Book Report On One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

A few days later, Jamereo feels bad about what happened with Annabelle. Her words resonate inside his head. He keeps playing her voice over and over. He also feels horrible about Jamie; he says under his voice, “I should have killed that nigga”. He reflects about what Annabelle told him about going to Mexico. They talked about going to Cancun once. But if she goes anywhere else, he fears for her safety. He starts rocking back and forth.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey during a time in our society when pressures of our modern world seemed at their greatest. Many people were, at this time, deemed by society’s standards to be insane and institutionalized. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is set in a ward of a mental institution. The major conflict in the novel is that of power. Power is a recurring and overwhelming theme throughout the novel. Kesey shows the power of women who are associated with the patients, the power Nurse Ratched has, and also the power McMurphy fights to win. By default, he also shows how little power the patients have.

Silence is not a factor of significance. A man who never speaks is not an insignificant one. Chief Bromden watches quietly, he knows all the ins and outs of his prison. He is easily the sanest and most knowledgeable patient in the ward. That is until McMurphy comes along and stirs everything up. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader hears Bromden’s thoughts and opinions of how terrible the ward and the people within it. The film adaptation directed by Milos Forman, Forman makes the choice to focus on the protagonist of the story, Randle McMurphy. Chief Bromden is hardly present in the film, thus leaving the true characterization of many main characters underdeveloped. It is difficult for the viewer to truly get a sense of significance for key events in the film if the narrator of the original story is cut out.

One’s awareness of their identity adds to the way they portray themselves and how their physique could play a role in their identity.

Although Big Nurse turns McMurphy to a vegetable at the end of Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey’s portrayal of McMurphy as a God-like symbol in the lives of the men on the ward helps criticize the diagnosing of “crazy” people in the mid 1900s. Specifically, Big Nurse subjects McMurphy and Chief Bromden to shock therapy after a fight with the black men who were cleansing the men. As they enter the chamber, McMurphy stops Bromden: “Take ‘er easy. I’ll go first” (237). McMurphy then “Climbs on the table” and “spreads his arms out to fit the shadow” (237).

"This world belongs to the strong, my friend...The rabbit accept its role on the Earth and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes frightened and elusive and dig holes and hides when the wolf about. It knows its place. It most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf"(Excerpt from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey). In the book Speak the author uses a bunny rabbit to symbolize how vulnerable Melinda is throughout the book and a wolf to symbolize how Andy is a grim beast in Melinda's eyes. Melinda uses a bunnyrabbit to describe how she feels whenever Andy encounters her. Andy is described like a wolf all throughout the book by

1. Passage: “You are strapped to a table, shaped, ironically, like a cross, with a crown of electric sparks in place of thorns.” (Page 69)

Does the use of power to control others truly work in an environment where there is no respect for authority? Throughout the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, power and control has been a main focus primarily on two characters, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. Nurse Ratched tries to maintain power and control over the patients over the course of the story, and McMurphy made it his goal to undermine her authority and make her fold. Up until the very end, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy went head to head against each other, waiting to see who would give in first. McMurphy was the embodiment of pride and rebellion, while Nurse Ratched held up her own title of the boss and led the institution staying high and mighty until the very end.

“A success, they say, but I say he’s just another robot for the Combine and might be better off as a failure…”(17).

Many pieces of literature have comparable characteristics, including the use of literary elements to portray deeper meaning. “The Story of an Hour” and The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are great pieces of literature which keep their main focus around the use of symbolism, hidden in the plot. Whereas Mrs. Mallard, from “The Story of an Hour”, appears to be insane due to her husband, characters from The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest gains their insanity from Nurse Ratched, both authors incorporate symbolism in order to display themes and reveal character traits

Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950’s Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50’s, 60’s where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting’ & its significance towards Ken Kesey’s “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

McMurphy challenges Nurse Ratched’s policies and teaches the men inside the ward to express their masculinity and to break away from Nurse Ratched’s conformity to find and build their own identities. McMurphy's constant defiance leads to his eventual demise, he is “treated” with a lobotomy and Nurse Ratched’s power is restored. Bromden sees McMurphy's defeat and breaks through the institution's authority by killing McMurphy and escaping the ward. These actions ultimately free Bromden and showcase his growth into a strong and independent individual. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey utilizes Chief Bromden's insanity and additionally Nurse Ratched's absolute control over the ward to showcase the controlling and harsh nature of the policies in mental institutions to ultimately illustrate that institutional oppression and extreme conformity evoke mental decay along with defiance against the restrictions and rules of society in favor of individual

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a creation of the socio-cultural context of his time. Social and cultural values, attitudes and beliefs informed his invited reading of his text.

McMurphy is a gambling Irishman and convict, who grows tired of laboring at the Pendleton prison farm. To escape prison life, he feigns insanity and gets himself involuntarily committed to a mental hospital in Oregon. He tries to bring about a change at the hospital, for he does not like the fact that grown men act like "rabbits" and are scared of the Big Nurse. He tries as hard as he can to "get her goat", by not doing the duties he is given. He also ironically ends up serving as a

society, as well as sanity vs. insanity are greatly expressed through the characters actions and events in the novel, as seen from a patients eyes. Randle McMurphy, the main character of the novel portrays the theme of the individual against society through his dealings with Nurse Ratched and the hospital. “The main action of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest consists of McMurphy's struggles against Nurse Ratched. Her ward at the hospital is a society in itself. McMurphy challenges the rules from the beginning” (Malin 224). The effects of the battle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is expressed in the reactions of both characters, as well as the changes brought to the ward. “But she stops. She was flustered for a second there. Some of the acutes hide grins, and McMurphy takes a huge stretch, yawns, winks at Harding” (Keasey 45). The individual vs. society theme is clearly displayed here though McMurphy's struggle against the rules of the asylum, and against the rule of Nurse Ratched. This represents a a man, or individual, fighting for his own rights when faced with the views and obstacles forced upon him by a tyrannical society with strict guidelines. The second major theme in this novel, tied to the individual vs. society, is the theme of insanity vs. sanity. “Sanity vs. insanity is a topic that is established by society itself, set by public values and rules on what normalcy should be and what insane should be qualified