One Flew Over the Cuckoo\'s Nest by Ken Kesey

¶ … Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey's novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is set in a mental hospital in the 1960's. The main character, Randle Partick McMurphy has conned his way into the hospital trying to get an easier sentence from his most recent encounter with the law. There he discovers life is no picnic for the patients, mainly due to the head nurse, Nurse Ratched, who runs the wards more like torture rooms than a hospital. Chief Bromden is a six foot two Indian who has pretended to be deaf and dumb for the past thirty years. The story is told in first person narration by Bromden (Kesey 1979).

McMurphy rebels against Nurse Ratched and her ward rules every chance he gets and soon rallies the other men, who cower under her charge, to challenge her. Bromden begins to speaks again. McMurphy also takes up their causes as well, and helps a young virgin boy meet a woman in his room for sex. When Nurse Ratched discovers them, she threatens to tell his mother. The boy, being terrified of his mother's disapproval, kills himself. McMurphy lashes into Rached, nearly strangling her. She orders a lobotomy for McMurphy. When he returns unable to move or speak, Bromden suffocates him with a pillow and then flees to his reservation (Kesey 1979).

The theme of the book is rebellion against conformity, the individual against society. It shows how we allow ourselves and others to be placed in pigeon holes from fear of disturbing the status quo. The hospital represented a micro-society of society at large, the weak verses the strong, those with power verses those who are powerless. Moreover, there is no real rhyme or reason as to who ends up in charge. It leaves one wondering how someone as inhumane as Nurse Rachat could be the care taker of such vulnerable people, and someone as humane as McMurphy has his life stolen from him.

The purpose of the story was to bring to light the horror that can happen behind closed doors of institutions. Lobotomies were commonly used for decades as cures for psychiatric patients, as were shock treatments. The story is also a reminder that those with power are not always ethical. Moreover, it shows how conformity destroys the essence of self, the soul of the individual.