One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, with its meaningful message of individualism, was an extremely influential novel during the 1960's. In addition, its author, Ken Kesey, played a significant role in the development of the counterculture of the 60's; this included all people who did not conform to society's standards, experimented in drugs, and just lived their lives in an unconventional manner. Ken Kesey had many significant experiences that enabled him to create One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. As a result of his entrance into the creative writing program at Stanford University in 1959 (Ken 1), Kesey moved to Perry Lane in Menlo Park. It was there that he and other writers first experimented with psychedelic drugs. After living at Perry Lane for a while, Kesey's friend, Vik Lovell, informed him about experiments at a local V.A. hospital in which volunteers were paid to take mind-altering drugs (Wolfe 321). Kesey's experiences at the hospital were his first step towards writing Cuckoo's Nest. Upon testing the effects of the then little-known drug, LSD, "…he was in a realm of consciousness he had never dreamed of before and it was not a dream or delirium but part of his awareness (322)."

After working as a test subject for the hospital, Kesey was able to get a job working as a psychiatric aide. This was the next significant factor in writing the book. "Sometimes he would go to work high on acid (LSD) (323)." By doing so, he was able to understand the pain felt by the patients on the ward. In addition, the job allowed him to examine everything that went on within the confines of the hospital. From these things, Kesey obtained exceptional insight for writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. To make the novel seem as realistic as possible, he loosely based the characters on the personalities of people in the ward; also, his use of drugs while writing allowed him to make scenes such as Chief Bromden's (The Chief is the narrator of the story. He is a Native American who happens to be a paranoid schizophrenic.) dreams much more vivid (Ken 2). As mentioned in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, "…certain passages ¾ like Chief Broom [Chief Bromden] in his schizophrenic fogs ¾ [it] was true vision, a little of what you could see if you opened the doors of perception, friends (Wolfe 328).

As a result off his rambunctious behavior, the inevitable battle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched begins. During group therapy meetings, McMurphy does not let Nurse Ratched have complete control as she has had in the past and as she would like to continue. He disrupts the meetings by provoking the other patients to excitement when they make comments about their respective problems. It also infuriates Nurse Ratched when McMurphy diverts the attention directed at other patients towards himself. Also, one particular scene displaying the beginning of the battle between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy occurs when McMurphy wants to watch the World Series. He convinces the inmates to resist Nurse Ratched by watching a blank TV screen, even when she turns off the World Series (140). The things that McMurphy does early in the novel to battle Nurse Ratched are selfish and have the intention of being chaotic.

Entering the mental hospital a sane man, R.P. McMurphy only looks out for himself; however, this all changes when he realizes the permanence of his residency on the ward if he does not conform. This motivates him to begin working to save the other inmates on the ward and transfer some of his high spirit into them. His struggle to help them realize their individuality results in his own mental decay and he is ultimately destroyed.

In order to make himself as comfortable as possible, McMurphy initially tries to defy authority and gain the inmates' trust for his own personal gain. He is immediately a threat to the order that Nurse Ratched has created and maintains. While there is not supposed to be gambling on the ward, one of McMurphy's first goals is to get the other patients to play cards with him for money. This is expressed when McMurphy says "…I came to this establishment…to bring you birds fun an' entertainment around the gam

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