One Flew East, One Flew West

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In the early 1960’s, Ken Kesey worked in the psych ward in a veterans hospital as an aide. During the course of his job, Kesey realized the administrators were giving patients experimental LSD to cope with their mental illnesses. After seeing this being done, he started to wonder, who is mentally stable and what classifies a person as insane (Kesey)? With this in mind Ken Kesey wrote, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This classic novel depicts the image of a psych ward under control by the manipulative, Nurse Ratched. The patients on the ward are lifeless; every waking moment is scheduled and controlled, until one day when a new patient, Patrick McMurphy arrives. Patrick McMurphy brings life back into the patients and helps them push the boundaries. With McMurphy on the ward there becomes a new normal. When answering the question of what normalcy is, Kesey uses character development, symbols, and motifs to give insight of the psychological well-being of others and how it shifts with positive and negative changes. The characters in this novel portray different levels of mental stability. Throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest each of the main characters undergoes a notable shift in their mental states (Rutten). The schizophrenic narrator, Chief Bromden is indubitably insane in the beginning. As the narrator, he gives insight into the inner workings of the hospital. All of what he sees is stated as fact but, it cannot be taken literally since a portion of it is based off of hallucinations and paranoia (Waxler). He states early on "it's the truth even if it didn't happen" (Kesey, 8). He often takes looks back into his childhood. During these flashbacks he describes himself as small and his parents as large. In Chief's mind char... ... middle of paper ... ... a way to escape; a type of salvation. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, uses laughter as a measure of psychological well-being. The lack of laughter strays away from normalcy whereas regular laughter makes everything seem normal. Before McMurphy arrives on the ward every second of time the patients spend is strictly monitored and far away from the standard of normal. Without laughter McMurphy starts to lose sight of sanity. As everyone else starts to lighten up and genuinely laugh the ward starts to open itself up as a place where the patients can express themselves more freely. Invisibility is an important part of this novel because what is narrated by Chief Bromden generally happens when he feels invisible or hidden in fog. When the patients are going against the administrators of the ward there are claims about not seeing or not fully seeing all of the details.

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