One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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Level 1. Knowledge
List each of the main characters and describe them.
Chief Bromden – The narrator of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Extremely tall compared to the other people in the story, he is the son of the Columbian Indian chief, known as Papa, and a white woman, known as Mary Louise Bromden. During the course of the story, the helpers and patients of the ward give him the nickname “Chief,” or “Chief Broom”, because they knew of his Indian decadence, and the hospital set him to sweep the floors most of the time. Chief has stayed in the mental hospital where the story’s setting is set for 10 years, where he acts like he is deaf and dumb due to the rest of society thinking he was already before he started really acting like it. Throughout …show more content…

Comprehension
Discuss what the title has to do with the book. The story’s title, One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, relates to the protagonist, Mr. McMurphy, a narrator’s nursery rhyme that he remembered, and the hospital ward itself. In the beginning of part 4, Chief is electrically shocked in “The Shock Room,” where he goes into the deepest parts of his memory. Here, he remembers a nursery rhyme from his Grandmother: Tingle, ting-le, tang-le toes, she’s a good fisherman, catches hens, puts ‘em inna pens . . . wire blier, limber lock, three geese inna flock . . . one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest . . . O-U-T spells out . . . goose swoops down and plucks you …show more content…

Only an avid reader of the book could understand the book after finishing the book, and finding the nursery rhyme in part 4. Completely symbolical, the title, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” shows the struggles of the entire story into a single, symbolic meaning. The story’s title can also symbolize the story of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Jesus is resembled as the protagonist, McMurphy. He goes through a symbolic crucifixion when he is sent to the “Shock Shop,” and returns still normal. After returning, he shows his final schemes, and dies, leaving an important lesson to Chief. Like this, Jesus returns back from the dead and gives his followers a lesson that they will all remember. The Chief uses this lesson, and breaks out of the ward, like the goose flying over the cuckoo’s