One Who Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest Vs Dead Poets Society

When seeing the names "One who flew over the cuckoos nest" and "dead poets society" together, one would never think these two films would have such a close resemblance. The setting of the two movies are totally different from the outside, but searching deep it is evident that they are quite parallel with each other. Watching each movie only once limit's the viewer to only catching a fraction of the things that are portrayed in each movie.

In both movies there is almost a hero figure present to some and in the eyes of others a rebellious tyrant who goes against the rules, and to be detained in fear of an upbringing. In "Dead Poets Society" a teacher by the name of Mr. Keating teaches in a all boys institution and is an English teacher. Keating has no regard for the set course curriculum and encourages his students to tear pages out of their English books. At such a prestige school these students were shell shocked at their teachers attitude towards English and life in general. Keating was there for his students and wanted them to break free from the puppet strings that were attached to them. In the other film "One Who Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" the rebellious figure, who enters the institution is Mc Murphy after he is convicted of convicted of statutory rape. First impression of Mc Murphy is that he is a perfectly sane mane and should not be in the loony bin with all the others. Mc Murphy is a gambling man who only looks out for things he can benefit from. Mc Murphy is the leader in the institution and all the men look up to him for advice. Mc Murphy represents freedom just like Keating they both are the captains of their so called ships.

Both of these captains try to lead their crew to freedom and away from oppression. Keating's escape from the school is encouraging his students in an indirect way to start up the Dead Poets Society, which Keating had started back when he was in their shoes. To be apart of the Dead Poets Society meant the student had to sneak from their dorms and flee to a cave in the woods where they would read poetry. Here the students felt a sense of freedom from all the rules at the school. Freedom in a sense is the goal of both Keating and Mc Murphy. Mc Murphy is constantly encouraging the patients to think for themselves and believe in themselves. Mc Murphy hijacks a bus with all the patients on it and bring them on a boat trip. This brings extreme joy to the patients they feel absolute freedom almost. In both situation there was no person enforcing rules.

If someone lives their whole life constantly being told they don't belong in society and are nuts, they are going to believe that because that's all they know. Nurse Ratchet does this to her patients. She is a controlling woman that needs constant power. Nurse Ratchet is a manipulative woman who tries to suppress the men during their meetings. Instead of really helping to them it appears she almost makes their problems worse as the movie goes on. Nurse Ratchet knows fully well the patients enjoy TV and that is the first thing she takes away from them for no real good reason. Nurse Ratchet is an attractive woman, and this makes the patients nervous around her and with her almost dictatorial way of doing things nothing gets better. In Dead Poets Society the character that perhaps relates closest to Ratchet is Neil Perry's father. Neil father constantly hounds Neil about school. Neil never gets to do anything on his own his father is always making the decisions which prevents Neil from going after his dreams. Neil's father rules over his son with almost the same dictatorial style as Nurse Ratchet. No back talk was tolerated by Mr. Perry. He used almost a militaristic style of raising his son. Neil's dream is to become a great actor in plays, and this dream is crushed by his dad. Neil defies his father and does the play and right after is taken home by his father. Neil is intimidated by his dad and rarely even opens his mouth other than "yes sir". However Neil turn to suicide to solve his problem nothing like this happens in the Cuckoos Nest.

Another parallel between the two films is evident in two characters that both have speech impairments. Keating has Todd to work with. Todd is very shy and timid kid who stutters when he talks and refuses to read. Keating picks up on this right away and tries to break his chain away and encourage him to come out and speak. Still hesitant Todd takes a while before he feels comfortable talking around his peers. Todd is also reluctant to join the Dead Poets Society with his fellow classmates for fear of having to read poems. By the end of the movie Keating has Todd walking and talking proud and his fear of speaking is abolished. Keating made Todd fell welcome and comfortable because Keating made the class room environment fun to be in. Todd is the one who steps up first for Keating at the end of the movie saying "O captain, my captain" while on top of his desk. This was symbolic that perhaps he finally reached the top of the hill and there was no more fear. On the flipside Billy in One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is just like Todd. Billy's fear however is woman is he is scared to talk in front of them and with the woman figure in the hospital being nurse Ratchet there is no help from her to solve his speech impairment. Once again the captain steps in here, being Mc Murphy who brings in some hookers and Billy doesn't know how to handle himself stuttering around them like usual. Mc Murphy has the hooker bring Billy into a room and when he comes out his speech impairment is almost cured, he talks with pride and no stuttering. Billy is later brought back