ipl-logo

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

2149 Words9 Pages

The Cuckoo's Classic Within the United States of America, twenty six percent of the population eighteen and older suffer from a mental disorder. While today we do not use people like Nurse Ratched to treat mental health patients, people still suffer from mental disorders. The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest uses the realities of the mental institutions of its day to tell a story of the morals of the insane and the sane. To do this, the author, Ken Kesey, used several different literary devices, conflicts and themes throughout the book. The book is a classic because Kessy created a memorable protagonist and a compelling moral battle that he has to fight and ultimately lose in order to win. The first way that the author Ken Kesey is …show more content…

The main theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is sanity versus insanity. The theme is apparent to the reader from the first scene, where McMurphy enters the room and says, “Which one of you claims to be the craziest?... Who's the bull goose loony here?”. He has lots of energy and is avoiding the black boys while the rest of the patients are just watching all the commotion quietly. After getting settled in the hospital McMurphy talks to the patients and tells them that they are men and should be able to stand up to the Nurse. They are afraid of her because they believe that they are weak and are afraid of the “combine” or as the reader can infer, the hospital system in place. McMurphy challenges this in the meetings where he argues with the nurse about different topics. The topics range from simple things like starting a basketball team, to changing the time that they watch tv. The nurse almost always rebukes these things because she believes these are not as she puts it, “in the best interest of the other patients” and then will belittle the other patients if they side with McMurphy. As the two of them argue and fight back and forth, the other patients slowly begin to see that they are sane and are better than what Nurse Ratched wants them to believe. They rally behind McMurphy and side with him in meetings on different things that he puts …show more content…

While the main conflict and antithesis of the story is the battle between McMurphy and Ratched, the secondary conflicts within the story is the redemption of Chief Bromden and the physical struggle with the control panel. At the beginning of the story, Bromden is an Indian janitor who has been at the ward for a long time. Everybody believes that he is blind and even though he is quite a large person, he does not fight against the guards. He can speak English, but because he is afraid he doesn’t say anything, people think that he is deaf and mute. Throughout the book he is the narrator and tells the story from a strange perspective because he believes that he sees things that are not there. One of the most frequent things that he thinks that he sees is fog surrounding the patients on the ward. He also believes that the hospital is a giant machine designed to kill the patients that go there and at the center of it is the nurses station which is controlled by Nurse Ratched. At one point in the middle of the beginning of the second part of the book, he has a dream about the machine and all of its torture devices that it uses on the patients. Eventually McMurphy really starts to notice him after he notices that Bromden saw him lift an old control panel that was stuck in the cement floor, as described in the book, “I could lift it all right. Well, hell, right over there you are:

Show More
Related
379 Words | 2 Pages

In addition to setting, McMurphy did what wanted, when he wanted, always being loud and disruptive (“One Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest” 3). He admits himself into the ward only to get out of working on the work farm. Because McMurphy is not actually insane, he’s not fond of the rules of that are set in place on a daily basis; He doesn’t follow the “god damned policy” (Kesey 89). By acting the way he does, he gets under the skin of the Big Nurse, who is in charge of keeping a set routine Acutes and Chronics, such as “Six-forty-five the shavers buzz and the Acutes line up in alphabetical order at the mirrors, A, B, C, D….” (Kesey 26).

Read More
1264 Words | 6 Pages

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Meets The Hero’s Journey One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey is a fictional novel that explores the interrelations between a nurse and her patents in an insane asylum. Furthermore, Ken Kesey utilizes two characters R.P Mcmurphy and Chief Bromden who help to depict the inner and outer phycology of men who have been confined. In addition, Kesey makes use of themes such as power determined by sex and rebellion as a struggle between life or death to portray the ultimate castration of men through using a female character who detests her own female breast and enjoys emasculating the men of the ward. The plot of the book mainly starts off with a focus on Chief Bromden, but changes with the introduction of R.P Mcmurphy arriving on the ward. Kesey initially characterizes Mcmurphy has a convict who has rape under a list of crimes he has committed, however later on in the book Mcmurphy is seen as a hero like figure.

Read More
759 Words | 4 Pages

How strong their beliefs are can be observed by how large their sacrifices are for their values. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is a fictional novel about a man called Randle McMurphy who transfers from a prison work farm to an asylum after being thought of having psychopathic tendencies, and a tall Native American nicknamed, “Chief Bromden,” who becomes McMurphy’s friend in the ward. In the end of the novel, Chief Bromden kills Randel McMurphy after he is given a lobotomy. Chief Bromden’s sacrifice of Randel McMurphy’s life highlights his values in freedom and personal strength, as well as providing an image of an oppressive society that

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
808 Words | 4 Pages

would fundamentally change the way the patients of the ward would act, and be treated by the hospital staff. McMurphy has the spotlight for the majority of the novel, and embodies the very meaning of individuality. Throughout the book, he displays numerous times the positive effects standing up for oneself can have, as well as the negative ones. The narrative builds an interesting picture around the theme with intruiging character building, evolution, and the completion of many story arcs.

Read More
1389 Words | 6 Pages

Moral Lense Literary Analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The 1950s, the context of which One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey, was written, was called the Era of Conformity. During this time, the American social atmosphere was quiet conformed, in that everyone was expected to follow the same, fixed format of behavior in society, and the ones who stand out of being not the same would likely be “beaten down” by the social norms. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey argues that it is immoral for society to simply push its beliefs onto the people who are deemed different, as it is unfair and could lead to destructive results. First of all, it is unjust for people who are deemed unalike from others in society to be forced into the preset way of conduct because human tend to have dissimilar nature.

Read More
822 Words | 4 Pages

Critical Analysis Power only holds relevance when there are people who submit to it. Ken Kesey wrote the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which showcases the idea that power is never absolute. Narrated by Bromden, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was set in a mental hospital in the 1950s. Bromden tells the story in the first person.

Read More
1719 Words | 7 Pages

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo ’s Nest: A Novel. Viking Press & Signet Books, 1971. Zauderer, Steven.

Read More
1578 Words | 7 Pages

He is sent away for three weeks as a result, but when he returns, he is wheeled in on a gurney and is left over by the Vegetables, as he had been lobotomized. In lieu of his seeming defeat, his memory stayed with the patients while he was absent and provoked them to change things for the better at the ward. Nurse Ratched does not have the same power over the hospital that she used to given that she temporarily loses her voice, as “she tried to get her ward back into shape, but it was difficult with McMurphy’s presence still tromping up and down the halls...” (321). The patients learned to grow out of their fear and used the spirit of McMurphy as reassurance of their actions; Nurse Ratched’s little written commands could not effectively control the patients anymore.

Read More
734 Words | 3 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest written, by Ken Kesey, is a novel that takes place in a psychiatric hospital during the 1950s and is told through the perspective of Chief Bromden, a schizophrenic patient within the ward. Patients in this ward are divided into two categories. There are Chronics. These are patients that have no hope of being treated or cured. Secondly, there are acute patients who are still treatable and capable of some independent functioning.

Read More
1380 Words | 6 Pages

Forcing people to follow a societal norm is detrimental to the health of the mind and body. The struggle between conformers and non conformers creates a schism in society. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey asserts the overarching importance of individuality through the use of a conflict between the patients and the nurse as a microcosm of society. In the novel, the delusions of the narrator create a surreal world that reveals a strong message on the nature of conformity.

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb.

Read More
902 Words | 4 Pages

Petar Popovic AP Lang Mikulak 04/27/2024 Readers Journals One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is a strong criticism of mid-century American mental health institutions. Kesey views these institutions as crooked and cruel. Throughout the novel, Kesey emphasizes the risks of institutionalization, showing how it may strip patients of their identity and transform them into objects to be controlled and exploited by those in authority.

Read More
1288 Words | 6 Pages

His rebellious and free mind makes the patients open their eyes and see how the have been suppressed. His appearance is a breath of fresh air and a look into the outside world for the patients. This clearly weakens Nurse Ratched’s powers, and she sees him as a large threat. One way or another, McMurphy tends to instigate changes of scenery. He manages to move everyone away from her music and watchful eye into the old tube room.

Read More
1010 Words | 5 Pages

The movie was mostly focused on the feud between the warden/nurse Ms. Ratched and McMurphy. McMurphy tried to go against the hard-set plan set by the institution. More he tried to establish dominance and leadership within the group. This threatened the nurse’s ways of subduing patients, and they felt of less importance in their own institution. This led to a bitter rivalry and because of it the nurse tried to subdue, with same techniques as with other patients, McMurphy even after realizing that he was not a mentally unstable person.

Read More

More about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document