Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The main theme of Ken Kesey's (1962) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a battle between conforming to authority versus individual expression. From the moment Randall McMurphy is initially assessed by Dr. Spivey, we are cued in to this battle that will be fully waged between he and the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. McMurphy's lack of impulse control has landed him in the institution. He has been labeled a psychopath for getting into fights and not controlling his sexual impulses. When he explains to the doctor why he has been consigned to the institution, he says, "He told me that psychopath means I fight and uh-pardon me, ladies means I am he it put it overzealous in my sexual relations" (Kesey 1962, 44). His rephrasing his sexual activity in front of Nurse Ratched is significant, because he and she will wage a battle that McMurphy ultimately loses. Their conflict represents Kesey's notion that it is better to risk consequences for questioning authority, than to lose all dignity and identity by completely conforming to authoritarian dictates.

The institution in which McMurphy is placed is filled with a cast of

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