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Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

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Ken Kesey, author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, voluntarily put himself through a series of drug trials during the psychedelic sixties in which he found the inspiration for the novel (Hunter). He presents the need for a figure giving the people in the ward hope and a savior from patient suffering through symbolism. Irony throughout the novel shows how unclear and faded the line differentiating those who are sane and those who are insane is. Symbolism and irony throughout Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest connects Christian beliefs to patients in a psych ward. Ken Kesey found inspiration to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through his life experiences. He received a first-hand experience of the life of a …show more content…

When Ellis found himself metaphorically nailed to a wall, it appeared as though he was on a cross “Now he’s nailed like that on the wall… He’s nailed like that on the wall, like a stuffed trophy” (Kesey 15). In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there are two different groups of patients, the Acutes and the Chronics. The Acutes and Chronics usually do not usually associate with one another (Kesey 17). The relationship between the two groups of patients is similar to the relationship between the Jews and Gentiles in the Bible. In the Bible, Jews and Gentiles loathe each other when they should be helping each other, just as the patients in the ward should unite to help break through their torture. Patients being called birds is comparable to Jesus calling the people he helped “sinners.” McMurphy refers to the patients as “birds” which gives meaning to the title of the novel. Yet another example of Christian symbolism in the novel is Billy Bibbit’s suicide. His betrayal to McMurphy and suicide resembles that of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus and then suicide (Wallis). The Biblical references throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest draws the book

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In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the prolific Christian imagery serves not only to align the protagonist, Randle McMurphy, with Jesus Christ, but to provide an overarching allegory: only God can rescue mankind from the inexorable, bleak future it will spawn. The novel suggests that the bleak, oppressive future is caused by the presence of societal constraints, since government is inherently flawed as are the humans that created and maintain it. The depraved future is fully realized through the careful, populist affectations of the Combine which bely its emasculating ways. Functioning as a modern-day version of Christ, McMurphy, persists in his contrarian, self-immolating efforts to deliver his peers--his disciples--from the evils

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Ken Kesey’s comic novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, takes place in an all-male psychiatric ward. The head of the ward, Big Nurse Ratched, is female. Kesey explores the power-struggle that takes place when the characters challenge gender dynamics in this environment. One newly-arrived patient, McMurphy, leads the men against the Big Nurse. The story is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a patient who learns from McMurphy and fights for his freedom.

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

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The incorporation of religious themes into Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest depicts McMurphy as a Christ figure, serving to protect the patients from Nurse Ratched. Just as Jesus stands up for all people against the devil, McMurphy altruistically defends the patients of the ward against Nurse Ratched. Kesey includes the theme of selflessness to illustrate that McMurphy acts as a “martyr or saint”, defending the patients regardless of consequences that he may endure (222). McMurphy “risk[s] doubling his stay in the nuthouse” to defend the patients against Nurse Ratched. McMurphy does not care about how much time he must spend in the ward, but instead about helping the patients.

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One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey reveals the insensitive treatment and dehumanization of the mentally ill. The origin of the book is a story of an individual in a mental hospital. Ken Kesey’s character observes the daily life in a psych ward and reveals

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