Snippet Lesson Plan for
Deriving Theme Using the Fishing Scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest
Subject: Language Arts/ Literature; Theme.
Grades: 12 and up.
Length and Location:
Learner Outcomes/Objectives: Students will learn how to draw a theme from a scene in a novel that has been adapted to film; they will be able to make comparisons of theme presentation between written and visual media.
Rationale: Students reading Ken Kesey’s novel will enjoy seeing the film’s presentation of this important scene and can make note of the how the changes from the novel’s presentation may shift the idea, the theme, intended in the scene. Students who are not reading the novel will learn how individuals can redefine themselves and become free from the social judgments that define them.
Description: In this classic scene from <emOne Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest</em>, Randall Patrick McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson, takes fellow inmates of the mental institution on an unauthorized fishing trip. Although in the novel by Ken Kesey, McMurphy manipulates the situation by organizing the outing and making a tidy profit for himself, in the film he simply absconds with a bus full of inmates, picks up his girlfriend and hijacks a fishing boat. The joyful energy spent catching the fish shows on the faces of the inmates; they are happy, successful men rather than the troubled spirits they were at the hospital. Whether or not students read the book or see the entire movie, the snippetillustrates one of the film’s ideas: crazy is as crazy does.
Possible Problems with the Snippet: There is a moment of near-nudity when the inmates create a problem and McMurphy rushes to the rescue.There is a two second glimpse of his girlfriend behind him scrambling for her clothing.
Using the Snippet in Class:
Preparation
- Review the film clip.
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- Cue the DVD so that the film clip will start immediately.
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1. If necessary, define the term ‘theme” for your students. Here is one definition.
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A theme in a poem, novel, story, play or film is a message about life or human nature which the author or filmmaker believes to be universally true. A theme involves an observation about life. It weighs, and considers actions and ideas. A theme is an arguable abstraction that proposes a universal truth about life or human nature.
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em>A theme is not</em> merely a topic, a suggestion, a fact, or a question. This is because a theme is an important meaning contained in the work. Topics, such as "love" and "justice" have no meaning. A suggestion is not emphatic enough to convey meaning. A fact, such as "Obese people have a lower life expectancy than people who are not obese" is universally true and perhaps very important for obese people, but it's not interesting enough for a work of fiction. A question has no meaning in itself. The meaning is in the answer.
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Nor are moral judgments or directives about how people should behave, proper statements of theme. They are not observations about life or about human nature. Words like "should" and "ought" do not belong in thematic statements.
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A theme does not summarize the plot of a work of fiction nor does it mention characters by name. These are not statments about life but about the work itself. Instead, themes may refer generally to types of situations and types of people such as men, women, leaders, the accused, vigilantes, society, young people etc.
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Authors usually try to communicate messages that are more complex and subtle than trite statements or aphorisms. This is especially true of works of fiction that are presented to students in English classes. Themes of "Love is blind" or "What goes around comes around" don't usually make for interesting reading or viewing. When stating a theme, try to avoid them. Look for something less obvious and more intriguing.
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There may be more than one theme in a work of fiction. <brbr> In stating a theme be very careful about the use of superlatives and absolutes. Dont' use them unless you are absolutely sure. The "best," the "worst," "all," "none," "everyone," "always" and the like are usually not the type of precise thinking that your English teacher wants from students.
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Most themes are not directly stated in the work; instead, they are implied. If a theme is not immediately apparent, it can be derived by focusing on the various elements of the work, such as title; plot; motifs; symbols; changes in the characters over the course of the story, or realizations characters come to have during the story. Sometimes, hints as to theme can be found in unusual objects, mysterious characters, significant animals, repeated names, songs or any element in the story that hints of a meaning beyond the surface.
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2.As an introduction to the theme of the clip, albeit it not in terms of lunatics in an asylum, but in terms of students in the institution of school, students can engage in a bit of role playing. Ask them to assume the physical appearance of an honors student. Tell them that a UCLA scholarship official is here to grant full paid tuition to someone who looks the part of a scholar. Next tell them that a casting director is here to select students to act bored or angry or disinterested. Kids will sit up straight, lean forward and look awake when affecting the role of good students and slump or pretend to doze when affecting the role of those less than stellar students. As the teacher, you can mention how their body language affects the way you view them in terms of potential academic performance.
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- If the class is not reading the book, briefly summarize the lead up to the scene, at least telling them that McMurphy pretends to be insane in order to be committed to a mental hospital to avoid being jailed on a minor criminal charge. Unable to abide by the rules of the hospital, McMurphy does a number of outrageous things one of which is to take the inmates of his ward on an unauthorized fishing trip.
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4. Show the snippet.
- Discuss the theme in class or have students write a short essay in which they describe the theme and support it in terms of dialog and images that appeared on the screen. If you are giving the writing assignment, you may want to play the clip a second time.
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The theme of this film clip is that insanity is a social construct. Society determines what is crazy and what is not crazy and this determination is created through observable behavior. In other words, crazy is as crazy does.Your students may have many ways of wording this idea, but in the snippet they will see how the men from the asylum stop being lunatics when they stop behaving as lunatics and are then not seen as lunatics.Insanity is determined by observers. In the film as a whole, this is the central thought; McMurphy was never insane, he pretended to be insane to get out of jailhouse work. Then, in the institution he was seen as insane because of his refusal to conform to the rules.
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6. Concluding Assessments: Select one of the following prompts depending upon whether or not your students are reading the novel, and ask students to cite specific moments or images in the snippet to support the point they are making in their essay. Use the standard rubric students have become accustomed to in your writing assignments. Play the clip again after giving the assignment.
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Compare and contrast the fishing scene from the novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, to the fishing scene in the film adaptation.brbr
Illustrate through specific examples comprised of moments in the snippet, howbody language and facial expression can change the image of an individual in a given situation. Notice the looks on the faces of the men when they are introduced to the dock worker and when they return to port with their catch.brbr
- Illustrate the snippet’s central idea through direct reference to specific images and dialog in the clip and then illuminate how this idea can be seen in common experience in high school culture today.
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Why Not use the Whole Movie: “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest" is rated R and may be a problem in some schools or school districts although it has been used in classrooms across the country for decades.