-You should watch the movie for quotations
-don’t use ai
-respect the instructions:
– and i started writing about it you can just use what I started ( iwill send it to you) and incorporate yours
For your final paper, choose two of the three topics presented below:
Hobbes and Rousseau have opposed models for understanding human nature. Their models are animated by the different understandings of place and the role of power, violence, desires, and knowledge in forming a ‘normal (civilized)’ state. Choose one of these models to explain the characters’ interactions, group formation, struggle for domination, sources of violence, and usage of violence. Explain why you chose Hobbes’ or Rousseau’s model for your paper.
Nietzsche offers two models for understanding morality: ‘Master’ Morality and ‘Slave’ Morality. Choose two characters from the movie whose actions and their motivations could be interpreted according to the first model (‘master’ morality) and two characters whose actions and their motivations could be interpreted according to the second model (‘slave’ morality). In each case, explain your choice. Support your choice with episodes from the movie.
Reading Fromm, we learned to distinguish authentic, true disobedience from false disobedience and heteronomous obedience from autonomous obedience. Analyze the movie from Fromm’s perspective. Choose at least one character who represents true disobedience, one who represents false disobedience, one who represents autonomous obedience (based on Categorical Imperative), and one who presents heteronomous obedience in the movie. Explain and justify your choice using Fromm’s arguments and episodes from the movie.
Instructions:
The paper should not contain the movie’s plot or a summary of a philosopher’s arguments. Any general description or summary will not be accepted.
The paper should demonstrate your ability to apply a specific philosophical argument (studied in class) to analyze a character, a dynamic of his relationship with others, a dynamic of group formation, or a dynamic of characters’ interaction.
You are only allowed to use material studied in class. Any usage of material from outside of class will be considered plagiarism (See the syllabus on plagiarism).
When you apply a specific philosophical argument to a specific moment in the movie, provide a short quotation from the texts and the time mark for this moment in the movie.
Requirements:
4-5 pages.
Double-spaced, 12 Times New Roman fonts, standard margins.
Here’s what I started:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a classic film that explores various aspects of society through a small, closed off group of individuals. The film takes place in a mental rehabilitation center, and while the characters are ironically separated from society while committed, their stories reflect issues within the wider society even though they are unable to participate within it. The film explores the need for such institutions, while also questioning whether are not such institutions are necessary as there are multiple instances throughout the narrative where it is implied and asserted that many of the characters may not in fact require the services they are receiving.
The purpose of institutionalizing individuals should be rehabilitation, however, the system often corrupts those in power and breeds systemic issues such as recidivism. The two primary characters of the film Randal McMurphy and Nurse Ratched represent two opposing forces. Randal McMurphy is admitted to a mental ward following a series of arrests, and violent behavior. He is there to be evaluated so that the state may ascertain his mental capacity. Randal is a freedom loving criminal who is institutionalized because of his criminal history, reckless and dangerous behaviors and throughout the film, McMurphy clearly exhibits antisocial and sociopathic tendencies. Secondly, there’s Nurse Ratched, an authoritarian figure who rules the mental ward with an iron fist. Her character is far more subtle than McMurphy and as such requires deeper analysis to truly understand, but it is clear that both McMurphy and Nurse Ratched’s roles and approaches directly oppose one another.
The dynamic between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched intersect with social contract theory in an intriguing way. Social contract theory dictates that individuals in a society agree to give up certain freedoms in exchange for protection and the maintenance of order by the governing authority. However, McMurphy’s character is an embodiment of freedom and despises authority and so naturally, he stages a rebellion against oppressive authority, personified by Nurse Ratched. His actions and interactions with other patients can be seen as a challenge to the social contract as it exists within the mental institution. He offers them freedom and individuality regardless of the consequences.
While all human beings cherish freedom, we are still able to abide by the rules of society. What is the difference between McMurphy and the average person? I believe that McMurphy’s character embodies freedom to an extreme level, which ultimately leads to his disregard for authority and lands him into the trouble he finds himself in. Nurse Ratched on the other hand, embodies authoritarianism to an extreme level as well. The consequences of Nurse Ratched’s actions are displayed in subtle fashion, but upon further analysis, viewers can conclude that despite the fact that the ward appears to be run well and Nurse Ratched is considered the best nurse in the institution, her practices while good on paper may be at the detriment of her patients.
Nurse Ratched’s actions arguably make the patients in the ward dependent on the institution and if they are out of line, she dulls out consequences. Since all the patients in the ward are male, Nurse Ratched almost appears as a motherly figure and her strict authority can appear to infantilize and emasculate the men. No scene in the film is ever told from Nurse Ratched’s perspective so it’s difficult to fully ascertain whether or not this is intentional on her part, but I would lean that they are intentional as the character is proven to be very cold and calculated or say McMurphy would say “she likes a rigged game” in response to Nurse Ratched given the residents hope that they can vote on a change knowing that their votes could never be the majority get the changes they were hoping for enacted.
Despite all their apparent differences, both McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are actually quite similar in a lot of ways. You can even say that they are two sides of the same coin. Both characters are strong-willed and determined individuals who seek to exert influence over others. The only difference is that one character, Nurse Ratched, has the authority and position to do so. They engage in a power struggle throughout the film, each trying to assert their dominance over the other and the rest of the ward. Nurse Ratched’s position represents the hold that the wider society and its institutions have over the freedom of others. Sometimes you may feel as if you have a choice in a matter, but in reality you really don’t and because of the hold society has over individuals it often feels like there isn’t anything you can actually do about it.
As I have previously stated the mental ward should have been a place for rehabilitation, but instead, throughout the film it is portrayed as a prison that many of the characters yearn to escape from. We also eventually learn that some characters are voluntarily committed and McMurphy asserts that there is nothing wrong with them, no more than the average person out about in society. This can be seen as a critique of social norms and societies insistence on conformity. Correct it and integrate it to your work
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