Cuckoos Nest Essay Research Paper In what free essay sample

Cuckoos Nest Essay, Research Paper In what ways does the writer of a novel you have studied make the reader aware of an of import subject or subjects? One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, by Ken Kesey, is a novel which explores many subjects associating to human society, spirit and construction. It written in a alone manner, that, in combination with strong symbolism and word picture, successfully conveys these subjects to the reader. The book is besides backed up by a strong pragmatism which Kesey managed to get from old ages functioning on a mental ward and from his ain geographic expeditions into mind-altering drugs. But likely the most of import manner in which Kesey communicates his subjects with the reader is through the usage of 3rd individual narrative. Kesey chooses one of the patients, Chief Bromden, as the storyteller of the novel. The universe which Bromden describes is a hazy, crystalline kingdom, where the boundary lines between insanity and saneness are ill-defined. There s long enchantments -three yearss, years- when you can t see a thing, know where you are merely by the talker sounding overhead like a bell clanging in the fog ( 94 ) Bromden s position is all-knowing. Although he poses to the ward staff as a deaf-and-dumb person, he really hears and comprehends all that happens within the infirmary. The Chief was able drama the portion of a inactive perceiver, posting himself in of import meetings and able to see and hear things which are concealed from other inmates. This penetration into what is go oning around the ward is critical to the manner in which Kesey s subjects are brought to the readers awareness. We are able to understand non merely Bromdens psychotic beliefs but besides his perceptual experiences into the manner the ward and society work. Although Bromden does non ever see everything as it literally happens. He hallucinates frequently, seeing things in footings of machinery, She s transporting a woven wicker bag # 8230 ; I can see inside it ; there s no compact or lip rouge or adult female material, she s got that bag full of a 1000 parts she aims to utilize in her responsibilities today # 8211 ; wheels and cogwheels, cogs polished to a difficult glister, bantam pills, acerate leafs, forceps, horologists plyerss, axial rotations of Cu wire # 8230 ; ( 10 ) . Kesey uses the Chiefs distorted subconscious ramblings and perceptual experiences to give the reader the true subjective history of the action, summed up by the phrase: It s the truth even if it didn t happen. For case the Chief s dream/vision of the mechanized meatman store. The Chief s phobic disorder and paranoia about machines and power are focussed in this transition, where human cadavers, one being Old Blastics, are being moved around on mechanical meathooks. But the vision is non merely another psychotic belief, as the Chief awakes the following twenty-four hours to happen Old Blastic has died during the dark. This shows the Chiefs truth is symbolic of what is go oning in world. The Chiefs images and captivations become cardinal symbols of the book. The changeless associations with machinery and the Combine which he describes as being a immense administration that aims to set the Outside every bit good as she [ Large Nurse ] has the interior ( 27 ) , present the reader with more of Keseys thoughts. The Combine is the opposite to everything natural. It represents everything which is smooth, accurate precise and organised. The Big Nurse is seen as the Combines primary tool in seting the Inside: I see her sit in the Centre of this web of wires like a alert automaton, tend her web with mechanical insect accomplishment, know every 2nd which wire tallies where and merely what current to direct up to acquire the consequences she wants. The Big Nurse symbolises all that is unfertile, mechanical, conformed and unnatural # 8211 ; a mechanical matriarchate. Womans, such as the Nurse Ratched, characteristic in Kesey s novel in either of two visible radiations. Either as a ball-cutter like the Big Nurse, who are captive on ruling work forces and striping them of their freedom and maleness. Or as Candy, the prostitute, who is purpose on giving work forces freedom and pleasance. There is no in-between land between these extremes, which merely goes to overstate Keseys subjects. He uses these contrasting extremes throughout the novel for other such subjects as good V immorality, mechanical V natural and asepsis vs birthrate. Using such appositions Kesey makes his thoughts stand out clearly to the reader. The duality between the Big Nurse and McMurphy is another illustration of the manner Kesey uses apposition to show his subjects to the reader. McMurphy is the supporter. A stringy, red-haired, incorrigible character who shortly becomes the main bullgoose crazy of the ward. The adversary is Nurse Ratched. The struggles which arises between these two characters with opposing ideologi Es explore the subjects of individualism versus conformance, and natural order versus the constitution. An illustration of this was seen when McMurphy ran his manus through the glass of the Nurses station. By making this McMurphy illustrates one time once more that he will oppose all the Nurse stands for and at the same clip shatters her progressively delicate calm. McMurphys ill will toward the Big Nurse at first is merely to do his life on the ward more endurable. Taking ownership of the bath room for an alternate diversion room, and seeking to go through a ballot to watch the World Series Baseball show us this. Meanwhile the other patients on the ward decide non to contend the Combine, but instead allow themselves be repaired in order to suit back into normal society once more. But subsequently in the novel McMurphy, after gaining he is committed to the ward, takes up the battle for a different ground. The conflict becomes non one between patient and nurse, but between release and limitation, life and motionlessness, and finally good and evil. In taking up this conflict on behalf of the patients, McMurphy gives them some of his bravery and assurance. These weren t the same clump of weak-knees from the nut-house that they d watched take their abuses on the dock this forenoon ( 194 ) , which was a phrase Bromden used to explicate how the patients had been changed by McMurphy. McMurphy is seen as a Jesus to the patients. Kesey uses other such spiritual imagination meagerly throughout the novel to show his subjects. First seen in Ellis who stands against the wall with weaponries outstretched # 8211 ; crucified. The EST tabular array is in the form of a cross which the patient is strapped to, and a Crown of irritants fastened to their caput to present the intervention. The whole readying of EST has parallels to crucifixion of Christ. [ McMurphy ] ascent on the tabular array without any aid and distribute his weaponries out to suit the shadow. A fink snaps the clasps on his carpuss, mortise joints, clamping him into the shadow. ( 218 ) . The fishing trip besides has spiritual intensions. As McMurphy leads the 12 patients/disciples towards the ocean, Ellis tells Billy Bibbit to be a fisher of work forces. Which was a phrase Christ used to state his adherents in winning converts to his cause. McMurphy carried the other patients hopes, dreams and aspirations up on himself. He carried their cross: We couldn t halt him because we were the 1s doing him make it. It wasn t the nurse that was coercing him, it was our demand that was doing him force himself easy up # 8230 ; obeying orders beamed at him from 40 Masterss. McMurphy besides, like Christ, both gave their lives that others might populate, when he was set about a leukotomy at the terminal of the novel. Kesey employs the usage of flashbacks to give the reader a more in depth position of the subjects associating to the Big Chief. We discover how he was raised and why he became cagey: it wasn t me that started moving deaf: it was people that first started moving like I was excessively dense to hear or see or state anything at all. ( 163 ) . We besides learn why he has such an affinity to mechanization and machinery, by explicating his linemans background and his robotic paranoia. Using this literary technique efficaciously, Kesey is able to convey subjects associating to the constructions and force per unit areas which society imposed on the Chief in his young person. Kesey besides intends the rubric of his book One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest to hold allegorical significance. The full babys room rime which the Chief recalls as a kid was as follows: Ting. Tingle, Tangle shiver toes, she s a good fisherman, gimmicks biddies, puts em inna pens # 8230 ; wireblier, supple lock, three geese inna flock # 8230 ; one flew E, one flew West, one flew over the cuckoos nest.. O-U-T enchantments out.. goose slides down and tweak you out. ( 224 ) Kesey uses this rime to spell out the underlying subject in his novel. That being of a adult male, McMurphy, who swoops over the cuckoos nest and plucks out the Chief to freedom. The nurse is symbolised as Tingle, Tangle tremble toes who locks the patients like biddies into a slow, elusive picking party. Kesey uses the rubric of the novel to give the reader non merely a lasting first feeling of the novel but besides to summarize the chief thoughts he intends his novel to convey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo # 8217 ; s Nest is a microcosmic expression at an single defying autocratic regulation on the evidences of a psychiatric ward. It is a cagey commentary on the bravery required to interrupt pre-conditioned limitations and dip caput foremost into release. Using a broad assortment of literary techniques Kesey successfully uses this novel as a platform to proclaim his subjects and thoughts which out subdivision out into the macrocosmic universe of mundane life.