ipl-logo

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Symbolism Essay

610 Words3 Pages

Ken Kesey’s Life and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One of the most important novel of 1960’s was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The author Ken Kesey uses a lot of symbolism in this book. He illustrates different themes of reality. Kesey talks about many struggle people face in life. He includes a lot of things that he faced in his life. Which helped the reader to visualize his writing.

Ken Kesey was born and grew up in Springfield, Oregon. He was born and raised very traditionally by his mother and father. His parents were really religious. So the rules and regulations were really tight in the house. That influenced his writing about women in the book. He talks about how “Nurse Ratched is performing a mother figure in the mental institution” (Kesey 33). Which is an example of what he faced at home. …show more content…

At that time he did not have any problem testing those out twenty dollars a day. He was told that “ those drugs were really dangerous and not to share with anyone. If he wants to test any of the drugs he has to test it by taking it himself. If he does it on someone else it might do a lot of damage to him”(Kesey 1). It relates to Chief in a way because Chief acts dumb and deaf which is kind of like even though he has problems but he chooses not to share it with others. As he was taught to keep the drugs to himself he applied to Chief’s character.

As Ken Kesey was working on experimenting drugs, sometime later he got into a hospital. He was in the ward with a doctor that had the access to the drugs. So it was really for him to access to the drugs. Then in the hospital he would see all these mental people doing weird things. He would often see it and feel bad. “ Often he would take drugs and see the patients and he would feel really bad for them” (Dansby 1). From that prospect he wrote about how terrible things were going on inside the mental

Show More
Related
954 Words | 4 Pages

Kesey’s perspective on society is illuminated through Nurse Ratched’s tyrannical ward which has been influenced by the time, place and the culture of 1960s American Society. ADOLF HITLER / MCCARTHYISM Ken Kesey’s, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest presents a confronting satire, in which Nurse Ratched’s oppressive and tyrannical government in the ward prevents freedom and self-expression. Nurse Ratched’s manipulation of patients and tyrannical rule over the ward is comparable to Adolf Hitler’s rule over Nazi Germany. Similar to Adolf Hitler, an egomaniac, Nurse Ratched, portrays institutional authorities, mercilessly punishing patients and manipulating them into conforming with her ideas of a perfect society.

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
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
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
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
582 Words | 3 Pages

Ken Kesey was born on September 17, 1935 in La Junta, Colorado. He attended the University of Oregon and graduated with a degree in speech and communication in 1957. He enrolled in the creative writing program at Stanford University in 1958, where he developed lifelong friendships with a number of authors. It was during this time he participated in army experiments involving LSD and guinea pigs. These experiences inspired him to write his first novel.

Read More
1976 Words | 8 Pages

As Dr Pittman said in an article by the Telegraph this modern classic "It gave voice, gave life, to a basic distrust of the way in which psychiatry was being used for society’s purposes, rather than the purposes of the people who had mental illness,". Thus Kesey’s novel had an important impact on the perception of

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
1791 Words | 8 Pages

The Retainment of The Cuckoo’s Nest Cencor ship has been a topic of discussion for an awfully long time, a part of this is what should be taught to our children. More recently, that discussion has brought the banning of certain books. In the 2022-23 school year 1,477 books have been banned in the United States. One of these books that is on the chopping block is Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Although some parents and scholars are overreacting to objectional material in schoolbooks and trying to get them banned, Cuckoo's Nest contains material such as symbolism, theme, and plot that is beneficial to teaching.

Read More
1071 Words | 5 Pages

One Flew Over Society’s Utopia In 1962, Ken Kesey shook Americans across the nation with his book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest illustrates controversial topics in society as triumphant and was therefore under scrutiny since its publication. The novel expresses material, such as nonconformity, rebellion, freedom of the mind, and the hardships of having a mental illness. It also challenges many levels of reality and social norms, such as glorifying corrupt juveniles, criminal activity, and depicting images of obscenity, all which landed the novel a spot on the banned books list.

Read More
993 Words | 4 Pages

There is an obvious idea presented by Kesey that the Nurse is dominant over Billy, who has become very vulnerable. Nurse Ratched is shown as a character of strength by the way the writer has created her character. Nurse Ratched is also seen as a strong figure by the way the other characters talk about her, for example when Chief says “To beat her you don 't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as soon as you lose once, she 's won for good.” The writer has used this line to show us how both Chief and the other patient give her the strong and authoritative

Read More
1288 Words | 6 Pages

He also takes all of the patients out on a fishing trip, and one night he turns her whole ward into a party room. These changes of setting help the patients of the ward escape some of Nurse Ratched’s domination. In the end, thanks to McMurphy, Chief is able to instigate a change of scenery for himself, and he escapes the ward

Read More
427 Words | 2 Pages

He is a normal being of society and is not insane. Just as Chief finished his dose of Electroshock Therapy ,or EST, he says “And when the fog was finally swept from my head it seemed like I’d just come after a long, deep dive, breaking the surface after being under water a hundred years”(289). Here Kesey conveys that even though living under the comfort of the fog does seem applicable to many, it is in fact a rather dreadful living situation. Chief is now “cured” and can at last see the reality of life. Being under water represents how Chief was under the influence of authority over his own ideas.

Read More
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
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 Symbolism Essay

Related Topics

Open Document