In the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, author Ken Kesey made an interesting choice of epigraph, which is a phrase, quotation, or poem that is set in the beginning of a component. Surprisingly, it was an excerpt from a nursery rhyme:
"Three geese in a flock,
One flew East, one flew West,
One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest
O-U-T spells OUT
Goose swoops down and
Plucks you out...”
This epigraph is actually a riddle; solving it explains the entire novel, based on Kesey’s own experience in a mental asylum in Menlo Park, California where he started questioning who is sane and who is insane. The novel also reflects the inquietudes of the fifties/sixties. The world became aware of the right to protest and the right to protect. Voices everywhere called for peace, justice, freedom, and equality. The government responded with tactics aimed at isolating, controlling, and neutralizing the leaders of these movements. This is mirrored in the novel as a rebellious few attempt to overthrow their ruthless leader. The United States was, at this time, opposing communism and totalitarian regimes around the world while Kesey started directing criticism to American institutions themselves, a revolutionary act. The author wrote this novel to shed light on malpractices in mental institutions. When his book was published in 1962, it was an instant success. A year later, Kesey allowed Dale Wasserman to make a play adaptation of “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, but the play was a flop, only making a few months run. The film adaptation, directed by Milos Foreman in 1975, does a good job of expressing the novel’s theme which questions what sanity is. All in all One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a good film adaptation of the novel.
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The novel is set during the late 1950’s in an insane asylum in Oregon. Here the audience is introduced to the main characters: Chief Bromden, Nurse Ratched, and Randle McMurphy. Chief Bromden, a half-Native American male patient committed for supposedly being deaf and dumb, explains “it wasn’t me that started acting deaf, it was people acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all”(Kesey 35). Bromden tells the story of the hospital, the many patients who inhabit it, and the sadistic Nurse Ratched, referred to as Big Nurse.
This machine like dictator thrives off of the submission of others. Her name sounds almost like the tool she is. Her role proves to be an emasculating one in which she runs the patients lives in a cold mechanical manner. Randle McMurphy is a run-of-the-mill middle-aged white American whose boisterous attitude and strong personality uplifts his inmates. His story is told by the Chief and describes his aspects as an unlikely Christ figure, challenging the establishment and acting as a savior for the mistreated patients. The Chief constantly mentions fog, a recurring symbol throughout the novel. This fog inhibits the characters actions and helps keep the social order. It is very possible that this fog isn’t physical, but mental, one possibly caused by Big Nurse’s medication. The look and feel of machinery is constantly used to describe and symbolize the asylum and its workers. Bromden compares the loony bin to a “combine” or machine with a purpose, with Ratched being one of its tools.
The author reveals the institution to be a type of authoritarian government with Big Nurse as its rigid leader. Moreover, with his cold hard diction choices Kesey progresses the story and makes the reader question the difference between sanity and insanity. The author helps one understand that the insane may not be as crazy as they seem. Perhaps they are only victims of their social situation. This example is easily depicted when the inmates reveal that most of them are volunteers at the hospital and can leave when they choose. This important theme and the recurrence of symbols through the novel are transcribed fluidly into the film adaption.
Forman's genius and cinematic abilities created a powerful realistic film that has moved audiences through the years. In 1975, a movie adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest directed by Miloš Forman was released against Kesey’s wishes. The film enjoyed a large amount of box office success, but there were a couple stark contrasts between it and the novel. His film is so impacting that it was chosen to be preserved by the Library of Congress. Forman’s use of real life settings and natural light emphasize realism. White walls, white nurses, and white clothing washout individuality. Bland colors and high key lighting give the set a flat appearance of a sterile emotionless loony bin. During night scenes the lighting only becomes slightly low key. The way the film was shot makes it appear as if the story is happening right in front of the audience’s eyes.
Forman's strong focus on imagery such as locked doors, metal bars and chain link fences enforces the reality that the patients are inmates. Moreover, the camera movement tends to be mute as to reveal the limitations of the patients. Additionally, Forman makes great use of camera angles such as close-ups to better tell the patients’ stories. He concentrates on their eyes and mouths to stress their humanity. Short takes, edited to provide multiple points of view in each scene, perfect this technique. The way the camera moves from face to face captures the patients’ moments of epiphany or important revelations. Forman artfully captured the essence of Kesey’s novel, revealing how one’s social situation can destroy one’s personality while sucking the life and color from one’s soul.
Comparing the artful adaptation and the original literature leads the audience to realize that both mediums successfully elicit a powerful attitude of anti-authoritarian rebellion. Small differences in the film enrich the drama with audiovisual adornments while slight alterations to the novel’s events make the film more powerful. For example, in the film the fishing trip takes place without the hospital staff permission; in the novel, the patients are authorized to go on the trip with the Doctor. This change displays more rebellion than the original text revealed. In the film, McMurphy boasts that a teenage girl lied about her age and conned him into statutory rape, however, in the novel, McMurphy mentions being seduced by a nine-year-old girl. His initial imprisonment isn't for statutory rape, it's for being "a guy who fights too much and fucks too much". This change was necessary for the audience’s approval of the character. Moreover, in the novel Cheswick commits suicide but in the movie he doesn’t. This is because his suicide had no real point in the novel and could be easily erased for a screenplay. The film completely removes the ending scene where Chief observes a dog sniffing gopher holes from the hospital window. The film's conclusion, however, depicts Chief running from the hospital toward what the viewer assumes is happiness and liberty. They probably removed this because Bromden severs a much smaller purpose in the film than in the novel. The biggest difference, and the reason why Kesey disapproved of the movie, is that in the film the hero and protagonist is McMurphy, however in the novel Bromden narrates everything from his point of view and gives us his personal back-story. This major difference was necessary for a film adaptation to be successful but took away from the story. An audience of mostly whites at that time could better relate to a rugged American than a Native American.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is riddle in of itself. A possible way of thinking about this epigraph is to understand how the characters compare to the geese. Some fly east, and some fly west, going in opposite directions leaves them against each other. This is a depiction of the inmates verses Big Nurse and her machine parts. The goose that flies over the cuckoo’s nest would be McMurphy, because he’s the one who ends up crazy in the end because of his lobotomy. Chief is the one goose who escapes and is plucked from the "cuckoo’s nest," or the asylum. Moreover, both the novel and the film adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest successfully get the audience thinking about what true sanity is. Is anyone really sane? Using cold mechanical diction Kesey is able to paint the bland dehumanizing prison that is a mental asylum. With his intelligent use of Bromden’s narration the author reflects a rebellious society in the character of McMurphy. Many of his themes and symbols are transcribed into the film adaptation. Forman uses bland colors and detailed close ups to create intimacy between the audience and the patients.
The novel is a great one, that has captured the attention and appreciation of individuals around the world. The film has also done this. It is an incredible example of one’s fortitude and individuality expressed through the character of McMurphy. No wonder that the film adaptation won five Oscars.
