One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950's Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50's, 60's where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting' & its significance towards Ken Kesey's "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Though every period of time, people often find themselves looking for a savior. While most people turn for Jesus Christ or other religious figures, in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, the patients of a strictly-run psychiatric ward turn to Randal Patrick McMurphy. Kesey uses McMurphy to create a Christ Figure, or a character that shows allusions to Christ, in his work. Despite being a patient, McMurphy finds a way to stand out as a Christ Figure through having his individual thoughts and actions, rather than shrinking himself to what the ward wants him to be.

The way Nurse Ratched controls the inmates and punishes them using electric shock therapy symbolizes how McMurphy is trapped. This feeling of entrapment leaves McMurphy in a continuous battle to gain back his freedom from Nurse Ratched. According to McMurphy, “we must pursue freedom at any cost, even if that cost is death.” Along with gaining freedom, Chief Bromden shows characteristics of the second theme, heroism. Throughout the book Bromden pretends to be deaf and dumb. This symbolizes how he feels hidden and different compared to the world he is living in. As the novel continues he becomes greedy for freedom and eventually rises up to his biggest fears when he suffocates Nurse Ratched. Once Nurse Ratched is out of the picture, Bromden breaks the window and escapes from the hospital. The idea that Bromden was able to remove the control panel and use it to break the window, symbolizes his true strength and how he can accomplish anything after running “through” his freedom.

His silences acts a double edged sword throughout One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Bromden`s silence allows him to be an excellent observer, collecting information about the ward. His power also allows him to be independent and act on his own behalf without the repercussions that the other patients face. In the novel, Chief emulates his power by voting for the World Series, “No. That not the truth.

Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950’s Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50’s, 60’s where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting’ & its significance towards Ken Kesey’s “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

He makes sure to write Chief Bromden out to be struggling within himself. However, Bromden realizes that he has to stand up for himself in order to get things done when it is too late for the other protagonist, McMurphy. Kesey used his time working in the mental institution to aid the writing of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. After being a first hand witness to how unethical ways were used on the patients, Kesey wanted the world to know. This was not the only work Kesey created that focused on ethical problems within his society.

Randle McMurphy is the protagonist, the hero, of the Oregon psychiatric hospital that is the setting of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. However, McMurphy is not a hero in the conventional sense like Batman or Captain America who serve the purpose of saving people using gadgets and powers; McMurphy does his job through his personality and never with the pure intent that traditional superheroes have within them. In fact, when McMurphy is analyzed using How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster then the true kind of hero he is can be seen. Randle McMurphy is the protagonist, the hero, of the Chief’s story and he shows many of the signs that any hero from any genre would show throughout the entire story, from admittance

     The one that flies over the cuckoo's nest is the giant, allegedly deaf-mute Chief Bromden. In Ken Kesey's original novel, Chief narrates the story, providing evocative images of an all-powerful bureaucratic 'harvesting machine' fostering functionalist social integration: a combine that would process out individuality, thus creating compliant individuals (the exaggerated representation of this in the film's ward is a microcosm of society at large). Those who did not conform would be relegated to a correctional facility for repair or removal.

Character Analysis: Chief Bromden - The narrator/patient of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden is the son of the chief of the Columbia Indians and a white woman. Also, He suffers from paranoia and hallucinations, and received several electroshock treatments for ten years. In the novel, Chief Bromden’s physical characteristics are described as a huge man in society.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey. The book was published in 1962, by Signet, an imprint of New American Library. The book itself has 325 pages total, and rather than being divided into chapters, it is divided into sections. As a result of this, I doubled the required number of questions needed for the study guide section of this project, and based them off of each specific section.

During the time when this was written the largest group of people being oppressed in the United States was African Americans. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest parallels the Civil Rights Movements that were taking place at the time. big nurse in loose terms would represent The White Citizens Council. The silent but supportive staff at the mental institution would represent the American government. although the American government was very oppressive themselves towards the Civil Rights Movement the hateful organization was allowed to keep their ideals of what was fair and just because of the silent support of the American

Thesis Question: How do Ken Kesey’s ventures described in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and the 1960’s countercultural context in which Kesey lived manifest themselves in his allegorical novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?

While One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is only a little over fifty years old, it feels like an even more dated story then some things written hundreds of years ago. This is because it is set in a field, psychology, that is constantly evolving and makes drastic progress in short amounts of time. The sexist and racist undertones coupled with the outdated view of psychology dates the book and undercuts the theme of the story.

Our perspective of a stranger whom we’ve never met nor seen, but only heard of through the mouth of the enemy’s opinion, will inevitably align with the only version of the story we’ve heard. This sort of bias is found in Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with Nurse Ratched’s depiction through the narration by Chief Bromden. The reliability of Bromden’s perspective is questionable, as it is his interpretation of the world, rather than what it actually is.

The author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey, based this novel largely on his own experiences. As stated by David Wright in an article about Ken Kesey’s life, “Two of the clearest points of origin for the setting and events in One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest were Kesey 's introduction to LSD in 1959 and the time that he spent working at the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in Menlo Park, California, in 1961” (Wright 3). Kesey “worked in the psychiatric ward at the VA hospital as a night aide, a job similar perhaps to that of Mr. Turkle in the novel” (Wright 3). The job allowed him time to “observe the day-to-day operation of a mental facility and granted him the opportunity to get to know some of the patients” (Wright 3). After spending so much of his time in the ward, he found that he was “fascinated and