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She was just a girl who found herself in some unimaginably awful circumstances. If you feel like gaining some valuable perspective on the drama in...
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 47687 Views
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Description:
Who's really the crazy one in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ? Shmoop amongst yourselves.
Transcript
- 00:05
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a la Shmoop. Nurse Ratched's mental ward: come for the
- 00:17
rest and recuperation, stay for the mind games and spirit breaking.
- 00:24
It's not a very nice place.
- 00:25
You know you're somewhere special when the nicest and most sympathetic person...
- 00:25
...is a guy who smothers his friend to death with a pillow.
Full Transcript
- 00:26
The sheer number of unstable minds on display brings up the big question:
- 00:30
Who's the looniest toon? Is it our hero, the man who aims to misbehave,
- 00:39
McMurphy?
- 00:41
Well, he has been institutionalized. That's usually a good sign that something's wrong
- 00:51
upstairs.
- 00:52
So maybe he's in a mental hospital for a reason.
- 00:56
And McMurphy's brain operates on another level. He never seems to realize the danger that
- 00:58
he's in, or the power that Nurse Ratched has over him...
- 01:02
...even though his arch-nemesis is watching his every move, he's mostly concerned about
- 01:08
baseball and women. That is, until McMurphy tries to strangle
- 01:16
Ratched to death.
- 01:20
Yeah... that's not gonna get him points on the sanity scale.
- 01:27
But to be fair, he hasn't had an easy go of it. McMurphy's a bit of a maverick, and he
- 01:34
can't stand the fact that the world's trying to squeeze him into a mold.
- 01:36
Maybe all that crazy behavior is just a way for him to rebel.
- 01:40
So is he really nuts, or is it, like, the system, man?
- 01:46
If it is the system, doesn't that mean Nurse Ratched is the crazy one?
- 01:51
Well, for starters, she's super manipulative, and her desire for power and control is definitely...
- 01:58
maniacal.
- 01:58
Sure, she speaks sweetly to everyone... but she's also hiding some seriously creepy monster
- 01:58
eyes behind that friendly mask.
- 01:59
Are we the only ones who get a "serial killer" vibe when she's around?
- 02:02
Speaking of serial killing, Ratched drives two men to suicide and basically murders McMurphy
- 02:06
by ordering a lobotomy.
- 02:07
How does she react to all of that? With a big fat "Meh."
- 02:11
But we'll hold off on saying that she's 100% certifiable. If McMurphy is a victim of the
- 02:17
system, Ratched might be a victim, too.
- 02:21
She has her orders, after all. But wait a sec. If McMurphy and Nurse Ratched
- 02:23
are both actually sane, then what's really going on here?
- 02:25
Maybe we're supposed to see that "crazy" is all about perspective.
- 02:28
Sure, McMurphy is a little nutty, but his actions also make us realize how arbitrary
- 02:34
"sanity" can be...
- 02:36
...especially when the poster child for "having your ducks in a row" happens to be the murderous,
- 02:41
mean-spirited, "Ultimate Grinch" Nurse Ratched.
- 02:43
To put it another way: if Ratched is normal, we might just rather be nuts.
- 02:50
So what do you think?
- 02:51
Is McMurphy the bonkers one who belongs in a mental ward...
- 02:54
...is Nurse Ratched a psycho herself...
- 02:57
...or is crazy just a state of mind? Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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