One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

Every work of literature – whether long, short, humorous, or frightening – enables all readers to experience a certain set of emotions from the passages within the text; but what do these emotions imply? In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster clarifies that these reactions closely associate with symbolic meanings. He specifies how “every reader’s experience of a work is unique” in order to explain that almost everything stands as a symbol and carries various ideas – depending on the reader’s emotional interpretation (Foster 110). Foster also mentions the concept of intertextuality in which pure originality is impossible, thus resulting with authors influencing one another. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest stands

The fog is the motif that represents the memory of the author, an expression of guilt and culpability. "He was part of the fog" The first impression the author has towards the Vietnam soldier. The fog is misty and he cannot see the man clearly. He does't know the man or hasn't seen his face, but he kills the man under stress. It isn't until the dead man dropped to the floor with a star hole in the eyes that the author feels fear and guilt. Although his comrade keeps on comforting him, his culpability left an utterly indelible mark in his mind. In reality, after the war, every time the author thinks or sees a fog, he relates to the war and brings back the painful memory. Fog triggers his memory and hinders his feeling. Furthermore, fog has another hidden meaning, this is a usage of the ambiguity technique. The author is trying to bring out uncertainty with the fog. It's opaque, and may not be seen through. And just like the situation the author is facing, to kill or not to kill, uncertainty rises, it is a dilemma. Tim O'Brien is stuck between choices, in doubt whether he should tell the incident to his daughter, whether he should kill the man or not, the contradiction makes him feel unbearably guilty. This is what the author intends to accentuate: war should be discouraged, it is the cause of disaster. The author strongly opposes to war as it only stirs up painful memories and death.

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 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.

“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 the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, it is clear that the author had many massages and interests for writing this book. Kesey wrote this book to point out how without a say, minorities can be easily controlled . Through my analysis, it is clear that Kesey’s use of mechanical imagery contributes to the novel as a whole by recognizing the broken people in society, and showing how people can be manipulated and changed by power of the nurse and the Combine . Kesey's use of mechanical imagery in respect to the patients in the ward suggest that they are broken machines that are being changed by the power of the nurse. We see Kesey’s first use of mechanical imagery is when Chief is describing Ruckley’s eyes being “all smoked

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.