Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest presents an allegorical depiction of American society in the 1950s. It is no coincidence that a mental asylum was chosen as the setting for this novel. Kesey experienced firsthand how these institutions work when he worked as an orderly in a California mental institution, observing the clearly determined hierarchy of power between doctors, nurses, and patients. Classified as a countercultural novel, readers come in aware of the anti-mainstream nature of this novel. The text cited in this essay demonstrates the anti-establishment prejudice presented through the characters, as in the first of Mailloux's three “moves” (Murfin 338). What I found to be the overall emphasis of the film was very different from the novel. While I usually identify with a filmmaker's perspective, I see some major flaws in a truly accurate depiction of this novel. Simplifying the “psychotic” nature that constitutes Chief Bromden's internal monologue, the film focuses only on the disruption of order and schedule that Randle P. McMurphy introduces upon his arrival, sending Kesey into a rage. This was done at the behest of the director, Milos Forman, who responded with "I hate that whole '60s free drug association thing. It's fine in the book, which is stylized. But in the movie the sky is real, the grass is real, tree is real; people better be real too." While that decision still allowed the film to touch on some of the novel's major themes, particularly the conflicting relationship between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, I find it lacking, due to the basic structure that those "drug syndicates" provide to the plot. . The film's and novel's ability to convey key elements... middle of paper... Works Cited Donaldson, Sarah. Filmmakers in the film: Oliver Parker. The telegraph. August 31, 2002. Web. January 14, 2014. Goodfriend, Wind Ph.D. Psychiatric Hospitals in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.” A psychologist at the cinema. Psychology today. May 22, 2012. Web. January 12, 2014. Gray, Richard. A history of American literature. John Wiley & Sons. November 21, 2011. December 28, 2014. Lupack, Barbara Tepa. Round Two: Adapting the Contemporary American Novel to Film. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular, 1994. Print.Murfin, Ross C. “Reader Response Critique and the Revival.” The Awakening, Kate Chopin. Case studies in contemporary criticism. 2nd edition. Ed. Nancy A. Walker. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 291-306.Spurgin, Timothy. "Adaptation: From Fiction to Film." The art of reading. Chantilly: Teaching, 2009. 60-62. Press. Part 1 & 2.