Mental illness is a serious issue and is brought up in many literary works and plays. The role that mental illness takes on for certain characters sends the reader on a rollercoaster-like of journey that explores the effects and boundaries characters cross in order to combat, defeat, or rebel against their mental disease alongside the support of friends and family. Within the literary works and plays that involve mental illnesses, there is a subtle yet noticeable connection that can be drawn between each other that concurrently relate to reinforce the intensity and difficulty behind having a mental illness. A literary work and a play that focuses on mental illness within a certain character is grasped in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, and Next to Normal, by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey. Chief Bromden, a mental patient in a psychiatric ward, experiences a psychological, rather than a literal “fog” that keeps him at bay and is mentally present due to implications of an authoritative Nurse. This situation relates to Next to Normal, in which a character named Diana also experiences this “fog”, as a result of the loss of her son, Gabe, is possibly induced by the repetitive use of medication. These works of literature, go hand in hand in explaining the relation of psychological affects that medicine and medical procedures have on their hosts, which in this case is Chief Bromden and Diana. Although, some may believe that mental illness is totally fixable or curable, I argue that with the issues brought up in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Next to Normal, some mental illnesses, may provide a temporary fix, but also have the capability of leaving an ever lasting psychological scar.
Word Count: 287
Word Count: 287