One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

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Imagine being stuck in a mental hospital for twenty years where everyone thinks you are deaf and mute. This is what happened to Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Chief Bromden, or Chief, has lived in a mental hospital for over twenty years. He was admitted to the hospital after serving in the Second World War. He is a six-foot seven-inch tall schizophrenic Indian who has convinced the whole ward that he is deaf and mute, and he is the narrator of the story. He is not a very reliable narrator due to his schizophrenia, so some of the events are distorted. Throughout the story, Chief Bromden is reminded of events from his childhood, which reveal little bits and pieces about his character and his uncommon past. The ward he is on is controlled by the Big Nurse, who has emasculated everyone and has complete control over everything and everyone there. She requires everything to be done her way and like clockwork. That all changes when Randle Patrick McMurphy arrives. McMurphy, mandated to the mental hospital by the courts, starts challenging the rules made by the Big Nurse as soon as he arrives, to help improve the lives of all of the patients on the ward. McMurphy also takes some of the patients on wacky adventures. For example, he convinces the Big Nurse to let him and a few other patients go on a fishing trip with his aunt. Except, instead of his aunt, he hires a prostitute to take them in her place. He also starts a basketball league with all of the patients as a way to exercise, but that ends after the basketball breaks through the Big Nurse’s window multiple times. The patients are divided into two groups: the chronics, who have no hope of being cured, and the acutes, who are not nearly a...

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...ew over the Cuckoo's Nest, a Novel. New York: Viking, 1962. Print.
Lupack, Barbara Tepa. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Thomas Riggs. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. Detroit: St. James Press, 2013. 53. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Meloy, Michael. "Fixing Men: Castration, Impotence, And Masculinity In Ken Kesey's “One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest”." Journal Of Men's Studies 17.1 (2009): 3-14. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 218-239. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Semino, Elena, and Kate Swindlehurst. "Metaphor And Mind Style In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." Style 30.(1996): 143-166. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

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