"The Power of" In recent years, it has become popular for many of America's great literary masterpieces to be adapted into film versions. As easy as this may seem to be a task, there are many problems that can arise when attempting to adapt a book into a film, as the written word is what makes the novel a work of literary art. Many times it is difficult to express the written word in front of the camera because words that express so much action and feeling cannot always be expressed in the same way through images and acting. An example of this can be found in the comparison between Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the film version directed in 1975 by Milos Forman. The novel details the time that R.P. McMurphy, a criminal, spends in an Oregon mental institution, after deciding that he would rather plead insane than spend more time in prison. However, when he enters the facility, his life and the lives around him change forever. He constantly tries to push the limits of Nurse Ratched runs the institution in an irrationally controlled manner. This is a novel that seems destined to make an easy transition into the cinema, since it consists mainly of actions described in great detail by the narrator, the son of a former Indian chief, by name. Chief Bromden pretends to be mute and deaf, because he is used to being ignored by most people. This "impairment" allows him to discover all the information in the novel by eavesdropping and listening to other people's conversations. . He also notices and is very aware of the actions of everyone around him. He becomes the key character in the novel due to his wealth of information, and is the central figure in providing the reader with the changes that occur in the facility after McMurphy's arrival. One of the weakest aspects of the film is the fact that Chief doesn't tell the story. The story is told in third-person format, as the audience watches all the events unfold without narration. There seems to be a broken connection between Chief and the story, and it doesn't feel like he's as important in the film as he is in the novel. Throughout the novel, the reader is given Chief's thoughts on McMurphy. first hand.