One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Isolationism

War has corrupted societies and minds alike since the beginning of time. It has managed to instill the fear of death in the thoughts of those who have fought or those whose lands were fought upon. This causes PTSD, haunting the lives of the individual’s affected by the war. Post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] can be caused by isolationism, having disturbing experiences from their past, or by lasting trauma from incidents which imprint themselves upon the minds of those unlucky individuals. Ken Kesey discussed how the narrator, Chief Bromden, suffered not only because he fought in a war, but also because of uncommon traumatic experiences throughout his life that revolved around his father, and the lack of power he had. The lack of power his

Ken Kesey and Tim O’Brien both shaped persona’s in their books which they felt could not relate themselves to the others around them creating a sense of isolationism. Tim O’Brien had characters whom were isolated from others around them because they did not deal with the trauma of the war in the same way. Jimmy Cross specifically felt isolationism from Martha because he felt they could not relate on any issues. She had her concerns and he had his. Jimmy Cross said, “In those burned letters Martha never mentioned the war except to say, Jimmy take care of yourself. She wasn’t involved.” (O’Brien 24). This made it clear that Jimmy felt isolated from Martha because her priorities were no longer the same priorities he had. She did not associate with the war, while that was all Cross knew anymore. While Ken Kesey’s characters were no longer in the war, the war’s they fought in effected them the same way. Chief Bromden, the narrator fought in the war and felt the same trauma years after he left the war. He felt isolated from the other

It gives the person a feeling as if they are unable to escape. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, both authors created people whose lives were fully showing everything that they feared due to fighting in a war. Their everyday lives were now corrupted because they could not get their mindset out of a war zone. They were mentally stuck in a warzone. Being isolated, having a traumatic past, and lasting trauma all cause PTSD. All those things cause PTSD and Kesey and O’Brien knew that. When they wrote the novels, they kept in mind the effects war has on those who fight. These similarities that came up in the both