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

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Every American has grown up with these words, lived by these words, and thusly, accepted them as a given: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This sentence has made its place in the United States Constitution as well, and there are variations of this all over the world—“liberté, egalité, fraternité” (liberty, equality, fraternity) in France, “Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit” (unity, justice, and freedom) in Germany, and many more. Not having to curtail speech, have every move checked, or suppress individuality are gifts, often taken for granted in today’s society. People go about their day, not having a second thought about choosing when to smoke a cigarette or being able to play a game of cards with friends without fighting for it. But in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, personal freedom, a sense of self, and individuality are withheld from the patients in an Oregon insane asylum. The asylum itself is symbolic of society and how it pressures people to act a certain way, and portrays how deviating even slightly from the label “normal” is cause for being confined. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, characters such as Chief Bromden and Dale Harding are prime examples for how society manipulates differences into weaknesses, and only with the aid of Randle McMurphy are they able to reassert themselves and defy society’s conformity.

Chief Bromden is the narrator of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and although in the beginning he appears to readers as physically formidable, he is a docile and unusually subdued man. He is a staggeringly tall N...

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...he would not have wanted to be an example, a trophy to Nurse Ratched and suffocates him (Kesey 270). Even then, he serves as the impelling force that makes Chief leave the Combine and its oppression for good.

Society can be an antagonist or an ally, depending on the individual and the circumstances. This is shown indefinitely in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Differences like Chief Bromden’s race and Dale Harding’s sexual orientation were turned into weaknesses, and only with Randle McMurphy’s courage and perseverance were they overcome. However, it came at a cost. McMurphy died for this cause. Billy Bibbit and Cheswick were casualties along the way. So, readers must ask themselves the question that Chief’s father asked: “What can you pay for the way a man lives? What can you pay for what a man is?”

Works Cited

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

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