Point by Point Comparison Paper

“The true Republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less” (Susan B. Anthony). In the 1900’s, women in the United States were not allowed to vote or have a voice in the government that ruled them. Some women found this to be corrupt, like Susan B. Anthony. Women from across the United States grouped together to protest and rebel against their government. It was a long battle but they finally won and earned their rights. This situation relates to Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Elia Kazan’s movie, On the Waterfront. There comes a time when people become strong, lose their fear, and work together as a team to rebel against a corrupt system.

One major similarity between Ken Kesey’s novel and Elia Kazan’s movie is the setting. In the novel, the ward in the mental hospital resembles the docks in the movie. The controller/ruler of the ward is Nurse Ratched. She resembles the mobster Johnny Friendly in the movie. Both of them are in control and are feared by the people around them. Nurse Ratched controls McMurphy and her patients, just as Johnny Friendly controls Terry Malloy and the dock workers. If you borrowed money from Friendly he would give it to you, but his interest rate would increase dramatically, making it impossible for the average worker to pay him back. The workers constantly owed him money. If you did not obey Ratched’s or Friendly’s rules, you would be punished for your actions. Nurse Ratched’s punishments were either electroshock therapy or a lobotomy. If you got even deeper under her skin she could turn you from an acute to a chronic overnight. Friendly’s punishment was that you would get pushed off a roof for being a rat. The mood in both settings was based on fear. The patients and the dock workers wouldn’t dare question the authority of these corrupt leaders. Nurse Ratched and Johnny Friendly abuse their power by hurting people, and creating a corrupt society based on absolute control and fear.

Another major similarity between Kesey’s and Kazan’s work is characterization. The protagonists in the novel were McMurphy and the patients. In the movie the protagonists were Terry and the dock workers. McMurphy symbolizes Terry and visa versa. They both have criminal minds and hidden leadership qualities. The antagonists are Nurse Ratched and Johnny Friendly. They have both created corrupt environments. Nurse Ratched had an amazing ability to sense people’s weaknesses and make a patient feel bad about themselves just as they were finally gaining confidence. For example, when Billy lost his virginity he was finally feeling good about himself and stopped stuttering, he was empowered. Nurse Ratched noticed this and immediately put him down, and made him fearful by threatening to call his mother and tell her of his actions. Naturally, Billy began stuttering again and lost the little bit of confidence that he had gained. Johnny Friendly is the same way. When Timothy Dugan agrees to help the priest and testify to the Waterfront Crime Commission about Joey Doyle’s death, Friendly sets up a plan to kill him, making the incident look like an accident. Since the patients and the dock workers were frightened of their rulers, they were trained to be deaf and dumb. For example, Bromden fooled the nurses by making them think that he was deaf and dumb because he never spoke. McMurphy was the first person to find out that Bromden had been faking it the whole time. The dock workers were scared and didn’t speak up and revolt when Dugan was murdered. The priest did all the talking and tried to persuade them to stand up to Johnny Friendly. The dock workers were too afraid to respond. The only time they revolted was when Terry became their leader and walked to the dock garage door. There are also mentors in the stories. The priest and Edie are mentors to Terry, as Bromden and the patients are mentors to McMurphy. The priest and Edie encourage Terry to testify and do the right thing, just as Bromden and the patients encourage McMurphy to challenge the Nurse with her ward policy.

Many of the characters, in both Kazan’s movie and Kesey’s novel, follow similar character arc patterns. McMurphy is a troublemaker. He has been in jail for sexually harassing a woman and for gambling. He believed that by pleading insanity and going to a mental hospital was better than being sent to a work farm. He was terribly mistaken in this notion. McMurphy causes trouble on the ward and tries to rattle Nurse Ratched and make her crack. Then he learns from the lifeguard that Ratched can keep him on the ward for as long as she wants, and she is the only person that can dismiss him. But as he was tormenting her, he gave the patients hope for a new beginning.