Stylistic Descriptions of Psyciatric Institutions of the...

In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and the film Girl, Interrupted directed by James Mangold, the authors look at American psychiatric institutions of the 1960s and explore the idea that hospitals act as a microcosm for society, where characters are used as symbols to represent aspects of society. The settings represent conformity and rebellion, prejudice against minorities and authority figures ruling absolutely. Both authors use stylistic features to position the audience to respond to ideas common in both texts. Within a society, non-conformity and individualism are conveyed in a negative light, which is explored through the institutions of both texts. In Kesey’s novel, characters are controlled by the hospital system but there are also those who do not conform to such order and disrupt the enforced demand. Kesey’s Randle McMurphy, conductor of rebellion, introduces laughter into the ward which encourages an element of revolution within characters. In an environment under the control of Nurse Ratched, silence conveys her authority; laughter overthrows her control. McMurphy knows that one has to laugh â€Å"to keep the world from running [one] plumb crazy.† The use of sound displays that McMurphy promotes non-conformity through laughter, likewise Mangold’s Lisa also uses laughter to display rebellion. Kesey’s use of imagery portrays that dictatorship rules the system and enforces conformity. The fog machine is Chief Bromden’s defence mechanism against a