Review Of The Novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One’s awareness of their identity adds to the way they portray themselves and how their physique could play a role in their identity.

Kesey was a strong advocate for individualism and self discoveration. His writing portrays his opinion on how individuals “conform” by unconsciously falling to society’s needs. When this novel was written, society ostracized individuals who were thought to be abnormal or different, and because of this societal influence, people allowed themselves to become molded into what they thought was “normal”.

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

The book One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken kesey is narrated by a patient in a mental institution. Chief bromden the narrator and the others patients lives are changed when Mcmurphy is introduced to the ward. Mcmurphy introduces the patients to gambling and to rebel against nurse ratched's rules. He continues his behavior until he finds out nurse ratched decides how long he stays in so mcmurphy calms down. Not much time passes and he resumes to his rebellious behavior and even gets permission to go on a fishing trip with some patients along with a prostitute. Although when they return Bromden and Mcmurphy are sent to disturbed for fighting two aides. When they are both back they have a party where Billy has sex with prostitute but is caught along with everyone else. Billy then kills himself when nurse Ratched decides to tell his mom on the incident so Mcmurphy tries to strangle the nurse. As a result Mcmurphy is given a lobotomy so bromden kills him and escapes. Kesey reveals to the reader how a feminized society strips a man's masculinity for control.

Born in La Junta, Colorado Ken kesey graduated from the University of Oregon and later studied at creative writing at Stanford. In 1959, in need of cash Kesey volunteered in a government sponsored study of LSD, mescaline and other drugs. He later worked as a night attendant in a psychiatric hospital, an experience that led to him writing One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest in

Undeniably, Ken Kesey's intention throughout the novel of The One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was to enlighten us to a new world of understanding about the complexities of human nature. From observations on the internal and external conflicts between a rebel and a follower within a suppressive microcosm of society, we are elevated to the understanding of how through human nature, both conflicting figures are inevitably destroyed and further reinforces the social order. Thus, Kesey resolves this complication by inspiring us to be neither a rebel nor a follower, but convinces us throughout the text to take a third option in being a spectator that learns from the mistakes made by others in order to truly escape the repressing order of society.

   In 1962, when One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (the Nest), was published, America was at the start of decade that would be characterized by turmoil. Involvement in Vietnam was increasing, civil rights marches were taking place in the south and a new era of sexual promiscuity and drug use was about to come into full swing. Young Americans formed a subgroup in American society that historians termed the “counterculture”. The Nest is a product of time when it was written. It is anti-authoritarian and tells the tale of a man's rebelling against the establishment. Kesey used metaphor to make a social commentary on the America of the sixties. In this paper I will

Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a first hand account by the narrator about several weeks inside a hospital's ward for the insane. The narrator, Bromden, recounts, “ I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. Bu it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”(page 8). The book is a testament of major character transformation, following characters that transform from detached and constricted individuals to individuals who relearn how to think for themselves and tap into their natural desires. The

Ken Kesey is against conformity and societies oppressive rules under Eisenhower and he illustrates this by creating a character that is in constant conflict with Nurse Ratched and the Rules of the ward. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s nest, Ken Kesey

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is about a mental ward, its patients, and the head nurse, Nurse Ratched, a sadistic woman who overpowers her patients by making them feel small, incompetent, and incapable of belonging to society in a normal manner. Two of the patients, Billy Bibbit, a shy and fearful man with a bad stutter, and R. P. McMurphy, a very smart and outspoken man, each play a big part in the movie. They are both examples of wrongful treatment within the institution. In the end, Billy commits suicide as a result of Nurse Ratched’s threats towards him, while McMurphy undergoes a lobotomy and is eventually put out of his misery by his friend, known as Chief Bromden, so that he would no longer suffer as a vegetable.

As I have begun reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I made note of a few specific paragraphs that struck me as the most intriguing and significant. Among them was an episode that depicts Chief’s perusal of Mack Murphy’s hands. The decision to make this distinguishment was based on my belief in multifariousness and depth that the aforementioned scene contains. I presume that the “hand” episode compels the reader to reflect on several characters: Mack Murphy, Nurse Ratched, the patients and the Chief himself. First of all, Chief’s precise descriptions of Mack Murphy’s hands allow the reader to closely study the new patient, his background and way of life. The mentioned cauloses, scars and cuts speak to Mack Murphy’s coarseness; the smooth

Famous American Author Ken Kesey is known for many books but the most popular one “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” encounters conflict and some of the character’s inner struggles that are resolved at major prices in the end. Kesey uses the portrayal of fantasy and how people get caught up and lose sight of humanity altogether to take you through the misconduct of a hospital ward and how it affects everyone inside. Kesey also explores some of the characters loss of identity and how some may overcome it but many don't.

The context of the novel is explored through the background of the author in order to understand the purpose of the text. Ken Kelsey is born in 1935, in La Junta, Colorado.(Biography) During his years at Stanford, he worked as a night attendant on the psychiatric ward of a hospital, where he witnessed the treatment of the inmates and the effects of the sterile structure on their identity and sanity. (NY Times) His experience at the hospital as a aid and as a voluntary experiment subject led to the birth of his 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest. (NY Times) Through the novel, he communicates his dissent against the post-war society that castrates men by sypressing their sexulity and sacrifices their spirit. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, he constructs a mental ward that held microcosmic resemblance to the post-war American society. He critiques power in American society through descriptions of the Combine and highlights the virtues of male strength and sexuality by placing them in opposition to the ruthless characteristics of females. Nurse Ratched, an oppressive female figure of power, emasculates her patients to empower herself. She represents Kesey 's fear of a feminizing society. Randall McMurphy’s struggle against Nurse Ratched and the system of the “combine” represents a struggle between gender for power. His culminating sacrifice for the group by attacking Nurse Ratched is analogous to a rape act, which links manhood with virility. The inconclusive

The strike of fear that comes with the words ‘mental illness’ is quick to rip through America in the 1960s. Similar to the McCarthy’s Red Scare and the internment of Japanese, government send citizens to institutions for hollow reasons and force unnecessary treatments. Inexperience in treatment and corruption in systems causes more harm to the victims than the initial ailment. Within the hippie, or counterculture era to which Ken Kesey belonged, Kesey was inspired to exploit his philosophy about psychedelic drugs that he experienced through his career choices in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Ken Kesey forms the intricate relationships among the characters in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by the unique use of perspective and speech. Throughout the novel, Kesey depicts this connection between the public world and the seemingly closed off society inside the mental institution. This creates two separate spheres separated by a few walls and doors. Kesey goes on to form a unique perspective in the novel, told by a paranoid schizophrenic, with the narrator’s caricature-like description of characters in the novel. This makes the audience ponder if the narrator is always depicting images as they truly are. This evolves into the Speech-Act Theory, which illustrates reality versus false utterance. Through the