What do you think Mrs. Ratched represents?
Friday, December 19, 2014
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest directed by Milos Forman is a film with a strong message about societies expectations vs. the individual needs. The audiences sees all these patients in need of medial assistance while McMurphy comes in and just wants to avoid work. McMurphy is mentally stable, however, works really hard give the impression that he is 'crazy'. He acts irrationally and causes disturbances in the institution schedule and environment. There were many instance where McMurphy purposely goes against whatever Mrs. Ratched wants in expression of fighting against the system. McMurphy believes the patients deserve better treatment and care in contrast to Mrs. Ratched's beliefs of just having everyone under control. McMurphy smashes glass, talks to TV, refuses to take medication and promotes patients to take charger of themselves. After all of these different events the most significant is when he brought two girls, alcohol and a party to the floor in the middle of the night. This resulted in a sequences of negative events, Billy kills himself and then McMurphy tries to choke Mrs. Ratched to death. This ended up with McMurphy being 'treated' (punished) with a lobotomy. This symbolized McMurphy fighting for the patients support and Mrs. Ratched constantly repressing them.
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I think Nurse Ratched represents the anti-hero in this film. As you said, McMurphy tries to promote the idea that the patients should take charge of themselves and that is what Nurse Ratched is against. She will do anything to keep the men in their scheduled and dull lives even if it involves "treating" (electroshock therapy and the lobotomy) a rebellious patient like McMurphy.
ReplyDeleteI think Nurse Ratched represents leaders in society who are unfair/have immoral agendas. She is the leader of the ward and and chooses to do whatever she wants whether or not it is best for the patients. The patients represent the people who are forced to do whatever she wants them to do whenever she wants them to do it. So I think overall, the relationship between Nurse Ratched and the patients could represent an "unfair" relationship between leaders and their people in society.
ReplyDeleteI think Nurse Ratched represents a person who think the things they are doing are truly good, whether or not that is actually true. She believes in the standards that she has created for the ward throughout the years and has never strayed from that until McMurphy comes in and tries to change everything she has created. Once he joins the ward, Nurse Ratched continues to do everything to keep her hospital running the way it used to, even if she resorted to "treating" patients like McMurphy who threatened to disrupt the hospital's equilibrium.
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