Nurse Ratchett And Mr McMurphy example essay topic

Dead Poets Society and One flew over the Cuckoo's nest Bill Beattie once said, "The aim of education should be to teach us how to think rather than what to think- rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men". Too often it does happen when our individual thoughts are crushed by the powerful forces of conformity. In the film Dead Poets Society, conformity exercises its influence in which the results may prove to be disastrous for some. For other's the effect of conformity obliges them towards their individual strength and self-discovery. In Welton Academy, all of the students, which are made up of different personalities, are expected to learn all the same lessons in all the exact same ways.

Instead of having to learn the material, they are forced to memorize the most important information and regurgitate these facts on the exam. While chemistry involves memorizing, and Latin involves narrating of the teacher, the instructors are pleased with this and believe that as long as the student continues to do as he is told, he will become successful in life. Modern education in both this time and now, is one of the largest "offenders" when it comes to conformity. This problem is illustrated repeatedly in the film Dead Poets Society. "Carpe Diem" in the film Dead Poets Society includes an environment, which is both rigid and strict. At Welton Academy there were four pillars of morality that the students were expected to abide by.

These included excellence, honor, tradition and discipline. A new English teacher was appointed to teach English at Welton Academy. John Keating brought with him a style that promoted the talents of one individual. He challenged his students to think for themselves and to resist conformity. He has taught the boys so many lessons in which they would have never learned from any other teacher. He illustrates how conformity affects people by displaying a lesson to his students while involving the students to walk around the courtyard.

He instructs three of his pupils to walk around the courtyard. These three boys walk in unison while the remainder of the boys begin to clap in time with the marching. He simply asks the boys why they are clapping, and they do not know why. Could it simply be that the boys were clapping because they were enjoying themselves? It cannot be disputed that the group conformed without thinking. The point of the exercise was to prove that after walking for a little while, everyone would soon start to imitate.

He wanted to show them how difficult it is to maintain your own beliefs. He wanted the boys to follow the understanding that no matter what, you should always do what you believe, and maintain your individuality no matter what people say or what they tell you to do. In other words, Mr. Keating was teaching his students to believe differently than what Welton Academy was teaching them. Again, by looking over scenes from the movie, and lines from the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, we can see just how important the lessons were that Keating was trying to teach the boys. Mr. Keating reminded his students and encouraged them to seize each day and cherish them dearly. From the first day of Keating's teachings, one could easily notice that he had an original method of teaching.

On the first day, he entered the classroom he was whistling a song and demanded that the students proceed outside the classroom to read a poem. After reading the poem he took the students to the showcase to show them pictures of former alumni who were once where they were standing but were now dead. In doing so he was trying to prove to his students that opportunities await for us every day. And we need to make the decision as to whether we want to take on those opportunities or to play it safe. He encouraged all of his students to take risks and that nothing could be accomplished without taking risks.

Keating taught them that the great lesson of life was for living it for you and for nobody else. For example, Neil went to Mr. Keatings office to ask him advice about his father objecting to his acting. Neil had a strong passion for acting in which his father disproved of greatly. His father already had his life planned out for him, and the way he wanted his life to be. It didn't matter to his father what Neil wanted, he was forcing Neil to live out his dreams for Neil's life rather than his own.

After discussing this over with Mr. Keating, he advised Neil to tell his father everything that he had just told him. Keating told him to express himself to his father, tell him what he wanted and that he wanted to live out his own dreams. Emerson once stated, "It is harder, because you will always find those who think they know your duty better than you know it". This quote pertains exactly to the case of Neil and his father. His father thought that he was doing what was best for Neil. In actuality, what he was doing was driving Neil to live a life he didn't want to live in which lead him to suicide.

This is not the right way to teach kids. Pushing and pushing them to do something that they do not want to do, is not the answer. Not that private school does not hold a good educational value, but it should focus on teaching their students, in a way in which Keating did. Some of life's most important lessons are taught in places where we would least expect it. Keating taught them so much more than poetry. He wasn't just a teacher, but was a friend that touched each and every student of his in a different way.

In the movie, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the whole idea of treatment or therapy wasn't shown in the movie. This home was more a house to the patients rather than a mental hospital. The therapy sessions weren't about therapy, but just an opportunity for Nurse Ratchett to manipulate and intimidate her patients into submission. No one was allowed to have individual thoughts or feelings. Randall McMurphy takes all of the patients to face value, he expects no more than they can give. He tries to help them enjoy their lives and help each of them find happiness.

He has no authority over the patients but he tries to manipulate them to stand up against Nurse Ratchett. He earns respect from the patients and they try to do things to change their lives. However, every attempt that he makes to help the other patients he gets in trouble and they punish him for disrupting the institution. One example of his disruption was when McMurphy is able to con a Doctor to get a room where he and a bunch of patients can go play cards without the loud music interrupting them. In many ways in this movie, I noticed that Nurse Ratchett and Randall share a lot of similarities. They were both the extreme of an idea.

Randall wanted to embrace life by having no boundaries and rules while Nurse Ratchett wanted to embrace life by not allowing anyone to live. Lastly, in watching these two movies I noticed many symbols and themes in which the two movies shared, while still holding a few references to Plato's Allegory in the Cave. In the Dead Poet's Society the theme was parental domination while in Cookoo's nest the theme was just domination. In Poet's Society the parent's goal in life was to control their children. They had chosen the career they wanted them to live, and allowed them no choice in that decision.

The parents, in addition to the administrators at the school, focused on gaining self-control of the students by taking away their sense of freedom. In Cookoo's nest the theme of domination was shown through Nurse Ratchett and Mr. McMurphy. Their intention was to gain complete control of the patients. Nurse Ratchett did so in a more negative way while Mr. McMurphy did more in a positive way. His goal was to teach the patients that they were their own people and that they should do whatever it is they want. This method being similar to the way in which Mr. Keating taught his kids to be like.

Both of these movies contained the same atmosphere. Both settings involved males who have little to no contact with women. In Poet's Society, it consisted of one boy seeing a girl from a public school. Every time that he was in contact with the girl he became very nervous and was always worried that he would get into trouble with her. While in Cookoo's Nest, the relations they had with women was Nurse Ratchett. But when Mr. McMurphy brought women in they would get all excited by drinking large amounts and engaging in sexual matters with the women.

In Poet's Society the dog symbolized imprisonment while the night shift guard also symbolized imprisonment. The dog and the guard were both bribed into allowing the students / patients to do what they wanted. The boy's in Poet's Society bribed the dog with dog treats, while in Cookoo's nest the guard was bribed with women and beer. In both of these movies somebody's hopes were crushed in just one instant. In Poet's Society Neil had a string passion for acting. His dad always opposed of him acting.

He went behind his father's back, after receiving advice from Mr. Keating, and acted against his father's will. He was so happy, being up on stage and acting. Then in one instant all of his dreams were shot to hell when he saw his father in the back of the theater. All that joy that he had hoped for his whole life was gone in one instant. This problem with his father led him to commit suicide.

In Cookoo's Nest Billy had a problem with stuttering. The one thing that helped him overcome it was a woman. When he was able to sleep with a woman, his stuttering came to a halt. All this was taken away when Nurse Ratchett caught him. His stuttering quickly came back, which soon then lead him to death. In both movies there were many accounts that referred to Plato.

For example, in Poet's Society, the play that Neil was in was A Mid Summer Night Dream. While in Cookoo's nest they had a sneaky way of referring to the play also. Mid Summer Night Dream had a reoccurrence in Plato, too. In Poet's Society there was a small reference to chains, which symbolized imprisonment, just like in Plato.

Dead Poet's society has some symbols that didn't occur in Cookoo's nest. The reference to the cave has to do with Plato. The cave symbolized knowledge and freedom to the boys. While searching for their cave of knowledge an owl hoots, which symbolized knowledge.

Although, Cookoo's nest didn't have many symbols there were just a few more examples I wanted to discuss. While both movies had domination as a theme, Mr. McMurphy wanted to his patients to be happy. For example, he stated, "What do you think you are, crazy or something?" And then he said, "These are real people". By saying this Mr. McMurphy was trying to give his patients confidence by encouraging them. He wanted them to be happy. He wanted them to feel like real people.

In Conclusion, these two movies had many similarities and carried a lot of the same symbols. What makes these two movies so unique are the differences they share but the similarities that bring them together..