Crazy, psycho, weird, strange, fool, freak, nutty, screwy and wacky- what do these words bring to mind when you hear them. For me they remind me of the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” by Ken Kesey. This is a counterculture, protest novel that changed the way everyone looked at society. Kesey was enrolled in a creative writing program, while working as an orderly in a psychiatric ward. He got ideas for this book by working at the ward and seeing what went on. He was the first experimental participant in LSD (acid) trials- he thought by doing this it would set your mind free, which in his case it did. That’s why all throughout the book Brodmen hallucinates and has delusions.

Brodmen is a patient at an Oregon psychiatric hospital- he’s been there for 10 years. He pretends to be dead and dumb to go un-noticed. This lets him hear everything going on making him a good narrator in the sense he knows everything. On the other hand he could be a little unreliable because he hallucinates quite a bit. Many important facts are hidden throughout the book. For example Brodmen tries to act deaf and dumb so he can he

Sexuality also plays a big role. The patients are also deprived of this. Throughout the novel it is implied that a healthy expression of one’s sexuality is a major component of sanity, and taking away one’s sexuality leads to insanity. Most of the patients have warped sexual identities because of damaging relationships with females. It is believed that women are castrators. With the exception of the prostitutes all the other women in this book are threatening and terrifying figures. I think the only reason there are only male patients in the hospital, that is ran by women, is to show how women can emasculate even the most masculine man. Lobotomies and castration is practiced, which both take away a man’s individuality, freedom and sexual expression.

ar everything going on and so nobody bothers him.

This book has many motifs and different symbolic meanings. A few of them include: power of laughter, invisibility, the fog machine, sexuality, and the electroshock therapy. All these meanings play an important role in this book.

I noticed when I was reading that McMurphy is the Christ figure. He sets everybody free and makes them believe in themselves. He gives hope when it’s gone and speaks out against authority. Many hidden symbols back this idea up. For instance the fishing trip, like Christ taking his twelve disciples to the sea, he forces them to fend for themselves, and they find to their surprise that they really don’t need him. McMurphy self sacrifice for the patient’s starts after he receives his first electroshock therapy. He is strapped to a cross- shaped table, which is an obvious allusion to the crucifix. Towards the end of the book he compares himself to Christ. He says “Anoinest my head with conductant. Do I get a crown of thorns?” (Pg. 270) Of course he must sacrifice himself to save others and that’s just what he did. The patients are no longer

Some topics in this essay:
Ken Kesey, Nurse Ratchet, McMurphy Christ, , Staff Government, nurse ratchet, throughout book, electroshock therapy, ward believes, patients deprived, government treats, government controls, power laughter, believe themselves, one’s sexuality,