Flashbacks In One Flew Into The Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey was born in 1935 in La Junta, Colorado and was raised in Springfield, Oregon. He wrote, “One Flew into the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1962, an in-depth look into the environment of a psychiatric ward. In the 1960’s Kesey was a paid volunteer as a mental subject for the U.S. Army. During this time, he wrote about his experiences with mind-altering drugs. Kesey also worked in a psychiatric ward as a hospital attendee. He wrote about the abuses in the system, which served as a backdrop for his novel One Flew into the Cuckoo’s Nest. Kesey tended to write under the influence of acid especially at the time he wrote the novel. He was also part of a group, “The Merry Pranksters” who spent time on the open road and were supporters of open drug use. EXTEND
2. T he novel is structured as a chronological story of events that take place in the mental hospital. Kesey wrote it as a stream of consciousness style, which could be due to represent the main character or simply the way Kesey expresses himself through his writing. He uses flashbacks to when Bromden was a child to give a short background on the characters and make it seem more personal. The characters talk as if they have been

there forever and the time before barely exist and as if they will stay there until they day they day, which is probably true.
3. The point of view is written from the main character, Bromden. But also shifts to others in the ward at times too. Everyone believes he is deaf so it gives an interesting look from the outside in. The novel is written in first person and remains in the ward. The point of view gives an introspective look into the madness.

4. Kesey typically uses a colloquial diction in his piece except when he talks about specific machines then it becomes extremely formal. He uses strong similes and metaphors to help make the ward seem more accessible to people who do not understand the true magnitude of it. He uses the metaphor of machines and factories to exemplify the routines and systems we live by. Also, Kesey uses a strong sense of imagery to depict Bromden’s life before the Ward but also to depict the people in the ward. They way he explains his characters make it all seem more accessible. “Yes. This is what I know. The Ward is a factory for the Combine. It's for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods and in the schools and in the churches, the hospital is. When a completed product goes back out into society, all fixed up good as new, better than new sometimes, it brings joy to the Big Nurse's heart; something that came in all twisted different is now a functioning, adjusted component, a credit to the whole outfit and a marvel to behold. Watch him sliding across the land with a welded grin, fitting into some nice little neighborhood that they’re just now digging trenches along the street to lay pipes in. He’s happy with it… He’s adjusted to surrounding finally…” (Kesey, 40).
5. The syntax of the piece is surprisingly complex though the words are often simple the way Kesey strings them together to explain the ward and the people in it is quite fascinating. The rhythm is not very smooth it is harsh and to the point at some parts but then softens when talking about the past before the ward. It helps establish the tone in the piece by going brutal to gentle.

6. Kesey uses various tropes throughout the novel to link the meaning of insanity with common situations. The most used metaphor throughout the entire novel is that society is like a machine, and the mentally ill are the broken pieces. The psychiatric ward is to fix the malfunctions and often that’s how the patients are referred to as objects and things that are not really human. Metaphors and similes litter the pages to explain nearly everything that is going on, this makes the book a little heavy but is intriguing as well. Kesey explains one of the chronics Ellis in mostly tropes starting with, “He’s nailed like that on the wall, like a stuffed trophy” (16). Also, later on to continue this simile of Ellis being nailed to the wall, “Before the nails pull his hands back to the wall” (22). These tropes are effective in making the reader feel the room and the people as if they could see Ellis’ hands nailed to the wall and were standing five feet in front of him.
7.

The novel is not filled with as much irony as it is other literary devices. The type of irony used is mainly hyperboles, oxymoron, and euphemisms. The hyperboles are most used as Kesey talks about all the serious things that happen in an extreme way. There are a few oxymoron, one of which being, “Clean out of control” (5). That oxymoron helps define the novel, one of structure and chaos, sanity and insanity. For euphemisms, there are not very many but the main one is being “fixed” in many ways that are a lot harsher than fixed. Kesey begins this with, “ Took him away to be fixed” (16). Where he is not just being “ fixed” most likely he was receiving a lobotomy, Kesey could be omitting using this as a euphemism or Bromden could just not know what it is exactly they

did.