Description of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey

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Table of Contents

Introduction
The plot of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
References

Introduction

The novel by Ken Kesey “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” due to acute themes it raises and the way the author develops them is quite an impressive piece of reading. This fact was confirmed by the success of the film of the same name directed by Milos Forman, which is considered by many experts to be one of the best American pictures.

The plot of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

The plot of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” revolves around the story of Randle McMurphy, a prisoner simulating mental disorder and sent to a mental hospital in which he hopes to have a nice time. Through the eyes of a schizophrenic patient of the hospital named Chief Bromdens, the author traces the development of friendship between McMurphy and some of the people undergoing treatment, as well as shows the opposition between patients and the oppressive staff of the ward. In essence, McMurphy and Chief Bromdens are the main protagonists of the novel, as their behavior and their life stories complement each other. For one, it is only McMurphy who with the help of his energy and resolution has managed to awaken Chief and to break his silence, which the Native-American had kept since the dramatic events in his personal family life in the past. In his turn, McMurphy, who initially offended Chief upon entering the ward, also quickly develops a liking for the tall and massive Indian, and in the episode, with the basketball game, they already act as friends supporting each other. On a deeper level, though, it is this friendship between those two unusual patients that helps them develop as characters in the novel. Indeed, for Chief, who before his encounter with McMurphy had been somewhat impersonal in his stance, the ideas in support of individuality proclaimed by McMurphy serve as a means to return to his lost state of moral freedom, which ultimately results in his physical liberation as well.

This progression of one of the novels’ characters reflects in an optimistic and invigorating way perhaps the main theme expressed by Kesey, namely that of the confrontation between freedom and control. On the other hand, McMurphy embodies an opposite aspect of this confrontation, as he walks the path of an open conflict with the main tyrant of the hospital Nurse Ratched, who aims to fully control her patients, and who does not disdain to use any means for that end, even such mean ones as the actual instigation of Billy Bibbit to commit suicide. It is this type of struggle that unites McMurphy and Chief, and which turns the Indian into McMurphys true ally, even though in a way that does not reveal itself until the end of the novel. More specifically, Chief serves as the demonstration of the longevity of noble ideas even in the absence of those who initially had introduced them. In the novel, this symbolic act of inheritance happens when after the assault on Nurse Ratched McMurphy is lobotomized and thus irreparably turned into a vegetative state. This event is the culmination of the novel, and when Chief finds McMurphy to be not like he used to be, he decides to fulfill what his friend had planned to do. But before he escapes, Chief feels that if he would leave McMurphy as he is, he would betray him, and would allow Nurse Ratched to establish her ultimate dominance over all the patients. And in the act that none of the readers could reproach, Chief suffocates his former friend with a pillow and then escapes after breaking the window with the help of the weighty fountain, which works to further increase his connection with McMurphys ideas, and which demonstrates that Chief has fully regained his force, and, metaphorically, his sanity.

In this way, we can see that without each other neither McMurphy nor Chief would be able to develop as characters, so their relationship is a critical component of the whole plot of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

References

Forman, Milos. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Warner Home Video, 1997.

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Viking Adult, 2002.

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Description of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey

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