Kim Gnagey
             APE per. 4
            
            
             Levels of Meaning in
             Cool Hand Luke
             and
             One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
            
            
             One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a story of a mental hospital, the patients within it and the changes both undergo. The film Cool Hand Luke is a story that is somewhat similar to Cuckoo's Nest about a man that enters a prison camp and his struggle to break away from that authority. The question at hand is whether these two stories hold deeper levels of meaning. Specifically, there are three levels of meaning that are being looked for other than the normal plot level, or the first level of meaning. The second level of meaning that is being looked for is the psychological/social/moral level. On this level, one finds underlying messages dealing with a person's "inner-light," society or battles within oneself. The third level of meaning is called the allegorical level. An allegory is a story that closely parallels another story. Specifically, we are looking at the allegory of Christ. The fourth level of meaning is the anagogical level. This level deals wi!
             th the underlying myths of a story. According to Joseph Campbell, every story follows a certain myth because our entire society is made up of myths. The specific myth we are looking it is the hero's journey and it's relation to the two stories. There are two sides of this argument. The first, is obviously, that these meanings are present in these two stories, and, in turn, all stories. "All the lessons of life are there, buried in great books and great drama, and the interesting thing is that we absorb them without a sense of being taught, without effort, for at the same time we are being entertained. Time spent reading is therefore never, under any circumstances, time wasted, provided that what we're reading is worthwhile (The Best Training...pg. 140)." The other side of the argument says just the o...