Controlled Environment In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

725 Words3 Pages

In the drama film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, Patrick McMurphy was moved from a prison farm to a mental institution to get evaluated for his erratic behavior. Upon being transported to the institution, all his assumptions about his new home were completely wrong. The head nurse, Nurse Ratched, has the whole hospital under her control with little to no freedom for the patients. All the inmates at the institution go through rigorous training to become obedient to Nurse Ratched and her strict schedule and rules. The institution was a very controlled environment with the patients having no control over their own life’s while there. There are four characteristics of a controlled environment and they include the following: status hierarchy, …show more content…

All patients must communicate about their personal problems and discuss how to get through them in the trust circle that Nurse Ratched is in charge of. Another example of depersonalization, happens when McMurphy is gambling with cigarettes and gets the other men to participate also. Nurse Ratched finds out about the inappropriate use of their cigarettes, and confiscates all cigarettes from the men. This scenario ultimately causes Cheswick to have a mental breakdown which leads McMurphy to break the glass of the nurses station to get Cheswick and the others their cigarettes …show more content…

There are many instances, even today, where people are put in a controlled environment, and when they are released they are unaware of how to function normally in society. For example, many prisoners who are released after an extended period of time will commit the same crimes again to be sentenced again, because they know and understand the prison environment now more than they do societies. One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest shows just how difficult being thrown into a new environment can be not only on a person 's mental health, but also physical

Open Document