full title · One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
author · Ken Kesey
type of work
· Novel
genre
· Allegorical novel; counterculture novel; protest novel
language
· English
time and place written
· The late 1950s; at Stanford
University in California while Kesey was enrolled in the creative
writing program, working as an orderly in a psychiatric ward, and
participating in experimental LSD trials
date of first publication
· 1962
publisher
· Viking Press
narrator
· Chief Bromden, also known as Chief Broom, who tells
the story after he has escaped from the hospital
point of view
· Chief Bromden narrates in the first person. He tells
the story as it appears to him, though his objectivity is somewhat
compromised by the fact that he suffers from paranoia and hallucinations.
His unusual state of mind provides metaphorical insight into the insidious
reality of the hospital as well as society in general. Because he
pretends to be deaf and dumb, he is privy to secret staff information
that is kept from other patients, which makes him a more reliable
narrator than any other patient would be.
tone
· The novel’s tone is critical and allegorical; the
hospital is presented as a metaphor for the oppressive society of
the late 1950s. The novel praises the expression
of sexuality as the ultimate goal and denounces repression as based
on fear and hate. Bromden’s psychedelic and slightly paranoid worldview may
be commensurate with Kesey’s, and McMurphy’s use of mischief and
humor to undermine authority also seems to echo the author’s attitudes.
tense
· Present
setting (time)
· 1950s
setting (place)
· A mental hospital in Oregon
protagonist
· Randle P. McMurphy
major conflict
· The patients in the mental ward are cowed and repressed
by the emasculating Nurse Ratched, who represents the oppressive force
of modern society. McMurphy tries to lead them to rebel against
her authority by asserting their individuality and sexuality, while
Nurse Ratched attempts to discredit McMurphy and shame the patients
back into docility.
rising action
· The World Series rebellion; McMurphy’s encounter with
the lifeguard; McMurphy discovering what being committed means; Cheswick’s
death
climax
· McMurphy reasserts himself against Nurse Ratched at
the end of Part II by smashing the glass
window in the Nurses’ Station, signaling that his rebellion is no
longer lighthearted or selfish but committed and violent. McMurphy
takes on the responsibility for rehabilitating the other patients.
falling action
· McMurphy’s decision to return Bromden to his former
strength; the fishing trip and visit to McMurphy’s childhood house,
where Bromden sees his panic and fatigue; McMurphy and Bromden’s fight
with the aides; the electroshock therapy; the ward party and Billy’s
suicide; McMurphy’s violent attack on Nurse Ratched; the lobotomy
themes
· Women as castrators; society’s destruction of natural
impulses; the importance of expressing sexuality; false diagnoses of insanity
motifs
· Invisibility; the power of laughter; real versus imagined
size
symbols
· The fog machine; McMurphy’s boxer shorts; the electroshock therapy
table
foreshadowing
· The story of Maxwell Taber; the electroshock therapy
table shaped like a cross; the deaths of Rawler, Cheswick, and Billy; Bromden’s
dreams and hallucinations
