One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Tucker Diveley)

Tucker Diveley
Mrs. Arnold
English 10
25 February 2015

Independent Reading

       One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is a Literary Fiction novel with Insanity and Society trying to destroy natures natural impulses. This book was a great read and I personally enjoyed the story's way of putting the protagonist as someone who is not some mighty hero or big shot, but rather a simple patient in a metal institute. I always felt compelled to read more and it made me think about how mental patients are being treated in this day and age. The book  was about this man named Chief Bromden, a patient in the institute for 10 years, he is keeping himself low key by pretending he is dumb and deaf. All the patients in the hospital are male and the tyrannical head of the asylum is Nurse Ratched. She is a former army nurse and keeps the patients in check by electroshock therapy and sometimes lobotomy. A new man arrives at the institute, Randle McMurphy, he is not like any of the other patients and like to gamble and has a zest for women. After a while in the Institute he learns that Nurse Ratched is a crazy women and is told there is no defying her. So he makes a bet that he can make her snap within a week. After, McMurphy is renowned as the leader of the patients and rally's them against Nurse Ratched and the fight begins. I loved McMurphy in this book because he has this air of confidence to him and is a truly good friend toward the other patients. On the other hand, Nurse Ratched, was my least favorite character because she did such inhumane things to the patients and had them fight each other so they would be more submissive. The writing style, I think, is very thoughtful because of Ken Kesey's idea to make a man who cannot speak and just observes thoughtfully is a interesting decision. As for the dialogue he lets the characters go wild, hoot and holler. McMurphy's speech tells us a good amount about his character, his intelligence, approach to life, and his communication with the patients. The book takes place in the late 1950s when stricter rules had not been placed in mental asylums. Here is a quote from the book in which McMurphy represents the 1950s and the current culture he is in, "Hell’s bells, listen at you,” McMurphy says. “All I hear is gripe, gripe, gripe. About the nurse or the staff or the hospital. Scanlon wants to bomb the whole outfit. Sefelt blames the drugs. Frederickson blames his family trouble. Well, you’re all just passing the buck.”(Kesey 153). The book is fantastic and I highly recommend reading it if you like physiological books and rebellion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo%27s_Nest_%28novel%29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WSyJgydTsA