ipl-logo

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Research Paper

2100 Words9 Pages

After receiving a lobotomy, a man returns to a mental ward as his friends watch, refusing to believe that he is the same man. The procedure took his once loud and energetic personality, and completely ripped it out of him. Author Ken Kesey captures the harsh and controlled reality of life in a psych ward to inform readers of what goes on behind hospital walls. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey reveals parts of his LSD use and his belief in fighting against conformity through the mistreatment of the mentally ill in the 1960s. Knowing events in Kesey’s life leading up to the writing of Cuckoo’s Nest can help readers understand what influenced the writing of the novel. Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado on September 17th, 1935 (Tanner …show more content…

Kesey's decision to incorporate both his experience of the conscious expanding drug and his knowledge of mistreatment towards the mentally ill to support his belief in conformity, makes the novel a lasting piece within counterculture and academics. Kesey wrote six more novels after Cuckoo’s Nest (“Ken”), none of which became as successful,“[h]is literary achievement [remaining] pegged to his first novel.” (“Ken”). He settled on a farm in Oregon after multiple drug arrests, where he stayed for the remainder of his life until his death from liver cancer in November of 2001 (“Ken”). Over two decades after his death, Kesey continues to have a strong presence within the counterculture. Works Cited: Faggen, Robert, and Ken Kesey. "Kesey Clarifies the Role Drugs Played in the Creation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Mental Illness in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, edited by Dedria Bryfonski, Greenhaven, 2010, pp. 113-117. 31-42. The syllable of the syllable. Ken (Elton) Kesey. Contemporary Popular Writers, edited by Dave Mote, St. James, 1997. Gale Literature Resource

Show More
Related

Figurative Language In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

262 Words | 2 Pages

Ken Kesey’s figurative language in his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, illustrates that a broken individual can be made whole again. Throughout his life, Bromden has always been assumed to be deaf and dumb. When he speaks to people, their “machinery disposes of the words like they were not even spoken” (181). Here, Kesey’s metaphor represents the effect that Bromden’s words have on a mind plagued with societal expectations. Bromden is a large, Native American man that does not conform to the mold set by the Combine.

Read More

One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Essay

1929 Words | 8 Pages

The Origins of Madness in One Who Flew Off The Cuckoo's Nest The book, One who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, is an eccentric story on the cruel treatment of patients within psychiatric wards in the 1960s. It is told from the narration of an indigenous man, named Chief Bromden, a character who is deeply conflicted and wounded inside, as he narrates the story of another patient McMurphy. McMurphy is not like Chief, nor any of the other patients for that matter, for he is a man who refuses to follow the wards rules and does whatever it takes in the book to strip the head nurse, Miss Ratched, of her power, in a fight for the patients, sovereignty within the ward. His rebellious attitude unfolds and the consequences begin unveiling

Read More

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

1682 Words | 7 Pages

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

Read More

Gender Inequality In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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

Environmental Influences In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

219 Words | 1 Pages

Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was written in 1962 a time filled with civil unrest. Kesey use of the “black boy” versus colored in This Side of Paradise reflected the time period. Historically, the word boy meant a male child, but during the 1962 “boy” was used in a derogatory way to belittle Black men. Environmental influences are one of the factors that influenced in the novel. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental hospital.

Read More

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

1124 Words | 5 Pages

The Beat Generation of the 1950’s and early 1960’s encouraged a new lifestyle for young Americans striving for individualism and freedom, which included rock and roll music, long hair, relaxed style attire, vegetarianism, and experimenting with drugs (“Beat Movement”). Many young Americans of this era wanted to experiment with new social and cultural concepts, rebelling against “normal” American life. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, portrays the gruesomeness of conformity through the lives of patients in one of the asylum’s wards. The novel shows how the patients are confined to strict rules and limited freedom because of Nurse Ratched’s power.

Read More

Literary Analysis of 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest'

1389 Words | 6 Pages

In the novel, Kesey employs many characters, each with unique features. For example, Dale Harding, one of the protagonists in the story, was described as, “... a flat, nervous man ...” (Kesey 20) and in one of the group discussion lead by Nurse Ratched, he was reported of saying

Read More

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Dehumanization Analysis

1047 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More

Similarities Between Grapes Of Wrath And Civil Disobedience

855 Words | 4 Pages

In The Grapes of Wrath and Civil Disobedience, authors John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau discuss their beliefs about the government. Having being written more than one hundred years apart, these authors overlap and differ on some of their ideas about the government. Both Steinbeck and Thoreau believe that there should be a universal solution to governmental issues. However, they differ on what exactly should be universal and whether there should be a governmental force at all. It can be seen in both The Grapes of Wrath and Civil Disobedience that authors John Steinbeck and Henry David Thoreau believe that universal ideas are the solution to a well-run and just government.

Read More

Conformity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Essay

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

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Insanity Essay

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

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

1468 Words | 6 Pages

Ken Kesey author of the fictional novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest published in 1962 has taken the opportunity to write about the hippy culture and how society shames difference. Readers are taken to a mental institution in Oregon in the 1950’s and experience what it is like for the outcast people. The men in the ward are run by Nurse Ratched and have lost control of themselves. Majority of these men are in the mental hospital because they have checked themselves in, but not McMurphy he is a convict there for psych evaluation. Do to Nurse Ratched the men loses control over themselves and they haven’t realized till McMurphy walked through the door.

Read More

Misogyny In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo

413 Words | 2 Pages

The criticism, “Madness and Misogyny in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” written by Daniel J. Vitkus, explains the cultural criticism experienced in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. During the publication of Kesey’s novel, the world was experiencing a rapid social evolution where women were starting to strip away their feminist qualities in order to gain power and authority while society was re-defining “reason against unreason”, and intermingling the opposite meanings of criminal and psychopath (Vitkus, 64).   In the sixties, society had a limited and/or vague understanding about individuality and/or being different; therefore, some were “defined as crazy because they are different” (Vitkus, 69) and as a result, were locked away in a mental institution because that

Read More

Ken Kesey's View Of Mental Illness

1841 Words | 8 Pages

As a result of the intense use of drugs and his time spent in Veterans Hospital, Kesey had the opportunity to see the world with “lucidity” and share compassion with the mentally insane who he believed viewed the same visions he experienced on drugs. Which is why he can relate with the patients who also viewed society as unjust and uniformed. As a result he wrote One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s nest who pitied the inadequate because he was also on the same

Read More

Mental Illness In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

673 Words | 3 Pages

Ken Kesey uses his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to describe the lives of patients in a mental institution, and their struggle to overcome the oppressive authority under which they are living. Told from the point of view of a supposedly mute schizophrenic, the novel also shines a light on the many disorders present in the patients, as well as how their illnesses affect their lives during a time when little known about these disorders, and when patients living with these illnesses were seen as an extreme threat. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the novel, has many mental illnesses, but he learns to accept himself and embrace his differences. Through the heroism introduced through Randle McMurphy, Chief becomes confident in himself, and is ultimately able to escape from the toxic environment Nurse Ratched has created on the ward. Chief has many disorders including schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, in addition to these illnesses, he pretends to be deaf and dumb.

Read More

More about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Research Paper

Open Document