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One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest

Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, about the goings on inside a mental institution, the difficulty of defining insanity, and the struggle of individual versus group mentality, is based on experiences drawn from the author’s own life while working at the Veterans’ Administration Hospital. While there are many smaller differences between Kesey’s written version and the film directed by Milos Forman, based on the novel, the main difference comes from the differences in worldview between the two men when it comes to the relationship of the individual to society, “Imposing his own subjective viewpoint on the story, Forman altered somewhat Kesey’s attitude toward insanity. Whereas Kesey sees the poetry in paranoia, Forman is more attentive to the destructiveness in all forms of mental unbalance. Kesey has more faith than Forman in the chances of the individual outside of social forms. Although there is some hope, even if rooted in fantasy, in the last page of Kesey’s novel, there is nothing but a haunting image of self-annulment in the concluding frames of Forman’s film” (Searles, 1992, 171). Of course, the reason for the above discrepancy may have to do with the actual lives of the writer and filmmaker than anything else. Kesey, an originator of the Beat Generation Merry Pranksters, counter-cultural icon and LSD experimenter found success outside of conventional social forms. Forman, a Hollywood system player, found success within conventional social forms (the corporation). This analysis will focus on the similarities and differences between the literary and film versions of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, including their portrayal of mental unbalance in accordance with DSM IV criteria.

Both versions of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest are peopled with roughly the same collection of characters. The most significant difference in characterization is that Chief Bromden serves as narrator of the b...

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One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 00:34, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1686056.html