Unsung Heroes of Psychiatric Wards The cliche phrase ‘don 't judge a book by its cover’ has been around for generations. Who would have guessed that one of America’s most loved movie stars and sex icons, Marilyn Monroe, had depression and a form of schizophrenia? In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey proves that people with mental illness should not be frowned upon because they do not fit in with the rest of the cookie-cutter society. Kesey uses a realist approach to make people question rules and values, and the reasons behind them.
Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado on September 17, 1935. Kesey grew up in Springfield, Oregon and attended the University of Oregon, where he “actively participated in fraternities, drama, and …show more content…
Kesey sets up the typical mental institution scene in Portland, Oregon, with domineering staff, submissive patients, and a new patient that wants to change things. The novel is narrated by Chief Bromden/ Chief Broom, an incurable, hallucinogenic, schizophrenic American Indian who pretends to be cagey because people “started acting like [he] was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all”. The world of the book is explained from a different perspective; explaining what it is like to live as a cagey, mentally unstable man in a psychiatric ward. Although his mental state makes Chief seem as if he is an unreliable narrator, Kesey proves that one cannot be judged do to their mental …show more content…
Randle Patrick McMurphy mockingly pronounces it "rat shed", showing that she has rodent like characteristics of working discreetly, rapidly, and to the impediment of her casualties. Rats were the bearers of the Black Plague amid the Middle Ages, and Ratched contaminates the healing center 's orderlies, aides, workforce, and patients with her extreme need for obedience. The name Ratched is a pun in itself, because a ratchet is a gadget that uses a curving movement to fix screws into spot. This fills a prominent allegorical need in Kesey 's grasp, as Ratched controls the patients on her ward, turning them against one another to uncover secrets in group meetings. Chief Bromden states that Nurse Ratched "tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision- made machine". Chief goes ahead to depict her as looking like a doll all things considered, however automated and mechanical underneath; a human-droid. Being the face of the all-powerful Combine, she enforces her strictness on the new admission,
Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado on September 17, 1935. Kesey grew up in Springfield, Oregon and attended the University of Oregon, where he “actively participated in fraternities, drama, and …show more content…
Kesey sets up the typical mental institution scene in Portland, Oregon, with domineering staff, submissive patients, and a new patient that wants to change things. The novel is narrated by Chief Bromden/ Chief Broom, an incurable, hallucinogenic, schizophrenic American Indian who pretends to be cagey because people “started acting like [he] was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all”. The world of the book is explained from a different perspective; explaining what it is like to live as a cagey, mentally unstable man in a psychiatric ward. Although his mental state makes Chief seem as if he is an unreliable narrator, Kesey proves that one cannot be judged do to their mental …show more content…
Randle Patrick McMurphy mockingly pronounces it "rat shed", showing that she has rodent like characteristics of working discreetly, rapidly, and to the impediment of her casualties. Rats were the bearers of the Black Plague amid the Middle Ages, and Ratched contaminates the healing center 's orderlies, aides, workforce, and patients with her extreme need for obedience. The name Ratched is a pun in itself, because a ratchet is a gadget that uses a curving movement to fix screws into spot. This fills a prominent allegorical need in Kesey 's grasp, as Ratched controls the patients on her ward, turning them against one another to uncover secrets in group meetings. Chief Bromden states that Nurse Ratched "tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision- made machine". Chief goes ahead to depict her as looking like a doll all things considered, however automated and mechanical underneath; a human-droid. Being the face of the all-powerful Combine, she enforces her strictness on the new admission,