1950s

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One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest Ken Kesey
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The Novel

• A counter-culture protest novel, which is an
  allegorical portrayal of society at the time.
• Allegory a symbolic representation of ideas.

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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
  characters sexuality?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Propaganda Film

• Duck and cover
• He may be a communist

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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 Clooneys film Good night and Good luck
  depicts the paranoia of this era.

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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.

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Beatniks

• Poetry readings were a common forum for Beatniks
  to articulate dissatisfaction with societal
  constraints.
• Allen Ginsbergs 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.

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Allen Ginsberg Howl

• HowlPart1
• HowlPart2

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 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

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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.

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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.

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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 Wolfs story The
  Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. This book became a
  must-read for the hippie generation.

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Ken Kesey Interview

• Interview with Ken Kesey

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The Major Conflict

• The 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!

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Novel Study Whats 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.

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Written Response Questions

• 1. 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 Ratcheds 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.

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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.

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Nursery Rhyme

• Upon first reading, what does the nursery rhyme
  mean to you?
• 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 .

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Nursery Rhyme

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

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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.

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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.

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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 Keseys purpose was in exploring
  that theme. What is he trying to teach his
  audience about this particular idea?

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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 McMurphys third EST Nurse recommends an
  operation. McMurphy jokes that she means
  castration. The labotomy achieves the same
  results.

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Theme Societys 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 natures 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.

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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, hes 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.

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Theme False Diagnosis of Insanity

• McMurphys 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?
  Bromdens hallucinations seem crazy, but theyre
  also very perceptive and insightful.

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Laughter

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

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Homework on Laughter

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

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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.

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Motifs Power of Laughter

• Laughter is a defence against societys 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.

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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 hes
  smaller than everyone. He says that McMurphy is
  broad as papa was tall and his fathers name
  was The Pine that stands Tallest on the Mountain.

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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.

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Symbol Boxer Shorts

• White whales make us think of Moby Dick. The
  whale is a phallic symbol which suggests
  McMurphys blatant sexuality.
• Also calls to memory Ahabs obsessive and futile
  pursuit of the whale. Nurse Ratched is McMurphys
  futile pursuit.
• Moby Dick also stands for the power of nature.
  McMurphys untamed nature comes into conflict
  with the institution.

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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 Christs crucifixion.

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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

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Castration Anxiety

• This is a Freudian term for the fear men have of
  being castrated. The thought is that when boys
  see a females 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.

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Penis envy

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

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Oedipus Complex

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

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FREUD

• Write down in your own words what some of Freuds
  theories were.
• Identify parts of the novel where these theories
  are explored by the characters.

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POST READINGDiscussion 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.

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POST READINGDiscussion QsMicrocosm 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?

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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.

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RELIGIOUS IMAGERYChrist

• 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?

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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 Billys
  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.

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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?