use of the symbolism states the directors' awareness of a viewer. Both directors effectively use a considerable variety of sounds, diagetic and non-diagetic, to create the atmosphere and powerful emotions. 'Rain Man' by Barry Levinson , includes more diagetic sounds than 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' . In 'Rain Man' a seminal scene is the bathroom scene. Director uses there diagetic sounds: Raymond brushing his teeth, and the sound of water. Instead of non-diagetic sounds like, for example song or melody, Charlie and Raymond are singing a song. It was the director's choice that they sing out of tune as it makes the scene more tender and intimate. Barry Levinson does not use a non-diagetic sound, so the audience can

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One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a book that presents a view of society that is still relevant to issues we experience today. In what ways do the characters in the book realistically represent a repressive world?

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a book that presents a view of society that is still relevant to issues we experience today. In what ways do the characters in the book realistically represent a repressive world? (Power, authority, control, freedom, conformity, victims, mental illness) One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is about a few remarkable weeks in a psychiatric ward. One Flew over the cuckoo's Nest presents views about society. The characters present throughout the novel realistically represent how cruel and repressive the world can be to those who are suffering from mental illness. The patients have no power at all; they are completely dominated by Big Nurse who is a former army nurse. She represents authority and control in the ward. She enters the novel and the ward, "with a gust of cold". Ratchard has complete control over every aspect of the ward. She is cruel to the patients and repressors their individuality. Chief Bromden sees power in terms of size. The Big Nurse when she gets angry swells up so large that she towers over everyone. Even her name 'Big Nurse' has to do with size. "So she really lets herself go and her painted smile twists, stretches to an open snarl, and she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load." This is Bromden's vision of Big Nurse as an agent of

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With specific reference to the novel, how would you argue that "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has merits that make it a rewarding novel to read?

With specific reference to the novel, how would you argue that "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has merits that make it a rewarding novel to read? Ken Kesey's moving novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" uses a mental hospital as a microcosm of American society to criticise its conformity, the treatment of mentally ill patients and the abuse of power. The novel opens readers' eyes to a bleak, negative, and previously-unheard of side to mental institutions and society as a whole. However the essential message of the novel is one of optimism because it offers hope that conformity can be thwarted while abusive power can be defeated through inner strength and belief in oneself. The principal merit of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is the skilled way in which Kesey integrates these socially important messages with skilful use of narration, symbolism, characterisation and plot, making it an emotionally and intellectually rewarding novel for the reader. One socially important message explored in the novel is conformity within American society and the loss of every person's right to individuality. By using plot, narration, and occasional bleakness of tone, Kesey shows through Bromden that the conformed lives of the mental patients are filled with mind-numbingly boring routine from which there is no escape. This is shown in lines filled with vivid imagery and black humour:

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Differences and similarities in the book and film of

There are differences and similarities in the book "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" by Ken Kesey and the movie, which is based on the novel. The characters are the same, so is Nurse Ratchard in both the book and the movie represented as an angry and two faced woman. She wants to have the absolute control over the ward and therefore manipulates the men. The only thing that is not equal in regard to the nurse is here physical appearance. While she has a face like a baby doll with a small nose, white skin and baby-blue eyes, pink lips and nails and big breasts, which she tries to hide in the book, she is more a normal woman, without remarkable make-up or breasts in the movie. But her character and behavior is represented in the same way. She doesn't like McMurphy, who actually was on a working farm, but could manage to be send to the hospital. There he wants to have a nice time and entertain the other patients. He plays poker and basketball with them and slowly gives them there self-confidence back, which they lost over the last years under the control of the nurse and therefore he wins there appreciation. The nurse and he seem to be in competition the whole time, who of them has more influence on the patients. He is played exactly the same way as he is described in the Kesey's original: as an open and self-confident man with oxblood colored skin, who is walking like a

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