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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (novel)

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   CAPTION: Title One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

   Recent US paperback edition cover
   Recent paperback edition
     Author   Ken Kesey
    Country   United States
    Language  English
    Genre(s)  Novel
   Publisher  Viking Press
    Released  1962
   Media type Print ( Hardback & Paperback)
      ISBN    N/A

   One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ( 1962) is a fictional novel by Ken
   Kesey. The novel is set in an Oregon asylum, and serves as a study of
   the institutional process and the human mind. It was made into a film
   in 1975 by Miloš Forman, after being made into a Broadway play by Dale
   Wasserman in 1963.

   Its epigraph is:

     …one flew east, one flew west,
     One flew over the cuckoo's nest.

Plot introduction

   One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a direct product of Kesey's time
   working as an orderly at a mental-health facility in Menlo Park,
   California. Not only did he speak to the patients and witness the
   workings of the institution, he received electroconvulsive therapy and
   took psychoactive drugs as well as the same drugs as the patients to
   gain a deeper insight into their lives.

Plot summary

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   Narrated by the schizophrenic Columbian Indian "Chief" Bromden (who
   starts out pretending to be deaf and mute), much of the plot focuses on
   the antics of cheerfully rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, a man sent
   from a workfarm prison to a mental hospital. The all-male asylum, based
   upon the old Pendleton, Oregon asylum (now the Eastern Oregon
   Correctional Institution), is run by the domineering Nurse Ratched and
   her assistants, who are described as young black men filled with
   hatred. McMurphy constantly antagonizes the Nurse, attempting to
   organize the patients against her rule.

   One night, after bribing the night orderly, McMurphy smuggles bottles
   of liquor and two prostitutes onto the ward for a wild nighttime party.
   Billy Bibbit loses his virginity, sleeping with one of the prostitutes
   at McMurphy's urging. However, McMurphy's plans quickly go awry when he
   falls asleep and does not awake until the morning staff returns and
   discovers what has happened. Nurse Ratched walks in on Billy Bibbit and
   the prostitute, still asleep, and threatens to tell Billy's mother what
   he has done. Hearing this, Billy enters a frenzied state, and when
   taken to the Doctor's office, slits his throat and commits suicide. It
   is implied that Nurse Ratched intended for Billy to kill himself in
   order that she might regain control of the ward. As such, McMurphy
   dutifully attacks her, ripping open her shirt and severely injuring her
   throat and face. McMurphy is promptly taken to the Disturbed ward and
   undergoes a lobotomy.

   When McMurphy returns, he is wheeled onto the ward on a bed, now in a
   sort of vegetative state. Chief realizes that if McMurphy remains in
   that state, Nurse Ratched will have ultimately won; conversely, if
   Chief kills McMurphy, McMurphy cannot become a symbol of Nurse
   Ratched's power. In the final moments of the novel, Chief smothers
   McMurphy and uses the strength McMurphy restored in him to break the
   ward's window and escape into the night. Despite McMurphy's ultimate
   sacrifice, the consequent redemption of the patients, particularly
   Chief, provides an uplifting conclusion to the novel.

Characters

   Chief Bromden The novel's towering Native-American narrator, Chief
   "Broom" (so-called because he does nothing but sweep all day) is the
   son of a real chief and a white woman. He narrates One Flew Over the
   Cuckoo's Nest with a variety of bizarre metaphors, often comparing the
   people and surroundings of the ward in terms of secret,
   mind-controlling machinery, named the combine. Because Native Americans
   are stereotypically portrayed as in touch with Nature, Chief's
   mechanistic descriptions of the ward pit Nature and Technology against
   one another, which respectively symbolize sanity and insanity, the
   individual and society. Chief's ultimate recovery and victory over the
   ward and Nurse Ratched likewise symbolizes the individual's triumph
   over a totalitarian society. Like many of the novel's other "insane"
   characters, Chief's condition began as a result of a traumatic
   experience with a female figure in his life. As a child, government
   officials repeatedly tried and failed to buy the tribe's land from
   Chief's father. Ultimately, however, Chief's mother forces her husband
   to give in, and after he sells the land, he turns to a life of
   alcoholism. His white wife's conquest over him is symbolic both of the
   white man's abuse of Native Americans and, per Chief's symbolism, the
   victory of society over the individual. When the young chief tries to
   tell the government officials to leave, they ignore him. This,
   compounded with the defeat of his idolized father, causes Chief to lose
   faith in himself and the individual, and he retreats into the silence
   and safety of the metaphorical fog he often describes as permeating the
   ward.

   When McMurphy and his ideas of individuality restore Chief's
   self-confidence, Chief regains his former stature and is able to escape
   the ward.

   Randle Patrick McMurphy A fun-loving, swaggering convict sent from a
   prison. He is sexist, racist, forceful, and guilty of battery and
   gambling (he had also been charged with, but never convicted of,
   statutory rape). The fact that the girl refused to testify in the case
   implies that she did not feel taken advantage of, so this does not
   damage his character for the other protagonists. McMurphy is
   transferred from a prison work farm to the hospital, thinking it will
   be an easy way to serve out his sentence. He has a fine time hustling
   the patients, until he realizes that he is more than a diversion for
   them; he gives them the lives they are too afraid to live for
   themselves. In the end, McMurphy's determination to fight Nurse Ratched
   costs him his freedom, his health, and ultimately, his life.

The staff

   Nurse Ratched: see Nurse Ratched

   Washington, Williams, and Warren Three black men who work as aides in
   the ward. Williams is a dwarf, his growth stunted after witnessing his
   mother's rape by white men. The Chief says Nurse Ratched hired them for
   their capacity to hate. They are cruel and vindictive men who are
   unable to dominate McMurphy.

   Dr. Spivey The spineless ward doctor. While Nurse Ratched managed to
   drive off all the other doctors, she kept Spivey because he always did
   as he was told. Harding suggests that the nurse may threaten to expose
   him as a drug addict, though whether he really is an addict is unknown.
   McMurphy's rebellion inspires him. He stands up to Nurse Ratched and
   accompanies the men on their fishing trip.

   Nurse Pilbow The night nurse for the ward. Her face, neck and chest are
   stained with a profound birthmark. She is intensely Catholic, and,
   according to the Chief, spends her time off praying for the birthmark
   to disappear or scrubbing it furiously until her skin bleeds. She
   blames the patients for infecting her with their evil, and takes it out
   on them. Both McMurphy and Harding have a crush on her.

   The Japanese Nurse A tiny woman, she runs the upstairs ward, which is
   reserved for violent or otherwise unmanageable patients. She treats her
   patients kindly and openly opposes Nurse Ratched's methods.

   The PR man A strange individual who is responsible for the hospital's
   public relations. The patients suspect he wears a corset and sometimes
   he laughs hysterically when there are no other staff around. In a
   nightmare, the Chief sees him cut off the testicles of a dead patient
   as a trophy.

   Geever The night aide. He is the one who discovers that the Chief is
   hiding old wads of gum under his bed.

   Mr. Turkle An elderly African American man, he works the late, late
   shift in the ward. He agrees to allow McMurphy to host a party and
   sneak in prostitutes one night if the incentive is right. He is a
   marijuana user, and shares his joint with some of the patients during
   the party.

The "Acutes"

   The acutes are patients who can still be cured. With few exceptions,
   they are there voluntarily.

   Billy Bibbit A patient at the institution with an extreme speech
   impediment. Billy cuts himself and has attempted suicide numerous
   times. Nurse Ratched is a close friend of his mother, therefore leaving
   him powerless and almost voiceless. His mother treats him like he is a
   teenager, though in reality he is actually in his thirties. To
   alleviate Billy's fear of women, McMurphy sneaks a prostitute into the
   ward so Billy can lose his virginity. Upon being discovered the next
   morning, Billy speaks for the first time without stuttering. It is only
   after Nurse Ratched mentions Billy's mother that he loses his new
   confidence, and resorts back to his nervous ways. Unable to handle the
   pressure of his fear of his mother, and the control of the Big Nurse,
   Billy breaks down and takes his own life.

   Dale Harding The unofficial leader of the patients before McMurphy
   arrives. Harding is a pretty man who is ashamed of his secret
   homosexual tendencies. Harding's gorgeous wife is a source of shame for
   him; he cannot pleasure her, making him feel even less like a man.

   George Sorensen A Swedish man with germaphobia. He spends his days
   washing his hands in the ward's drinking fountain. McMurphy manages to
   convince him to lead a fishing expedition for the patients. Afterwards,
   the staff try to forcibly delouse him, conscious of the mental anguish
   that they are causing him. The de-lousing is mainly retribution by the
   nurse rather than medical care. McMurphy and the Chief stop the
   de-lousing and, because of their actions, end up in the Disturbed ward.

   Cheswick A loudmouth patient always demanding change in the ward, but
   who never has the guts to see anything through. He finds a friend in
   McMurphy. When McMurphy is seen to be backing down in his fight against
   the nurse, Cheswick drowns himself in the swimming pool.

   Martini A patient who suffers from severe hallucinations. He frightens
   McMurphy by talking about all the people who need McMurphy to see them,
   that is, the people who need McMurphy to stand up for them.

   Scanlon A patient obsessed with bombs and destruction. Aside from
   McMurphy and Bromden, he is the only non-vegetative patient there by
   force, the rest could leave at anytime. It is Scanlon who convinces the
   Chief to escape.

   Sefelt and Fredrickson Two epileptic patients. Bruce Sefelt refuses to
   take his anti-seizure medication, as it makes his hair and teeth fall
   out. He is plagued by seizures, which the Chief believes are controlled
   by Nurse Ratched. Fredrickson takes Sefelt's share of the medication,
   because he is terrified of the seizures.

   Max Taber A patient who was released before McMurphy arrived. The Chief
   recalls how, after questioning what was in his medication, Nurse
   Ratched had him 'fixed.' He walked out of the hospital a sane man, a
   tribute to the Combine's awesome and terrible power.

The "Chronics"

   The chronics are patients who will never be cured; they are held at the
   asylum to intimidate the Acutes and to remind them that they could be
   in the Chronics' place if they don't comply. Many of the chronics are
   in vegetative states.

   Chief Bromden (See above)

   Ruckly A hell-raising patient who challenges the rules until his
   lobotomy. After the lobotomy, he sits and stares at a picture of his
   wife, and occasionally screams profanities. He is kept in the ward as a
   reminder of what happens to patients who get out of line.

   Ellis Ellis was put in a vegetative state by electroshock therapy. He
   stands against the wall in a Christ-like position (arms outstretched,
   hands cupped), day after day, as if he were nailed there.

   Pete Bancini Bancini suffered brain damage at birth, but managed to
   hold down simple jobs until he was institutionalized. He sits, wagging
   his head and complaining how tired he is. The Chief remembers how once,
   and only once, he lashed out violently against the aides, telling the
   other patients that he was a living miscarriage, born dead.

   Rawler A patient on the disturbed ward, he says nothing but "loo, loo,
   loo!" all day and tries to run up the walls. The Chief believes he has
   been wired to receive radio transmissions. One night Rawler castrates
   himself while sitting on the toilet and bleeds to death before anyone
   realizes what he has done.

   Old Blastic An old patient who is in a vegetative state. The first
   night McMurphy is in the ward, Bromden dreams Blastic is hung by his
   heel and sliced open, spilling out his rusty guts. The next morning it
   is revealed that Blastic died during the night.

   The Lifeguard An ex-professional football player, he still has the
   cleat marks on his forehead from the injury that scrambled his brains.
   While he is the lifeguard at the hospital pool, he remains in the
   disturbed ward because he occasionally tackles the nurses. This is fine
   with him, because he doesn't realize he's in a mental hospital. It is
   the lifeguard who tells McMurphy that he will stay in the hospital
   until Nurse Ratched decides he may go, regardless of his original
   prison sentence.

   Colonel Matterson The oldest patient in the ward, he suffers from
   severe senile dementia and cannot move without a wheelchair. He spends
   his days "explaining" objects ("Mexico ... is a walnut."). The Chief
   believes there is logic to his babbling.

Supporting characters

   Candy The prostitute that McMurphy brings on the fishing trip. All the
   men in the ward, including the doctor and the vegetative chronics, are
   struck by her beauty. Billy obviously has a crush on her, and McMurphy
   arranges for her to visit Billy in private (after paying McMurphy a
   fee).

   Sandy Another prostitute and friend of McMurphy, she shows up with
   Candy on the night of the party. She and Sefelt sleep together (Sefelt
   has a seizure while they are having sexual intercourse, giving Sandra
   an experience she'll never forget).
   Spoilers end here.

Themes

   Some common themes include the following:
     * Masculine sexual power
     * The power of women
     * Promiscuity
     * Size (both literal and perceived)
     * Hallucination
     * Insanity
     * Self-indulgence vs. sacrifice
     * Freedom vs. control
     * Society (particularly American) vs. the Individual, and its
       effects. (Main Theme)

Editions

     * ISBN 0-606-04239-3 ( prebound, 1962)
     * ISBN 0-451-16396-6 ( mass market paperback, 1963)
     * ISBN 0-14-004312-8 ( paperback, 1977, reprint)
     * ISBN 0-14-023601-5 ( hardcover, 1996)
     * ISBN 1-55651-685-1 (paperback, 1988)
     * ISBN 0-453-00815-1 ( audio cassette, 1993, abridged)
     * ISBN 0-14-028334-X (paperback, 1999)
     * ISBN 0-8220-7154-1 ( e-book, 1999)
     * ISBN 0-7645-8662-9 (paperback, 2000)
     * ISBN 0-7910-6339-9 ( library binding, 2001)
     * ISBN 0-14-118122-2 (paperback, 2002)
     * ISBN 0-7910-7118-9 (paperback)
     * ISBN 0-330-23564-8 (paperback)
     * Photos of the first edition One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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