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Examples Of Allegory In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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In many societies, including The United States, one can infer that the government has an overwhelming depth of power. Although sometimes for good, it is obvious that the government abuses this power in various kinds of situations. Author Ken Kesey sees this and made this a central theme throughout his novel, deliberately including many details that allow the reader to come to the same conclusion. Through Kesey’s use of characterization, symbolism, and allegory in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, he warns society to curtail the government’s power. To begin with, McMurphy’s personality and actions throughout the novel prove Kesey’s underlying warning of the government by presenting him as a tragic hero in society. Before the reader …show more content…

In the novel, Chief Bromden’s character is pretends to be deaf and ignorant. Because the chief pretends to not be able to hear and be oblivious to his surroundings, he sees everything and is fully aware of how merciless all the patients are treated (Sassoon). With Bromden telling the story, one can have a first hand experience of what it’s like to be belittled by one who holds more power. Kesey goes on to describe how Bromden became the way he is in the first place when Bromden narrates the part of his childhood where three government officials takes away his tribe’s land. “Not a one of the three acts like they heard a thing I said; in fact they’re all looking off from me like they’d as soon I wasn’t there at all. And everything stops and hangs this way a minute,” (Kesey 181). None of the officials pay a single bit of attention to Bromden’s opinion. This explains where Bromden begins to feel as though he’s invisible and Kesey most likely included this part to emphasize that people who think that they are irrelevant and don’t have a say end up like Bromden and let people like Nurse Ratched rule over them. Those who are similar to Bromden are the ones who allow the government to take a tremendous amount of advantage over them because of its power. Bromden’s characterization further demonstrates Kesey’s theme of the government’s control. Bromden’s perceived mental illness symbolically represents those who are too

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He keeps himself away from the Acutes and Chronics by pretending to be deaf and dumb (“One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest” 6). The ironic thing about the story is that he [Bromden] is the narrator, telling the reader about everything hears. Bromden is a main character who does what he’s told when he’s told; “Stick a mop in my hand and motion to the spot they aim for me to clean today, and I go” (Kesey 3). If he’s caught slackin’, they’ll whack him in the back of the knees with a handle from whatever they’ve got in hand to get him moving. As the reader gets farther in the novel, they’ll notice how Bromden starts to do what McMurphy says

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After winning, , he offered Bromden a share of the money won, but Bromden refused. McMurphy betrayed him, because Bromden has always been on McMurphy’s side and been loyal, this time he couldn’t accept the fact that McMurphy is selfish. Although the patients realized (with Nurse Ratched’s guidance) that McMurphy is all about money, his actions in the future contradict their opinions on

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The question of sanity becomes apparent when McMurphy, a confident gambler, who might have faked psychosis in order to get out of the work farm, is assigned to the mental hospital. He quickly stirs up tension in the ward for Nurse Ratched by encouraging the men to have fun and rebel against her rules. Brodmen appears to be sane for the most part, despite his hallucinations of a fog, which seems to be the result of something both the ward and the world has done to him. He is able to think logically and though others believe him to be deaf and dumb, he uses this to his advantage. Chief states, “They don't bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when I'm nearby because they think I'm deaf and dumb.

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