Free Essay Movie Opinion on “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”

troll · Uploaded by **troll** on Sep 13, 2005

Movie Opinion on “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”

The paper that I am writing about is on the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest with Jack Nicholson. The movie is a good example of Total Institution. In the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest the patients were removed from society and, the Head Nurse made them change the way that they went upon everything they did in life. The movie was also about the way that the hospital was like and how they had barbwires on the fences so the patients weren’t able to leave. Nurse Ratchett also had the patients on a tight schedule that was the same everyday and she felt that it shouldn’t be changed no matter what. C.H. Cooley’s “looking glass self” was a theory that described the way that the patients learned things about themselves and how to interact with the Head Nurse. The patients imagined that they appeared to be inferior and childish because, of the way that Nurse Ratchett treated them. The way that she did was she had the patients on a certain routine and made them do everything she said. MacMurphy made the patients participate in the activities and talked to them like friends not like little kids. I think that Nurse Ratchett made the patients feel scared about the things that they did because, they didn’t know how she would react. The patients were afraid on what they said because she would punish them if she didn’t like what they said. When MacMurphy was around the patients felt that they could be honest on their responds because, they knew he would give them an honest answer back. The Head Nurse judged the patients as mental deranged people whether her reactions were positive or negative.2 She made sure that the patients were on an appropriate behavior. Which means that the patients had groups so that they can talk about there problems. The patients also had to do other things for instance, they had to listen to music, they had to vote on the things that they wanted to do, they had a schedule and they had a schedule when to eat, sleep, and when to take there medicine. I felt that the conformity was the pattern of interaction that describes the ward residents and staff. All of the 5 patterns of interaction were prevalent in the movie. I feel without conformity the institution would not exist. Conformity also describes what took place in the interaction between staff and most of the patients. Most patients were willing to give up their freedom and adapted to life in the institution.3 Some of the coercive that took place in the movie included the physical domination over the patients by the hospital guards, the various threats issued by Nurse Ratchett (loss privileges by telling Tom’s mother about his sexual experience), and in the manipulation of trying to control MacMurphy through shock therapy.

The master status was the positions that people occupy within social structures that affect most aspects of their lives. The status from the ward residents could be defined as crazy patients, but with MacMurphy around didn’t let them believe that they really were. I believe that the patients “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” learned a great deal from their interactions with Nurse Ratchett and R.P. MacMurphy who were both strong people with strong personalities. But no matter what MacMurphy tried his hardest to get his way with Nurse Ratchett and make her allow them to do different things then what was usually done.