One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a classic piece of literary fiction first published in 1962. Its controversial author, Ken Kesey, served as an experimental subject and aide in a hospital, an experience which particularly inspired the novel’s creation. Though he was born in La Junta, Colorado in 1935, Kesey moved to Palo Alto, California after a scholarship to a graduate writing program at Stanford University. It was here at Stanford that he volunteered for a U.S. Army experiment in which he was given mind-altering drugs to report on their effects, as well as served as an attendant in a psychiatric ward. Much like his books, some of which are banned in select schools, Kesey’s behavior was highly contentious, as he was a major proponent of psychedelic drug usage, a position that landed him in jail after being charged with drug possession, faking his own death, and fleeing the country. Upon his release, Kesey settled down and started a
McMurphy soon becomes acquainted to Chief Bromden, the hospital’s longest-dwelling patient who believes the world is one big “combine”, and everyone is just a part of the machine. This depressive outlook leads Chief to falsely assume the role of a man who is both blind and deaf, causing his peers and even superiors to speak freely around him and thus giving him access to the hospital’s utmost secrets. Both men operate under the rule of the hospital’s head nurse, Nurse Ratched. A woman with a thirst for power and an iron fist, Ratched tyrannically controls the lives of all patient residing under her care, ensuring her title as the novel’s antagonist. Though no specific time period is provided, the fact that Chief entered the hospital towards the end of World War II indicates that the story must take place some time between the 1950s and