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Week 9 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
Research and Writing Assignments: Do some online reading about the background of “Cuckoo's Nest”. Consider how an insane asylum can be a metaphor for the world at large. Do you know any other movies that use this same kind of setting to illustrate the ills of society. |
Bedford Guide: Relook at Chapter 9 to refine your presentation for your next paper. Consider the use of a glossary or other kinds of visual and verbal support material such as charts, graphs, and images for this paper. They will not count as text. |
Movie: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is readily available at libraries, video stores, Netflix, and, possibly, online. It is considered one of the top 100 American films of all time. |
Literary Reading: None. You can read the text if you desire, but it is not required. |
| Lecture 9 |
The 20th century often gives us the strangest of heroes. No longer do we look to kings and highborn people to rise above their flaws, we look to ordinary men and those who, at first blush, may seem less than ordinary. Randall McMurphy is a con man who enters an insane asylum voluntarily to get out of a work farm/jail. He really doesn't know what he has gotten into. And, it is just that, the situation he finds himself in and how he uses the skills he has to celebrate life and destroy himself. The lessons to be learned here are about the human spirit and how it rises above its own situation. Look to the social questions about race, class, sexual persuasion, the presentation of women and the power of authority, even when it is questioned. There are so many subject here that would connect well with our previous readings. Start to look for connections and bring them up in e-mails to me. Begin to consider topics for your final paper, knowing that the last book and movie of the quarter will cover some of the same issues. |