One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ernest Hemingway

Randle McMurphy, the protagonist, is introduced to break down the nurse’s oppressive ways. McMurphy, a con man who was sentenced to a work farm, was diagnosed as a psychopath and sent to the mental hospital, which he much preferred. Serving as a savior figure to the patients of the ward who have already been battered by the Big Nurse, McMurphy causes interference to the nurse’s control. He supports the men as they are ridiculed in meetings and supports their attempts to change policy. Although he does help other patients, he first looks out for himself. He cons the patients out of their money and then follows the nurse’s rules for awhile because of the threat of being kept on the

Sam Jefferson English 495 Ms. Chase 12 November 2015 Chief’s Savior In Ken Kesey’s classic novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, relationships play a major role in better understanding individual characteristics of members of the mental institution. One of the more complex relationships that develops throughout the book is the relationship between Chief Bromden, the silent Native American, and McMurphy, the boisterous newcomer to the ward. McMurphy’s confidence in himself and in Chief help Chief become “bigger,” and leads to a close friendship between the two. McMurphy’s rebellious attitude leads Nurse Ratched to give McMurphy a fate worse than death by having him lobotomized, but Chief dignifies McMurphy by killing him before the other patients can see his current state.

-Every time a character sets out to do something it's a quest. The idea of a quest has evolved greatly, as literature has evolved.

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster presents a guide to help readers further understand the novels they read. In chapter one, he claims that every trip is a quest, and every quest has five main components. Each journey consists of a “quester”, or a journeying character that lacks self-knowledge. This character has a desired destination and a stated purpose of going there. Throughout this journey, the character experiences challenges and obstacles, eventually learning something new about him or her self. Thus, we learn that a simple trip has a deeper meaning and purpose.

In Ken Kesey’s book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there were two main characters that were in a battle to have the majority of control over the ward. Throughout the story, they engaged in different acts of stubbornness to see who could display the most power and which of the two could stand their ground the longest without giving in to the other. These two characters were: Randle McMurphy, a new patient who was determined to change the ways of the ward, and Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of the asylum who preferred to have complete control over everyone and everything.

As soon as McMurphy arrives on the ward, he challenges Nurse Ratched’s abusive regime in hopes of restoring humanity and the rights of the individual. It didn’t take long

Works of literature innately embody the author’s ideology and the historical context of the given time period. Within the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, the author furthers his ideals against the issue of oppression as he attempts to take stabs against its deteriorating effects and support those who rebel. Set in the microcosm of a small mental hospital, he establishes man’s external struggle to overcome tyranny. At the head of the head of the ward is the corrupted character of Nurse Ratched, who rules with an iron fist and the help of her machine like aides. It also features the nonconformist character, McMurphy, as he works to break Nurse Ratched’s endless cycle of tyranny. Although the novel shifts between the

Quest is a method where a literary work is broken down into five simple components. The five aspect of Quest consists of a quester, a place to go, a stated reason to go, challenges and trials, and a real place to go. This method can be applied to a novel by John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath because many examples are peppered throughout the story.

The first chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster is about the hero’s quest. Foster starts the chapter with a fictious example of a story with a protagonist called Kip that although on the surface seems like a search for bread, is actually an example of a knight’s encounter with nemesis, a quest. He then goes on to discuss the five components of a quest and how the parts often vary and are hidden in different forms. One of the primary take-aways from the chapter however is how the real reason for a quest is never the one stated but rather self-knowledge, the idea that the purpose for the quest is ultimately not the stated reason but rather a quest of education. Foster argues that the stated reason is more of an excuse for embarking on the quest, rather than the end goal and discusses

“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”, is a commended novel written by Ken Kesey about a certifiable mental institution. Randle Patrick McMurphy is the character that Kesey has predominantly used to impact the reader. Kesey illustrated this by having a presumed deaf mute, Chief Bromden narrate the novel, focusing on how McMurphy influence’s the other deranged characters of the novel. In order to have McMurphy leave an impact on the ward, Kesey portrayed him as an anti- hero. “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” is not the only novel to include an anti- hero; authors have included these types of characters to incorporate aspects of the human conditions to their literature. Kesey could have initially kept McMurphy as a hero; to save the day and fight

From the early stages of the novel, it is apparent that McMurphy will be a consistent thorn to Ratched’s side. “‘that is exactly what the new patient is planning: to take over. he is what we call a ‘manipulator,’ Miss Flinn, a man who will use everyone and everything to his own ends’” (Kesey 27). In this scene, the Nurse displays a concern for McMurphy’s assertive behavior and believes that he is here to gain control of the men of the ward. Nurse Ratched is certainly very distraught at McMurphy’s entrance and his dominating stance seen throughout the ward by both the faculty and the patients. The Nurse is aware that it is possible for McMurphy to gain influence, admiration and control over the other patients of the ward, which would lead towards McMurphy gaining enough power to threaten Ratched. It is strongly suggested that the Nurse is unused to one patient trying to assume control over the others, causing her to become somewhat doubtful of her power and opening up areas that could be attacked. For example, McMurphy is able to perform a task so unusual when he leads the men to watch a blank television screen, causing the Nurse to lose her temper and stability. “‘You’re committed, you realize. You are . . . under the jurisdiction of me . . . the staff.’ She’s holding up a fist, all those red-orange fingernails burning into her palm. ‘Under jurisdiction and control―” (Kesey 144). When

McMurphy learns that involuntarily committed patients cannot leave the hospital without staff approval. Therefore, he cannot leave at the end of his six months sentence, but when Nurse Ratched says he can and he begins to submit to her authority. However, by this time, he had become the leader for the other patients. Their sanity, their claim to manhood lies in the balance. Cheswick, dismayed by McMurphy’s surrender, commits suicide.

Many times throughout one of Ken Kesey’s most famous novels, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book uses animals as symbols to represent the story’s plot. The animals usually relate to individual characters and their current struggles within the story. Animal imagery provides us with great insight to the themes that Kesey is trying to have us explore, and is a very good tool that the reader can use to help better understand and relate to the characters.

When McMurphy finds out that he is one of two patients that are involuntarily committed to the hospital, it makes him realize that he alone is fighting for his freedom, and the others have been repressed by Ratched to the point of being afraid to rebel against her or simply leave. McMurphy fights until the end to free these men of their emasculation even if it

McMurphy is a gambling Irishman and convict, who grows tired of laboring at the Pendleton prison farm. To escape prison life, he feigns insanity and gets himself involuntarily committed to a mental hospital in Oregon. He tries to bring about a change at the hospital, for he does not like the fact that grown men act like "rabbits" and are scared of the Big Nurse. He tries as hard as he can to "get her goat", by not doing the duties he is given. He also ironically ends up serving as a