AllusionsIn One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s

NestExamining how pop culture

references impact and strengthen the novel.

Note: Students in our class are using two editions of this book that have different page numbers.

NE refers to our newer hardcovers. These are numbered with an 08- prefix on the bottom.

OE refers to the older hardcovers. These are numbered with an 02- or 05- prefix.

Pop Culture Category #1:Comic Books

Ken Kesey, a fan of comic books, is seen reading one here.

Comic Books in the Fifties and SixtiesThe late-forties and early fifties, when Kesey was a teenager, were

a very unsettled time for comic book companies.

The aura of “The Golden Age of Comics” that began in the 1930s with the creation of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and others was gone a decade and a half later.

By the end of World War II, readers had turned their attention from comic books, especially those involving super heroes, to Westerns, Romance novels, and Science Fiction.

The comic book landscape of the early and mid-fifties was dominated by titles for younger audiences, focusing on Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, Warner Brothers’ Looney Toons, and others like Casper the Friendly Ghost.

However, there was a super hero resurgence in the late-fifties and early-sixties called “The Silver Age of Comics.” This saw the

reemergence of super heroes like the Flash and Green Lantern, as well as the introduction of new heroes like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men.

Therefore, it is safe to say that super hero comics were very much in the public consciousness when Kesey was writing Cuckoo’s Nest (published in 1962).

Chapter OneComic Book Allusion in Description of Nurse Ratched

“She goes into a crouch and advances on where they’re trapped in a huddle at the end of the corridor. She knows what they been saying, and I can see she’s furious clean out of control. She’s going to tear the black bastards limb from limb she’s so furious. She’s swelling up, swells till her back’s splitting out the white uniform and she’s let her arms section out long enough to wrap around the three of them five, six times. She looks around her with a swivel of her huge head…. She really lets herself go and her painted smile twists, stretches to an open snarl, and she blows up bigger and bigger …” (NE: pp. 4-5; OE: pp. 10-11)

Who Does Nurse Ratched Sound Like?

The Incredible Hulk

Connection: Whenever he would getangry, Bruce Banner would unwillingly turn into the Incredible Hulk. This raises the question: Is Nurse Ratched an inherently monstrous, evil creature (like Chief Broom imagines) or someone who does monstrous things against her will (such as following hospital regulations) like Bruce Banner?