One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Mike writes:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey is about life in a mental hospital. It focuses in on one man named Chief Bromden who is a patient in the hospital who pretends to be deaf and mute. Bromden is the narrator and describes hospital life such as the daily schedule for the patients. The hospital is run by a woman named Nurse Ratched also known as the Big Nurse who uses manipulation to control the patients and staff members.. Life around the hospital begins to change when the rebellious Randle McMurphy becomes a patient there. McMurphy quickly begins to try to take control of the patients, questions Nurse Ratched’s authority and breaks hospital rules.

There are many characters in the novel. A large amount of the characters are patients and chronic patients are known as Chronics and slightly insane patients are known as Acutes. The narrator of the story is Chief Bromden. Bromden is half Native-American, very tall and pretends to be deaf and mute. He served in World War Two and has been in the hospital longer then any other patient. Randle McMurphy is a rebellious man and frequent gambler who fakes insanity to prevent being placed in prison. He said he has had many careers such as a logger, a soldier, and a laborer on a farm. The main antagonist of the story is Nurse Ratchet who is also known as the Big Nurse. She acts nice around patients but is actually ruthless and manipulates the patients and staff so the hospital runs as she wants it to. The orderlies are three African-American men who make the patients to work such as cleaning the halls. Another character is an Acute named Billy Bibbits. Bibbits has a speech impediment and has attempter suicide multiple times. Also there is an Acute named Mr. Harding. Mr. Harding is president of the patients council and is extremely insecure about his good looks. Finally, there is the head doctor. The head doctor is supposed to be in charge of the hospital but Nurse Ratched uses him as a puppet to run the hospital. Besides that there are many minor characters who are other patients or staff members.

The setting of the novel is in a mental institution in Oregon. The time the novel is set in is probably in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s due to the way the patients are treated and the slang terms.

The main conflict of the story is McMurphy resisting Nurse Ratched. He is often questioning her authority in front of other patients and breaks the rules of the hospital. At one point in the novel he breaks many of the hospital rules by sneaking prostitutes into the hospital late at night.