One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, spent time working in a mental institutions in the days when what are now considered primitive and even abusive methods of treatment were in favor. However, where many saw only madness, Kesey saw a certain poetry and humanity in the lives of those confined within its walls. Kesey's novel revolves around a host of memorable characters, whose insanity at times seems more like rebellion to authority than clinically diagnosed mental illness. The theme of the novel illustrates that individual freedom is often in conflict with authority, and should one rebel against authority there is often a significant price paid.

Kesey's novel is populated by a variety of characters with various degrees of what might be considered "abnormal" behavior. There is the narrator of the book, a silent, dignified, towering Indian named "Chief" Bromden. Among the other characters are: A virginal, stuttering, paranoid boy-child named Billy Bibbit; an insecure and neurotic Charlie Cheswick, who lacks any degree of self-confidence; a sadistic and trouble-making Taber; an ineffectual, over-analytical man suffering a breakdown from his wife's infidelity, Dale Harding. One of the characters that are most emblematic of Kesey's central theme is McMurphy, who is perceived as antisocial and institutionalized after an arrest for sleeping with a minor. McMurphy and head nurse Ratched participate in a battle

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One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest .... Belmont, CA, Brooks/Cole Publishing. Whitley, S. (1998). One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. http://www.nhmccd.cc.tx.us/contracts/lrc/kc/kesey.html, 1-7. (4524 18 )

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