One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

Words: 439

Pages: 2

Open Document

Postmodernism is defined as a style or trend which emerged in the post—World War II era. It is an expression that explains reality and the idea process. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest presents the story from a postmodern perspective by writing the story’s setting as well as the characters to exists in a “small world” of their own. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel about a character named Chief Bromden. Bromden describes his experience at a psychiatric ward. He is said to be deaf and dumb; yet he plays this role in order to stay in the mental hospital. In the beginning of the story, Kesey describes postmodernism when he talks about the appearance of the fog that is used throughout the novel. As Chief Brodmen describes the fog throughout the story, he …show more content…
Bromden believes that the fog is used to distract the patients in order to hide some deeper secrets, or violence, in the hospital. When Bromden hears the machines moving, the fog appears. This is a reference to the view of technology; which is a characteristic of the postmodernism period. The shift in the time change illustrates a clear postmodernist vision. In the beginning of the story, Kesey begins to mention the fog by writing “When the fog clears to where I can see” (Kesey5). Then he writes “This Morning I plane don’t remember” (Kesey5). Both of the quotes can be seen as the cause and effect of what is actually happening as the patients are placed in the psychiatric ward, or in a post-modern society. At the end of the story, Chief Bromden ends up escaping the hospital

Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

manipulated and fixed to fit the perfect ideals of it. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, a schizophrenic narrator tells the story of McMurphy struggling to fight against Nurse Ratched and her authority. The author incorporates the idea of a Combine, a force led by Nurse Ratched controlling the patient's’ behaviors, as well as using descriptions of machinery to represent the Big Nurse and the hospital. Ken Kesey uses the Combine and machinery imagery to depict society and how…

Words 1267 - Pages 6

Summary Of Good Breast This Is The Cuckoo's Nest

To be a woman is to be a mother, a nurturer. What happens when womanhood is placed in one of two categories: the desexualized Good Mother like the Virgin Mary or the original sinner like Eve? Patricia Reis explores this idea in her essay, “Good Breast, Bad Breast, This is the Cuckoo’s Nest: Ken Kesey and the Myth of Matriarchy”. Diving deeper into Reis’ essay, she shows that “[a] woman is not a woman”. She is a symbol” and this reigns true in not only Kesey’s novel but also in day-to-day interactions…

Words 261 - Pages 2

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey was born in 1935, in La Junta, Colorado. He attended Stanford University and later served as an experimental subject and aide in a hospital, an experience that led to his 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ken Kesey was a significantly important influencer during the Beat Movement in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, his literary works focused on exploring the American culture and politics after a post World War era. One of his most popular works criticizing this movement was “One…

Words 294 - Pages 2

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Controversy

Avery Powell Mr. Irby English 3 15 May 2024 Keeping Kesey’s Cuckoo's Nest. Eugene O'Neill once said, “There is no present or future, only the past, happening over and over again – now". If Eugene is right and history is an endless cycle, then schools requiring students to read books with valuable messages and historical knowledge is unnecessary. On the other hand, say Eugene is incorrect, then what would teaching future generations important history through books do? This answer is undeniable…

Words 2474 - Pages 10

Essay about Prosecution of Nurse Ratched

demonstrated across the evidence presented, her need of control over colleagues and patients across the entire facility, disregarding her medical responsibilities and ultimately disregarding her Hippocratic Oath. This oath, taken by all physicians swearing by a number of healing gods in order to medically practise, states that practitioners must uphold specific ethical standards at all times. The accused prevailed her obsessive tendencies1 over the Hippocratic Oath, and as a government funded institute…

Words 882 - Pages 4

What Is The Authority In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey contrasts life in an asylum and society. The intention of Ken Kesey’s argument is to prove how the authority is in control and that there is no freedom. Throughout part two of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the asylums comparison to “The Combine” is mentioned and allows the reader to understand why Chief Bromden uses that reference. The ward is comparable to society because there are a set of many rules and limited freedom. Throughout One Flew Over…

Words 517 - Pages 3

Ken Kesey: Did he fly over the Cuckoo's Nest? Essay

Project #2 The novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was written by author Ken Kesey. Ken was a very intelligent and creative man who took a very unusual path in life. This path was one of the motivating factors for the vision of this highly successful novel. Ken was a controversial but highly functioning visionary and his unusual life and experiences are seen throughout the book. Ken Kesey was born on September 17, 1935 in La Junta Colorado to his parents Frederick Kesey and Geneva Smith, whom…

Words 2158 - Pages 9

One Flew over the Cukoo's Nest Research Paper

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a modern fable pitting a marvelous type of good against a marvelous type of evil. Ken Kesey’s timeless novel depicts how society deals with the mentally ill in various ways, while showing how a 1950’s insane asylum treats its patients because of its dependence on cultural attitudes and sense of social responsibility. Kesey’s own experience adds credibility to his charges that called public attention to the conditions of our nation’s…

Words 2846 - Pages 12

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Critical Lens Analysis

or hurtful it can be. In the two One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, and Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, they both show specific details that can be used to back up the critical lens quote. The themes and literary elements in the two novels are very similar, both novels can back up the critical lens quote by reinforcing that too much power can be a dangerous thing when not used correctly. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author, Kesey gives the reader an understanding…

Words 563 - Pages 3

"One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" Theme Essay

them from growing and developing. This quote can easily be related to a theme in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which is a story about a man named Randle McMurphy who fights an over controlling Nurse Ratched, a ward nurse who uses strict rules to control her patients in a mental hospital. Her rules are absurd, unjust, and they give her too much power. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey explores the theme that some rules should be bent and broken in order for people…

Words 1594 - Pages 7