Cuckoos nest

In what guidances does the author of a fresh you master(prenominal)tain canvass make the ratifier aw ar of an important physical composition or themes?         One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, by Ken Kesey, is a new which explores many themes relating to human society, spirit and structure. It written in a unique style, that, in combination with strong symbolism and characterisation, success extensivey considers these themes to the lecturer. The book is besides backed up by a strong realism which Kesey managed to acquire from years serving on a mental protect and from his own explorations into mind-altering drugs. only probably the most important way in which Kesey communicates his themes with the reader is through the use of third person narration.

        Kesey chooses angiotensin converting enzyme of the patients, antique Bromden, as the narrator of the novel. The instauration which Bromden describes is a hazy, transparent realm, where the b parliamentary laws amidst insanity and sanity are unclear. Theres large spells -three days, years- when you cant gather a thing, know where you are only by the speaker sounding over charge bid a bell clanging in the fog (94) Bromdens view is omniscient. Although he poses to the cellblock staff as a deaf-mute, he actually hears and comprehends all that happens within the hospital. The Chief was capable play the part of a passive observer, stationing himself in important meetings and able to see and hear things which are concealed from opposite inmates. This insight into what is calamity around the ward is vital to the way in which Keseys themes are brought to the readers awareness. We are able to get wind not only Bromdens delusions but also his perceptions into the way the ward and society work.

        Although Bromden does not always see everything as it literally happens. He hallucinates often, seeing things in terms of machinery, Shes carrying a woven wicker bag ... I can see inside it; theres no compact or lipstick or woman stuff, shes got that bag full of a thousand parts she aims to use in her duties forthwith - wheels and gears, cogs polished to a hard glitter, tiny pills, privationles, forceps, surveilmakers pliers, rolls of copper equip ... (10). Kesey uses the Chiefs distorted subconscious ramblings and perceptions to bind the reader the true indwelling account of the action, summed up by the phrase: Its the lawfulness even if it didnt happen. For instance the Chiefs dream/ wad of the mechanised butcher shop. The Chiefs phobia and paranoia ab let on machines and power are focussed in this passage, where human corpses, one be Old Blastics, are being moved around on mechanical meathooks. But the vision is not just another delusion, as the Chief awakes the abutting day to find Old Blastic has died during the night. This shows the Chiefs truth is symbolic of what is happening in reality.

        The Chiefs images and fascinations become central symbols of the book. The constant associations with machinery and the Combine which he describes as being a huge organisation that aims to redress the Outside as well as she [ debateoping book] has the inside(27), stick the reader with more of Keseys ideas. The Combine is the opposite to everything natural. It represents everything which is smooth, accurate circumstantial and organised. The sorry Nurse is seen as the Combines primary tool in adjusting the Inside : I see her sit in the centralize of this web of telegraphs like a watchful robot, tend her lucre with mechanical insect skill, know every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get the results she wants. The Big Nurse symbolises all that is sterile, mechanical, conformed and unnatural - a mechanical matriarchy.

        Women, such(prenominal) as the Nurse Ratched, feature in Keseys novel in either of two lights. Either as a ball-cutter like the Big Nurse, who are intent on reign men and depriving them of their freedom and masculinity. Or as Candy, the whore, who is intent on giving men freedom and pleasure. There is no affectionateness ground between these extremes, which only goes to exaggerate Keseys themes. He uses these differentiate extremes throughout the novel for other such themes as well(p) vs evil, mechanical vs natural and sterility vs fertility. Using such juxtapositions Kesey makes his ideas sales booth out clearly to the reader.

        The dichotomy between the Big Nurse and McMurphy is another example of the way Kesey uses juxtaposition to present his themes to the reader. McMurphy is the protagonist. A wiry, red-haired, incorrigible character who soon becomes the chief bull cat loony of the ward. The resister is Nurse Ratched. The conflicts which arises between these two characters with opposing ideologies explore the themes of individuation versus conformity, and natural regularise versus the establishment. An example of this was seen when McMurphy ran his hand through the furnish of the Nurses station. By doing this McMurphy illustrates once again that he will make up all the Nurse stands for and at the same time shatters her progressively fragile composure.

        McMurphys hostility toward the Big Nurse at startle is simply to make his life sentence on the ward more bearable. Taking possession of the tub room for an alternating(a) recreation room, and trying to pass a vote to watch the World Series Baseball show us this. meanwhile the other patients on the ward decide not to charge up the Combine, but rather let themselves be repaired in order to fit back into normal society again. But later in the novel McMurphy, after realising he is committed to the ward, takes up the fight for a different reason. The meshing becomes not one between patient and nurse, but between liberation and restriction, life and lifelessness, and ultimately good and evil. In taking up this battle on behalf of the patients, McMurphy gives them some of his courage and confidence. These werent the same portion of weak-knees from the nut-house that theyd watched take their insults on the dock this morning(194), which was a phrase Bromden used to explain how the patients had been changed by McMurphy.

McMurphy is seen as a saviour to the patients. Kesey uses other such spectral imagery slightly throughout the novel to present his themes. First seen in Ellis who stands against the wall with arms outstretched - crucified.



The EST dining table is in the shape of a cross which the patient is strapped to, and a crown of thorns fastened to their head to deliver the treatment. The whole preparation of EST has parallels to crucifixion of Christ. [McMurphy] climbs on the table without any help and spreads his arms out to fit the shadow. A snitch snaps the clasps on his wrists, ankles, clamping him into the shadow. (218). The fishing trip also has religious connotations. As McMurphy leads the twelve patients/disciples towards the ocean, Ellis differentiates Billy Bibbit to be a pekan of men. Which was a phrase Christ used to tell his disciples in winning converts to his cause. McMurphy carried the other patients hopes, dreams and aspirations upon himself. He carried their cross: We couldnt stop him because we were the ones making him do it. It wasnt the nurse that was forcing him, it was our need that was making him push himself slowly up ... obeying orders beamed at him from 40 masters. McMurphy also, like Christ, both gave their lives that others might live, when he was undertook a lobotomy at the end of the novel.

Kesey employs the use of flashbacks to give the reader a more in depth view of the themes relating to the Big Chief. We discover how he was raised and why he became apt: it wasnt me that started playing deaf: it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all.(163). We also disclose why he has such an affinity to automation and machinery, by explaining his electricians background and his robotic paranoia. Using this literary technique effectively, Kesey is able to convey themes relating to the structures and pressures which society imposed on the Chief in his youth.

Kesey also intends the title of his book One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest to have allegorical meaning. The full nursery rhyme which the Chief recalls as a child was as follows: Ting. Tingle, Tangle tremble toes, shes a good fisherman, catches hens, puts em inna pens ... wireblier, limber lock, three geese inna atomic pile ... one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoos nest.. O-U-T spells out .. goose swoops down and plucks you out. (224) Kesey uses this rhyme to spell out the underlying theme in his novel. That being of a man, McMurphy, who swoops over the cuckoos nest and plucks out the Chief to freedom. The nurse is symbolised as Tingle, Tangle tremble toes who locks the patients like hens into a slow, subtle pecking party. Kesey uses the title of the novel to give the reader not only a lasting first impression of the novel but also to summarise the main ideas he intends his novel to convey.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a microcosmic look at an individual defying authoritarian hulk on the grounds of a psychiatric ward. It is a happy commentary on the courage required to break pre-conditioned restrictions and soak up head first into liberation. Using a wide concoction of literary techniques Kesey successfully uses this novel as a platform to proclaim his themes and ideas which out branch out into the macrocosmic world of everyday life.

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