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

1126 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Character analysis where are you going

Death is a major component of the story One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Suicide was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for 34,598 deaths in 2007 (Suicide in the U.S.: Statistics and Prevention). There is a link between suicide and mental health disorders. In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, both characters Charles Cheswick and Billy Bibbit commit suicide. Studies show that both Cheswick and Bibbit displayed common characteristics found in of psychiatric patients that committed suicide. What is interesting is nurse Ratched also fits thdescription of characteristics found in suicidal patients in a psychiatric hospital. Nurse Ratched forced her methods upon the patients, resulting in the perfect formula for suicide.
According to a study conducted by The Lancet, “Around a quarter of people who commit suicide have been in contact with mental health services in the year before death. This accounts for around 1000 cases annually, and of these cases 16 percent are psychiatric inpatients. Of these, 23 percent occurred in the first week after admission” (Hiroeh). These numbers are staggering, clearly showing a correlation between not only suicide and mental health problems, but also suicide and psychiatric patients. The reason that such a high percentage of suicides come from psychiatric inpatients is because these patients feel hopeless and trapped. In the case of Charles Cheswick, he conformed to Nurse Ratched’s methods before McMurphy came around, as did everybody else. McMurphy had a lot of influence on the other patients because he was rebellious. Cheswick decided to speak up against nurse Ratched and she lashed back by giving him shock therapy, which was very painful. After this punishmen...

... middle of paper ...

...resting is the fact that nurse Ratched also fit the characteristics of psychiatric patients that have committed suicide. This books ending would have been very different if nurse Ratched would have lost control of the hospital, essentially losing her sanity.

Works Cited

Hiroeh, Urara, Louis Appleby, Preben Mortensen, and Graham Dunn. "Death by Homicide, Suicide, and Other Unnatural Causes in People." The Lancet 358.9299 (n.d.): 2110-112. Web.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, a Novel. New York: Viking, 1962. Print.
"Multivariate Analysis." WordNet Search - 3.1. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Patsiokas, Anne, George Clum, and Richard Luscomb. "Cognitive Characteristics of Suicide
Attempters." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (1979): 478-84. Web.
"Suicide in the U.S.: Statistics and Prevention." NIMH RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kessey

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, a Novel. New York: Viking, 1962. Print.

    Read More

  • Corrption of Power On All in One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kesey, Ken. One flew over the cuckoo's nest, a novel. New York: Viking Press, 1962. Print.

    Read More

  • AP Lit Final

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis on Edwidge Danticat’s A Wall of Fire Rising

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    Michaelson, Peter. “A Hidden Reason for Suicidal Thoughts”(2013). Why We Suffer. n.pag. Web. 2 Apr. 2014

    Read More

  • Symbols and Symbolism in Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ken Kesey presents his masterpiece, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, with popular culture symbolism of the 1960s. This strategy helps paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind. Music and cartoons of the times are often referred to in the novel. These help to exaggerate the characters and the state of the mental institution.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The Viking Press. New York. 1973. Page 188.

    Read More

  • Control in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

    3216 Words  | 7 Pages

    Kesey, Ken. A. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. London: Pan, 1973. http://www.pan.com/p/p/p

    Read More

  • Emotions In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is a novel containing the theme of emotions being played with in order to confine and change people. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about a mental institution where a Nurse named Miss Ratched has total control over its patients. She uses her knowledge of the patients to strike fear in their minds. Chief Bromden a chronic who suffers from schizophrenia and pretends to be deaf and mute narrates the novel. From his perspective we see the rise and fall of a newly admitted patient, RP McMurphy. McMurphy used his knowledge and courage to bring changes in the ward. During his time period in the ward he sought to end the reign of the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched, also to bring the patients back on their feet. McMurphy issue with the ward and the patients on the ward can be better understood when you look at this novel through a psychoanalytic lens. By applying Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence to McMurphy’s views, it is can be seen that his ideas can bring change in the patients and they can use their

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Analytical Essay

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    The use of theme in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey brings upon the ideas of misogyny, sexual repression and freedom, and salvation from an omnipotent oppressor, through the story of Chief Bromden, who lives in an insanity ward. Even from the beginning pages of the novel, the reader is introduced to such characters as Nurse Ratched, or the “Big Nurse,” who is said to be the dictator of the ward and acts upon the ward with the utmost control. Another branch of the theme of oppressors and salvation that relates to Nurse Ratched, as well as Randle McMurphy, is the idea that they are both representatives of figures based in Catholicism. Sexual repression and freedom is seen with the ultimate punishment in the ward, a lobotomy, being stated as equivalent to castration. Both of the operations are seen as emasculating, removing the men’s personal freedom, individuality, and sexual expression, and reducing them to a child-like state. All of these different pieces of the theme relates to a powerful institution that, because of the advances of the time, such as technology and civil rights for women, is causing men to be common workers without distinctive thoughts that must fit the everyday working mold of the 1950s.

    Read More

  • Violence In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1189 Words  | 3 Pages

    Violence and death surrounds everyone, from movies to books to news. These subjects are particularly prevalent in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Kesey's main goal for writing the novel was to show his readers the atrocities within mental health wards. However, he managed to have a greater impact in young adults' lives than ever imagined. Although there are instances of death and violence in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, it should be included in high school curriculum because exposure to these topics helps teenagers to properly deal with similar situations in their own lives.

    Read More

  • Persecution Explored in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Trial

    2225 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sutherland, Janet R. "A Defense of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NEst." English Journal 61.1 (1972): 28-31. JSTOR. Web. 31 Oct. 2013. .

    Read More

  • Adolescent Suicide

    2596 Words  | 6 Pages

    There have been many instances of suicide that have occurred in the past years at universities across the country, and since it is such a sensitive subject, there have not been nearly enough coverage as this topic deserves, considering this issue does not seem to be going away. When collecting data about suicide statistics, the age range is broken down as people ages 15-24, which spans most developmental years. Within this bracket are college-age students and this age-group has by far the most troubling statistics around it.

    Read More

  • The Archetype And The Collective Unconscious

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author of One Flew over the Cuckoo 's Nest, allows the reader to explore different psychoanalytic issues in literature. The ability to use works literature to learn about real world conflicts allows us to use prior knowledge to interact with these problems in reality. Ken Kesey, the author of the above novel and Carl Jung, author of “The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious” wrote how the mind can be easily overtaken by many outside factors from the past or present. The novel takes place in an asylum that is aimed to contain individuals that have a mental issue or problem. The doctors and care takers are seen as tyrants and barriers that inhibit the patients to improve their health, while the patients are limited by their initial conditions

    Read More

  • Crime And Suicide Essay

    1901 Words  | 4 Pages

    The regular instances of criminal activities which involves harming or killing someone else (Homicide) or killing oneself (Suicide) is a common occurrence which at many instances can be attributed to some sort of mental disorder. Not all patients having one or another form of mental disorder displays aggressiveness enough that can lead to homicide, or at the other end of spectrum is so overwhelmed with hopelessness that the patient eventually comes to end his/her life. But, there is evidences which indicate that there is increased probability of these occurrences among individuals suffering from a mental disorder.

    Read More

  • American Literature in the Post World War II

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, a Novel. New York: Viking, 1962. Print.

    Read More

More about Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Open Document