Ken Kesey

There is nothing more sacred to the maintenance of democracy than a free press. News propaganda is propaganda disguised as credible news. According to Dr. Cynthia Boaz of truth-out.org, “Fox News is known to use propaganda to ‘brainwash’ their viewers by using a certain fourteen propaganda techniques.” News propaganda can be motivated by national security reasons, sometimes in times of war. Americans spend about 50 hours a week using different kinds of social media. However, our literacy levels…

fit in and have a society filled with people just like them versus those who just want to be themselves, is at the center of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. By portraying the perspective of the patients on the ward and highlighting the brutality against men who are supposedly insane, but really are just uniquely human, Kesey accentuates the dangers within the doctrine of conformity- how although…

Ken Kesey narrates the patient’s reclusiveness by writing, “ [The Ordely’s] don't bother talking not talking out loud about their hate secrets when I'm nearby because they think I'm deaf and dumb. Everybody thinks so.”( Kesey 3). Because of the Ordely’s behavior, Bromden is almost depicted as non-existent. Chief’s illusion of reality is created by the ward and…

Often referred to as the beatniks, a parody of the USSR’s “Sputnik” (Enck), the Beat Generation stands in stark contrast to 1950’s American culture. With the rapid emergence of a post-WWII society - suburbs and consumerism, traditional family values and an exclusion of the extreme - entered the authors who rejected it. Their ideology, shocking to those of their time, ultimately led to the creation of a nation-wide literary movement. The roots of this movement took place during 1944 near Columbia…

Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a complex text that explores the different aspects of society and ideals, in particular anti-heroism, through Randle P. McMurphy. McMurphy is used as a narrative tool to connect with the audience, he poses many identifiable traits, most notably his hamartia, his ego. McMurphy is a very accessible character to the readers, from his grittiness to his villain like qualities. McMurphy has an increased moral complexity exhibited by his…

Most look upon society as a liberating invention, freeing us from the chaos of our uncivilized past. However, it can also be viewed by some as a prison which enforces institutional conformity. Such people, such as Ken Kesey, condemned the way in which those who weren’t deemed as “normal” by society were often sentenced to be trapped under inhumane conditions. Although the primary conflict in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is not one against entrapment, but rather one between untamed…

commences to laugh. Nobody can tell exactly why he laughs; there’s nothing funny going on. But it’s not the way that Public Relations laughs, it’s free and loud…This sounds real. I realize all of a sudden it’s the first laugh I’ve heard in years” (Kesey 11). As McMurphy’s laughter suggests personality and emotion, the inmates question his sanity. This type of laughter has never been expressed or heard of in the asylum before, for it is not permitted due to Nurse Ratched’s control. This is just…

The Explanation Characterization of a person does not just begin and end with their personality traits. However, it must take into account a person’s experiences, effect on others and what they left behind. There is a difference between standing up for what one’s beliefs and becoming a hero. Both of these can leave a legacy but McMurphy found that in order to be considered heroic, he had to facilitate those in need to make a change in their own lives. McMurphy’s stubborn, and rule breaking…

Without sounding terribly cliché I honestly have to say that this book found me, rather than me finding it. I was having difficult time picking the right book. As I’m sure many of you are aware, a title on a list isn’t really much to go off of. One day I found myself in the library after school reading Catch-22. The book is probably good in its own right, but I might have been crushed under the weight of its 453 pages. Then, Mrs. Maynard the librarian taps me on the shoulder and hands me a…

against Big Brother in 1984, by George Orwell, the battle between good and evil, morally just and unjust, oppressed and oppressor has been a central theme throughout much of mythology and literature. The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, examines this theme by detailing the war between Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of a psychiatric ward, and recently admitted Randall Patrick McMurphy, a rough and tumbling redheaded gambler, conman, and backroom boxer. McMurphy constantly…