The levels of meaning in Cool Hand Luke and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a story of a mental hospital, the patients within it and the changes both undergo. The film Cool Hand Luke is a story that is somewhat similar to Cuckoo's Nest about a man that enters a prison camp and his struggle to break away from that authority. The question at hand is whether these two stories hold deeper levels of meaning. Specifically, there are three levels of meaning that are being looked for other than the normal plot level, or the first level of meaning. The second level of meaning that is being looked for is the psychological/social/moral level. On this level, one finds underlying messages dealing with a person's "inner-light," society or battles within oneself. The third level of meaning is called the allegorical level. An allegory is a story that closely parallels another story. Specifically, we are looking at the allegory of Christ. The fourth level of meaning is the anagogical level. This level deals wi!th the underlying myths of a story. According to Joseph Campbell, every story follows a certain myth because our entire society is made up of myths. The
d and given a chain to wear at his feet. The final time Luke ran away, Dragline accompanied him. The two stopped running in the middle of a forest area, and Luke told Dragline that they needed to part in order for their escape to work. "I've done enough world-shakin' for a while. You do the rest for me," Luke commissions Dragline. Although Dragline didn't understand, he agreed that it was probably for the best. Here, Dragline represents Jesus disciples, and Luke's statement is similar to the great commission that Christ gave to them. "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:18-20)." Luke went into a church out there in the forest, and began to question God's hand in the whole situation. This entire encounter can be paralleled to the experience Christ had! me on the ward. The other patient that fit well into the Nurse's cookie-cutter was Mr. Harding, a "...flat, nervous man with a face that sometimes makes you think you seen him in the movies (Kesey pg. 23)," according to the Chief. From what was said about Harding, the reader can assume that he was a homosexual. Still, he kept this quite unknown. But in keeping it unknown, he also showed no overbearing masculinity, which pleased the Nurse. So the psychological battle in the book was against conformity, finding masculinity, and beating the mindset that the Nurse did and society does instill in people. of an evil nature contrasting to the main character. The author was not attempting to parallel Luke or McMurphy to a hero. Perhaps there were some heroic characteristics about both of them, but they were merely used to enhance the readability of a story. That, if anything, should say something about our society. There always has to be a good and bad for us, never anything between the two extremes. But Luke and McMurphy weren't completely heroic, either. Luke and McMurphy didn't change. According to this analysis of the hero's journey, the hero has to undergo some kind of change where he makes a sacrifice. But both McMurphy and Luke were selfish in their endeavors both at the beginning and the end. They weren't sacrificing their lives for a universal cause. They were looking out for themselves. They didn't like the situation they were in, so they manipulated it. cause, "you are bigger than I am." McMurphy laughed, staring incredulously at this huge man. Bromden told McMurphy about his father, and how his father drank himself to death, and that "the bottle consumed him." And ever since his father's death, Bromden has been "small." McMurphy promises that he is going to make Chief "big" again. Chief's battle was not with his size, but with his ego. Bromden's masculinity and ego had been repressed for so long by the nurse, or the "ball-cutter," as McMurphy calls her, that his entire self-image had been diminished. But Chief Bromden is not the only one having to face this problem. The Big Nurse discouraged the masculinity of all the patients. A few of them had succumbed to the lie that masculinity and sexuality are evil. One of these was Billy Bibbitt. Billy was a virgin in his mid-twenties that happened to be ruled by his mother. This was pleasing to Nurse Ratched. She used these kinds of weaknesses to enforce her strict regi! Joseph Campbell would argue that the reason that people as a whole find the hero's journey to be entertaining is because it is a story that is plausible and offers hope to everyone. Arguing that literature uses the hero's journey for entertainment only supports the anagogical level more. Our lives are based on myths. Not just the stories we listen to. Joseph Campbell presents myths as fulfilling four functions: the first is "to instill a sense of awe or rapture in the human relationship to the m
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 7641
Approximate Pages = 31 (250 words per page double spaced)
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