Study On The Interpersonal Relationship From The Perspective Of Social Ecology

Ken Kesey (1935-2001) is a famous novelist of United States in the1960s. OneFlew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was published in1962and has won the writer greatfame and fortune. Since the hospital in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is amicrocosm of American industrial society, the novel fully demonstrates the strongnotion of anti-institution by depicting the oppression and dehumanization that thepatients have suffered, which is a satirical critique of the societal conformity ofAmerica in1950s. Some researches at home and abroad have been done on this novel,while the research from the perspective of social ecology is sparse in number. Andthis thesis analyzes One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from the perspective of socialecology.According to the social ecology, some social ecologists claim that theenvironmental crisis currently facing us is a result of the hierarchical organization ofpower and the authoritarian mentality rooted in the structures of our corporatist andconsumer society. The hierarchical organization of power and the authoritarianmentality are the common points of the social ecology and the power theory which isused to analyze the relationship between people and the relationship betweenindividuals and the society. Through the analysis, this thesis shows that people are inthe hierarchical organization of power. And the relationship between individuals andthe society can be summarized as two kinds the dominant power relationship and thesubordinate power relationship. What’s more, the alienation theory is also used tostudy the individual self which is composed of id, ego and superego. Then the three components of individual self in this novel is not harmonious, and against theecological principle.This thesis includes five parts. Chapter One is the introduction which mainlytalks about the author, the novel, the research background, the research purpose andsignificance. Chapter Two is the literature review at home and abroad. Chapter Threeis the theoretical framework of thesis: social ecology and power theory. Chapter Fourtalks about the hierarchical organization of power between people. The relationshipbetween “the normal” and “the abnormal” and the relationship between man andwoman are discussed respectively in detail. In fact, both of them belong to the powerrelationship. Chapter Five shows the power relationship between individuals and thesociety. The Big Nurse and the patients are the important representatives ofindividuals. Since the Big Nurse stands for the country, the chief society, and thepower of the country and is in the dominant place, the relationship between Big Nurseand the society is the dominant power relationship. On the contrary, patients are in thesubordinate place. Thus, the relationship between patients and the society is thesubordinate power relationship. Obviously, the relationship between individuals andthe society in this novel consists of the dominant power relationship and thesubordinate power relationship. Chapter Six discusses the self-alienation. And ChiefBromden’s ego and McMurphy’s id are alienated. The last part is the conclusionwhich includes the major findings, limitations of this thesis and suggestions forfurther studies.