One+Flew+Over+the+Cuckoo's+Nest

**  __ One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey __ **

  **About the Author**

** Ken Kesey (1935-2001) **  Ken Kesey was born on September 17, 1935 in La Junta, Colorado. In 1946, Mr. and Mrs. Kesey along with their two sons moved to Oregon, where Ken was raised. After graduating high school, he enrolled at the University of Oregon. In 1956 he eloped with his high school sweet heart, Faye Haxby. Kesey obtained his degree in Speech and Communications and upon graduation was offered a scholarship to the Creative Writing program at Stanford. Although he dropped out shortly after, his experiences in school had a great affect on his writing.While in school, he participated in government funded experiments involving chemicals including LSD with the psychology department in order to earn extra money. These chemicals drastically changed Kesey’s personality at home as well as at work. His inspiration for the novel __One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest__, developed from hallucinations he began having while working as an orderly in the psychiatric ward of the VA hospital. These hallucinations of an Indian man sweeping the floor became the foundation of the character of Chief Bromden. Kesey’s novel was published in 1962 and later transferred onto the stage and later onto the big screen in 1975.After moving to California, he and his friends were nicknamed Kesey and his Merry Pranksters. The group traveled the country on a psychedelically painted 1939 school bus and became known for their acid tests and heavy drug use, including LSD. Kesey is said to have had a great influence on changing the beatnik generation into the hippie movement. Later on in life Ken returned to Oregon where he finally settled down with his wife and children. Kesey died in 2001 after complications in surgery for liver cancer.

Other works by the author include __Sometimes a Great Notion__, __Demon Box__, __Kesey's Garage Sale,__ __Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear__, __Sailor Song__, and __Last Go Around__.

**Plot Summary**

Kesey’s novel __One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest__ takes place in a psychiatric hospital. The narrator of the story has been there for ten years and is a half-Indian who pretends to be deaf and dumb. Chief Bromden, the narrator suffers from hallucinations which shows the fear he feels at the hospital. His views are portrayed through his dilusions. He views society as a harsh conglomeration he calls the Combine and the hospital is the factory where all those that are broken or need fixing are sent. Bromden explains how the patients at the hospital are divided by the severity of their illnesses. The Acutes are the younger patients who still have a chance of being cured and the Chronics who have no hope and are just there because they have no other place to be. The Chronics are also divided into the Walkers, Wheelers, and the Vegetables. The ward is run by “the Big Nurse”, Nurse Ratched. Ratched takes pleasure in having control and order over the ward. She has the power to send the patients for electroshock treatments and labotomies at her own will. Her power over the ward is disrupted by the most recent admit, McMurphy. McMurphy’s arrival in the hospital changes and disrupts the regular order of things. His defiance to Ratched affects all the members of the ward, changing Bromden and the others forever.

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 * Major Characters**

Chief Bromden – Bromden is the narrator of the story. His father was the chief of the Columbia Indians which is why some of the others call him Chief Bromden. His hallucinations and delusions change his perspective of the novel. Bromden is considered one of the Chronics in the ward. Although he is six foot seven, he attempts to make himself invisible by pretending to be deaf and dumb. McMurphy’s admission to the hospital causes Bromden to gain a better understanding of himself as an individual.

<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; background-color: #800080;">Randle McMurphy – McMurphy is the newest admit at the psyche ward and the protagonist of the novel. His defiance to Nurse Ratched sets an example for the other patients and causes him to become a leader for them. McMurphy resists conformity therefore challenging the establishment.

Nurse Ratched – Ratched is the nurse that is the head of the hospital ward. She is a former army nurse and the antagonist of the story. She is very strict and controls the ward by demeaning and psychologically manipulating the patients.

<span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(51,51,51); line-height: 115%;">  <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">**Quote**

"I been silent so long now it's gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it's the truith even if it didn't happen."

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<span style="color: #ffffff; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; background-color: #800080;"> Citizen Fish**
 * Invisible People

Invisible people with invisible hands holding very obvious collection cans anonymous people with anonymous jobs hurry past for fear of being late for the boss both will say it's not the way I intended to be knowing that the other guy has all he could need the homeless have got all the time and all of it to share the workers have got all the cash and none of it to spare invisible people with invisible feet taxi cab potential knowing every street anonymous people with anonymous cars rolling up the winddows as they drive on past if these wree all your relatives then which one would you feed? would the power you get from money dissappear if it was free? isn't it therefore obvious that in this society there's poverty and hunger due to other people's greed invisible people from invisible homes lost the job their rent went up out on their own anonymous people with anonymous lives reliant on superiors to keep them alive cos when it comes right down to it the structure is the same control requires acceptance that you have to play the game the power of money trickles down decreasing as it goes and out there in the rain it would be used on food and clothes but social guilt the barrier to giving what is gained to those who have less of it, cuts the last link in the chain invisibility comes from being constantly in view ignorance is the passive stance of saying it can't be true reality shapes itself around perceptions of the self until we really need it we refuse to offer help the state that creats homelessness thrives on this attitude until we smash these limitations and take a wider view