One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

The book, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” is a story about the exploits of the struggling patients of a psychiatric ward, an overbearing nurse, and a vulgar but lively new admission. Within this particular story, Kesey implements thematic elements in the story. These elements are known as motifs in which gives the story a deeper meaning including the characters as well. Three motifs are used to influence the reader’s understanding of the story which are the fog, the religious Christ aspect, and people as machines. Throughout the novel these elements are heavily noticed and do provide such deep meaning to the characters and story. With this in mind this makes the story more of a true experience.

Society is governed by a set of rules and laws that help to maintain order and efficiency. However, the rules and laws that are set may be given by one person and is not acceptable by society or an individual. This could lead to challenging authority and becoming an individual and not a statistic in society. Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, one of the main characters, Randle McMurphy, defies all the rules given once entering the mental hospital. In doing so, he challenges Nurse Ratched's authority which disturbs the order in the ward. Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,a children folk rhyme, and a Beatles song, Tomorrow Never Knows, depict the power and control one may have over society or an individual.

In Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the nurse Miss Ratched is a fine example of a realistic fictional villain. Possession of three key components is essential in identifying what makes Miss Ratched a villian. Motive is what drives the villain to commit the very acts that allow them to be considered evil in the first place, and often drive their entire being as a character. While they must possess motive, they must also have a sense of morals that coincides with their motives (typically evil, or distorted) and follow their moral compass in a way that often causes trouble for those around them. Additionally, a villain is frequently associated with their opposite; the hero who combats them. Kesey’s character perfectly aligns with these three categories of what makes a villain, and it is unquestionable that she is the villain of the novel.

In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of English boys in their adolescence are stranded on an island. They crash-land while being evacuated because of an atomic war, so the boys must learn to cooperate with each other in order to survive. The boys are civil at first, but the bonds of civilization unfold as the rapacity for power and immediate desires become more important than civility and rescue. The conflict between Ralph, the protagonist, and Jack, the antagonist, represents the conflict between the impulse to civilization and the impulse to savagery, respectively. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph and Jack’s struggle for power to show that greed and lust for power can corrupt the best

Many pieces of literature have comparable characteristics, including the use of literary elements to portray deeper meaning. “The Story of an Hour” and The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are great pieces of literature which keep their main focus around the use of symbolism, hidden in the plot. Whereas Mrs. Mallard, from “The Story of an Hour”, appears to be insane due to her husband, characters from The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest gains their insanity from Nurse Ratched, both authors incorporate symbolism in order to display themes and reveal character traits

In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey makes many allusions to McMurphy as a Christ-like figure. As the story progresses the religious references increase and become more evident. Any character can be a Christ figure, “where you find them, and as you find them. If the indicators are there, then there is some basis for drawing the conclusion” (Foster, 2003, p.123). Throughout the novel McMurphy’s actions parallel the actions of Christ. From the beginning it was clear McMurphy was different from the other patients. As his visit prolonged, McMurphy began to care for the patients much like Christ cared for his followers. In order to depict this similarity, Kesey used foreshadowing, events, and feelings.

The significance of the title can be interpreted in this quote. The story is about a struggle in a psychiatric ward, where many “cuckoos'; reside, “Ting. Tingle, tingle, tremble toes, she’s a good fisherman, catches hens, puts ‘em in pens… wire blier, limber lock, three geese inna flock… one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest… O-U-T spells out… goose swoops down and plucks you out.'; This is where the title comes from, the cuckoo’s nest being the psychiatric ward and McMurphy being the goose who plucks “you'; out.

The literary elements in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are very important in the way the movie and novel were made because without them there would be no novel nor movie. These differences were made due to the affects a book has on a reader and the affects a movie has on them. A book needs plenty of detail to show how the reader is feeling and what the surrounding area is like, while a movie only needs a few significant main events to put in. The reason Ken Kesey made differences in the movie from the book is because not as much detail is needed to get the story across in the movie. These differences did change the way the story is portrayed however. With the adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel into film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest displays differences in characterization, setting, symbolism, plot, and theme, affecting the reader’s perspective.

The significance of the title can be interpreted in this quote. The story is about a struggle in a psychiatric ward, where many “cuckoos” reside, “Ting. Tingle, tingle, tremble toes, she’s a good fisherman, catches hens, puts ‘em in pens… wire blier, limber lock, three geese inna flock… one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest… O-U-T spells out… goose swoops down and plucks you out.” This is where the title comes from, the cuckoo’s nest being the psychiatric ward and McMurphy being the goose who plucks “you” out.

Literature is the window to realizing the negatives of society and how destructive certain norms can be. Readers are brought into a completely different story than their own, but by using similar issues in today’s world, the readers can actually learn from the story and its overall message. All writers write for a purpose, whether it’s for a new meaning to life, to live a different life than our own, or to impact others on an emotional level by teaching them to see the importance of the little things. As a reader, you search for pieces of literature that interest you whether you find the story like your own, or wish you lived the life in the story. By using issues in today’s within their works, authors are able to grab the reader's attention long enough for them to get across what they wanted to get across. Often in many works of literature, writers use societal issues as their basis for the work’s themes and symbols. By doing so, this allows the reader to question the morality behind social norms and how impactful certain ideals can be in people’s lives.

“A success, they say, but I say he’s just another robot for the Combine and might be better off as a failure…”(17).

Out of the four characters listed in this film, the one character that does not exhibit pretense is Billy. We first see Billy as a nervous, shy young boy with a speech impediment. Billy has weird relationships with women; he likes women and enjoys the company of them but is fearful of the women that are most close to him. Billy’s mother and especially Nurse Ratched are the women he is most afraid of. Nurse Ratched has a personal relationship with Billy’ mother, she has a special motherly power that she only has on Billy and not the other patients in the hospital. She can control him into doing stuff he doesn’t want to do because, Billy is afraid that Nurse Ratched will tell his mother about his

In this world, there are two sides to everything. Whether it may be a message, a film or a novel, each platform of literature has two different windows. The first being the depiction of the author and the second being the interpretation of the audience. This concept is evident within both works this essay seeks to explore. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest, a charismatic criminal, Randle P. McMurphy is admitted to a state asylum due to his will of serving out of prison sentence in a mental hospital rather than the penitentiary. McMurphy brings in the outside world to the admitted patients after being legally declared insane through a condensed interview with a psychiatrist. He symbolizes freedom, life and the power of an

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a creation of the socio-cultural context of his time. Social and cultural values, attitudes and beliefs informed his invited reading of his text.

Written by Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was published in 1967 by Penguin Books. This story was written based on the author’s experience while working in a mental institution. He held long conversations with the inmates in order to gain a better understanding of them. It was during this period that he wrote the first draft of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Most of the characters in the novel are based upon actual patients he met while working at the hospital.