One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey


The Novel

• A counter-culture protest novel, which is an allegorical portrayal of society at the time.

• Allegory: a symbolic representation of ideas.


DURING READING– Role of Women. How are they portrayed? – Language: Looking for specific figurative devices.

Interesting dialogue (how does each character speak). Machinery metaphors.

– Subtext: Identify all the things that are implied in the novel. Read between the lines. Who is trapped, who is free etc?

– Biblical Imagery: Note any reference to Christ, crucifixion etc

– Size: who is large? Who is small? Why are they large? Why are they small?

– Sexuality: What do we learn about each character’s sexuality?


SETTING

As you read through the following slides, fill in the gaps in the setting sheet. At the end, stick it into your books under the title: Setting.


1950s – The Setting

• The book was written and set in the 1950s. It was published in 1962.

• At this time in America, people outside the mainstream were often viewed with suspicion.

• WHY? Because of the Cold War and the Red Scare.


The Cold War• The US was engaged in a ‘cold war’ with the

Soviet Union. Even though no warfare was declared, things were tense between the two countries. (note: today the Soviet Union does not exist – the largest country of the Soviet is Russia)

• Both countries had nuclear power and it was feared that one or the other might use it.

• USSR was communist and the US was scared of the spread of communism. Anyone that appeared to be different were presumed to be supporters of communism and were ostracised. They were called ‘reds’ and it was a time of ‘red scare’.








Propaganda Film

• Duck and cover

• He may be a communist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2kdpAGDu8s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWeZ5SKXvj8&feature=related


Joseph McCarthy• Republican senator from Wisconsin who capitalized

on Cold War fears of Communism in the early 1950s by accusing hundreds of government employees of being Communists and Soviet Agents. McCarthy had no evidence to prove communist affiliations, but the very spectre of doubt was enough to pass judgement.

• Many artists and writers (those of the counter-culture) were arrested and questioned for having communist ties. Playwright Arthur Millar was among the accused. He depicted his own experience in his play The Crucible, likening McCarthyism to the Salem witch hunt in the 1600s.

• George Clooney’s film ‘Good night and Good luck’ depicts the paranoia of this era.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNq8LoYjG2E


The Cold War

• People in the states became increasingly persecuted for their beliefs under Senator McCarthy. This was called McCarthyism.

• Towards the end of the decade national rebellion began against civil injustice. Young people, in particular began to question authority.

• One particular group of dissenters were the ‘beat generation’ – they expressed dissatisfaction through art, writing, dress and nonviolent action. They were called Beatniks.



Beatniks• Poetry readings were a common forum for

Beatniks to articulate dissatisfaction with societal constraints.

• Allen Ginsberg’s poem HOWL illustrated what many people saw as the moral and social problems of the time.

• Groups such as the Beats were a part of a larger movement called the ‘counter-culture’. This movement led to the emergence of ‘hippies’ in the 60s. Hippies were dedicated to peace, love, happiness and they endeavoured to ‘expand their minds’ through the use of mind-altering drugs such as LSD.


Allen Ginsberg: Howl

• HowlPart1

• HowlPart2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGoY9gom50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJDV9z8XvEo&NR=1


First Party At Ken Kesey's With Hell's Angels Cool black night thru redwoodscars parked outside in shadebehind the gate, stars dim abovethe ravine, a fire burning by the sideporch and a few tired souls hunched overin black leather jackets. In the hugewooden house, a yellow chandelier at 3 A.M. the blast of loudspeakershi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles BeatlesJumping Joe Jackson and twenty youthsdancing to the vibration thru the floor,a little weed in the bathroom, girls in scarlettights, one muscular smooth skinned mansweating dancing for hours, beer cansbent littering the yard, a hanged mansculpture dangling from a high creek branch,children sleeping softly in their bedroom bunks.And 4 police cars parked outside the paintedgate, red lights revolving in the leaves.

December 1965 , Allen Ginsberg


LSD• Ken Kesey took part in scientific

experiments at a hospital trialling LSD as a state-controlled mind-altering substance. It was thought that it could help those suffering mental disorders such as schizophrenia. LSD was not so effective as a medical panacea as it induced hallucinations.

• To the counter-culture of the 1960s LSD was a good thing; it helped hippies to explore their own mind and expand their horizons.


Kesey and the Novel

• Published 1962• It was met with immediate success. Kesey

bought a farm in California where he and his friends spent time taking LSD. Known to the local authorities for his drug usage, the police caught him flushing marijuana down his toilet. He fled to Mexico. When he returned he was arrested and put into jail for several months.


Kesey & the Novel

• In 1964 Kesey and his friends took a road trip in a bus named Furthur across the US. On the journey they continued to indulge in large doses of LSD and took part in subversive behaviour. The group called themselves The Merry Pranksters and their adventures were captured in Tom Wolf’s story The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. This book became a must-read for the hippie generation.


Ken Kesey Interview

• Interview with Ken Kesey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ilnADvT2s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4ilnADvT2s


The Major ConflictThe patients in the mental ward are bullied and repressed by Nurse Ratched, who represents the oppressive force of modern society.McMurphy tries to lead them to rebel against her authority by asserting their individuality and sexuality, while Nurse Ratched attempts to discredit McMurphy and shame the patients back into submission.

Note: The key conflicts as you read the novel.View a sneak preview of the film to set the scene

for your reading!


Novel Study: What’s Due and When

• By 12 March, Week 7: You must be finished reading the book.

• March 19, Week 8: Reading Group Presentations.

• March 28, Week 9: 3 written responses due.

• March 30, Week 9: In-class essay task.

• April 5, Week 10: Novel tasks due in.


Written Response Questions1. How does Kesey make the reader question the accepted definitions of “sane,” “insane,” “sick,” and “healthy”? 2. Why is the fishing trip therapeutic for the patients? 3. How is Nurse Ratched’s ward like a totalitarian society?4. Why is laughter such a theme of the book? What does it mean for Kesey? 5. OR: Write about your own topic idea, approved by Ms Wilson.

Write at least one page in response to each question.


Nursery Rhyme

Tingle, Tingle, Tangle Toes She's a good fisherman Catches hens, puts'em inna pens Wier blier, limber lock Three geese inna flock One flew east, One flew west, One flew over the cuckoo's nest O-U-T spells out Goose swoops down and plucks you out.


Nursery Rhyme1. Upon first reading, what does the nursery rhyme mean

to you?2. What do you know about the word ‘cuckoo’?

European cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests and build no nests of their own. The baby cuckoo is raised by parents of a different species along with their own babies but usually grows more quickly than its non-cuckoo nest-mates and pushes them out to die. If someone is called a cuckoo, they are being called crazy .


Nursery Rhyme

• The title refers to a shock-therapy-induced recollection of a childhood game played by Chief Broom’s grandmother.


Title

• Obviously, Nurse Ratched is the "good fisherman Catch(ing) hens..." and "...put(ing)'em inna pens." With respect to the "Three geese inna flock," Kesey uses the chant to assert the opposite polarities of the Big Nurse & RPM. The "east/west" polarity represents the opposite philosophies and social-politics at the base of their conflict, and which represents their respective ideas re: the individual's relationship to the state/society.


Themes

Themes in novels are never one word, they are an idea. Below are some themes evident in this novel. – Individuality & rebellion against conformity.– The state is a machine that controls. – The emasculating power of women. – The importance of expressing sexuality. – The false diagnosis of insanity.– Discrimination towards those with mental illness.


Themes

• Write each theme up in your book. Using half a page, note down all the ways that this theme is made evident in the novel.

• Beneath your notes, write a couple of sentences explaining what Kesey’s purpose was in exploring that theme. What is he trying to teach his audience about this particular idea?


Theme: Women as Castrators• Aside from the prostitutes women are seen as threatening and

controlling. • Bromden and McMurphy attribute the suffering of the patients to the

emasculation and castration caused by Nurse Ratched. • Fear of women is a central feature of the novel. • Harding; “We are victims of a matriarchy here.”• Rawler commits suicide by cutting off his own testicles. Bromden “all

the guy had to do was wait” implying that the institution would have achieved the same in the long run.

• After McMurphy’s third EST Nurse recommends an ‘operation’. McMurphy jokes that she means castration. The labotomy achieves the same results.


Theme: Society’s Destruction of Natural Impulses

• Mechanical imagery represents modern society. • The hospital is made of machinery and Blastic bleeds

rust, not blood. • Bromden was a pure natural spirit accustomed to

hunting and reading nature’s signs. This way of life is subverted by society when his fishing village is converted into a profitable hydro-electric dam.

• McMurphy represents the unbridled individuality that the rest of the patients are in awe of. McMurphy fights to retain his individuality until he can bring individuality to the others. Only then does society get the better of him.


Theme: The importance of expressing sexuality.

• Kesey implies that an expression of sexuality is healthy. • Most patients have warped sexual identities because of

relationships with damaging women. • Due to repressed sexuality, perverted sexual acts are

made implicit: the aides engage in ‘sex acts’ and it is suggested that they rape patients.

• The ward is sexless until McMurphy appears and boasts of his sexuality: he owns cards with 52 sexual positions, he’s slept with a 15 year old girl, and he wears Moby Dick boxer shorts. He first had sex aged 10 with a girl even younger.

• McMurphy attempts to cure Billy of his stutter by arranging his first sexual encounter.


Theme: False Diagnosis of Insanity

• McMurphy’s sanity is expressed by his laughter, his sexual appetite, size and confidence, yet he is considered insane by the state.

• The institution is insanity. • Throughout the novel the sane actions of the

men are contrasted with the insane actions of the institution.

• Kesey asks us to question ‘what is crazy’? Bromden’s hallucinations seem crazy, but they’re also very perceptive and insightful.


Laughter

• Why is laughter such a theme of the book? What does it mean for Kesey?


Homework on Laughter

• Find out:– Why do humans laugh?– How is laughter powerful?– When are you told not to laugh and why?


Motifs: Invisibility

• Bromden tries to be as invisible as possible. He hides in fog, and he avoids talking.

• The control of the combine is invisible.• McMurphy smashes the glass. This

symbolises to the patients that while they may not see the control that society has on them, it is there, and it can be smashed through.


Motifs: Power of Laughter

• Laughter is a defence against society’s insanity. It is implied that those that cannot laugh properly have no chance of survival.

• At the end, on the fishing trip all the men, including the doctor share real and deep laughter. This illustrates their physical and psychological recovery.


Motifs: Real vs Imagined Size

• Bromden describes people by their true size, not their physical size. Their size relates to their level of power.

• Bromden is six foot seven, but thinks he’s smaller than everyone. He says that McMurphy is broad as ‘papa was tall’ and his father’s name was The Pine that stands Tallest on the Mountain.


Symbol: Fog Machine

• The ward is perpetually oppressed by a dense fog that Bromden hides himself in.

• He believes that the fog is a mechanism used by the Nurse to control the men and render them incapable of acting contrary to the way she dictates. McMurphy drags each of them from that fog.


Symbol: Boxer Shorts

• White whales: make us think of Moby Dick. The whale is a phallic symbol which suggests McMurphy’s blatant sexuality.

• Also calls to memory Ahab’s obsessive and futile pursuit of the whale. Nurse Ratched is McMurphy’s futile pursuit.

• Moby Dick also stands for the power of nature. McMurphy’s untamed nature comes into conflict with the institution.


Symbol: EST Table

• Associated with crucifiction.• It is shaped like a cross with straps across

the wrists and over the head. • Ellis, Ruckly and Taber, all Acutes whose

lives were destroyed by EST stand as public examples of what happens to those that rebel against society. Ellis is actually nailed to the wall – an explicit reference to Christ’s crucifixion.


FREUD

• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a famous psychoanalyst. He believed sexual desire was the primary motivational energy of human life. He also believed that you could interpret dreams to gain an insight into unconscious desires.

• Some of this theories were…


Castration Anxiety

• This is a Freudian term for the fear men have of being castrated. The thought is that when boys see a female’s genitalia they falsely assume that the girl had her penis removed, as punishment for misbehaviour. The boy becomes anxious that the same thing will happen to them.

• Castration anxiety is when ones fears that their testicles will be removed, resulting in a loss of power.


Penis envy

• A theory that girls are envious of a male’s possession of a penis, as they connect it to having strength.


Oedipus Complex

• The desire to possess the parent of the opposite sex.


FREUD

• Write down in your own words what some of Freud’s theories were.

• Identify parts of the novel where these theories are explored by the characters.


POST READING:Discussion Questions

• Kesey states that One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest helps the reader to "question reality" by "tearing away the fabric of what we've been told is reality and showing us something that is far more real." Do you agree with Kesey's analysis of his book? Select a scene or two that does or does not effectively accomplish this.


POST READING:Discussion Qs:

Microcosm of America

The mental hospital is clearly meant as a microcosm of America in the early 1960s, a picture of the world that the counter-culture is rebelling against. Who do people on the ward represent in society? In what other ways is it shown as a microcosm? What does this tell us about the revolt?


Microcosm Ideas

• The group therapy: all about tearing down your neighbour.

• Control imposed by the Nurse is similar to control imposed by state.

• Men are scared to act in an individual way for fear they are identified and punished. Or that others will tell on them.

• Expression of sexuality is forbidden.


RELIGIOUS IMAGERY:Christ

• Throughout the book, McMurphy is presented very much as a Christ character, often in quite heavy-handed ways why and how? Think about this carefully there are a real lot of examples to draw on. How does Candy fit in all this?


Religious Imagery• McMurphy is alluded to as a Christ figure. • He becomes a martyr for the patients. • Ellis stands ‘crucified’ to the wall.• Before the fishing trip Ellis shakes Billy’s hands and tells

him to be a ‘fisher of men’.• This is the phrase Christ used to his disciples to win

people over as converts. • The fishing trip is the salvation of the men.• Patients are 12 in number, same as the 12 disciples.• When McM is put on the EST table he says, ‘Anointest

my head with conductant. Do I get a crown of thorns?’• Both McM and Christ die to save others and give them

hope.


POST READING: Discussion QuestionsRELIGIOUS IMAGERY

Throughout the novel there are explicit references and allusions to the bible. Why do you think Kesey has done this? What does he imply by making connections between religion, characters and the ward?

Documents

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey