Study Questions &
Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. How does Kesey
make the reader question the accepted definitions of “sane,” “insane,”
“sick,” and “healthy”?
2. Why is the
fishing trip therapeutic for the patients?
3. How does McMurphy
become a Christ figure?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. How is Nurse Ratched’s ward
like a totalitarian society?
2. One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest has been criticized for its treatment of
race and gender. Why do you think this is the case?
3. McMurphy, Colonel Matterson,
and Bromden are war veterans. Nurse Ratched is a former army nurse
who tries to run her ward as if it were an army hospital. How might
the advent of modern warfare serve as a metaphor for the sickness that
Kesey perceives in modern society?
4. Why is Bromden the narrator
of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest instead of McMurphy?
Who is the real protagonist of the novel? How does the use of Bromden
as the narrator tie into the biblical allusions in the novel?
