Book Report On One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Samantha Henderson
Comp. 104: October Book Report
Teresa Long
31 October 2016
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest withholds many lessons throughout the story as well as in the text itself. In the opening lines of the novel it is learned that the perspective is that of an Indian man that pretends to be deaf and dumb to fool those at the mental institution. He believed that everything at the institution is run by the “combine” including the head nurse of the ward, Miss Ratched. This man then goes on to say that he has “been silent so long now it is going to roar out of him like floodwaters” for he is about to tell the story of how a man by the name of Randle Patrick McMurphy came into the institution and taught all

In the meetings she hosts with the acute patients, she tries to poke at the men's flaws and in a way uses the other men of the group to tear one another down. She begins this first meeting with Mr. Harding as victim and brings up his issues he has claimed to have with his young wife. McMurphy raises his hand and says that he thought when Miss Ratched asked the men to touch on the subject that she meant for them to touch Mr. Harding’s wife’s bosoms. Taken aback by how immature McMurphy appears to be and to show her authority, Nurse Ratched pulls out Randall’s file and reads off why he is there and all the things he has done, including an emphasis on his statutory rape charge. Randall tries to play it off, claiming he “practically had to sew his pants shut” since the girl was so willing, in his attempt to intimidate the nurse into believing she cannot phase him. The Nurse hands his file to the doctor who adds that the psychiatrist at the work farm believes Randall is feigning psychosis to which McMurphy replys again with a snooty comment that challenges the authority of the staff of the institution once

People do not need one person to tell them how to live their life or what to do constantly. Society was meant to be lived as each occupant deems to be the perfect way for them, not the way one person believe everyone should live. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest could also teach students that just because people appear to be different or do not live their life the way you would does not mean that they are wrong or weird. It means that they are living life as god intended them to, they way they see to fit their personality. Different people can work together for the same goals, for people who appear to be different from others, really are not that different at all. It is all who one chooses to perceive it, and that is what Ken Kesey was trying to show the reader through the character of Randall Patrick