One Flew Within the Cuckoo’s Nest Review Sample

How Are Themes of Race and Gender Presented in the Novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Why Was the Novel Criticized for Its Treatment of These Themes?

“One Flew On the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a novel written by Ken Kesey and published nearly 55 years back. The plot is not as simple since it seems initially, it takes quite a while to understand its depth, to comprehend the symbolism and references that the writer was attempting to convey. Over time, the fans of the book and the film have been arguing about the real connotation of the creation, the meaning of the characters and signs submitted by the author. In accordance with many experts and critics, this work belongs to postmodern literature, which main features are black humor, irony, and different references, therefore the novel is full of Evangelical and Freudian motifs.

A very important factor is pretty clear – this book is a hymn to human relations, the role of sex in the life of every person and the problems of domination and subordination in everyday life. Of the issues touched in one way or yet another in the book, it really is worth highlighting the theme of race, gender and character, leadership qualities, etc. So what is actually hidden behind the seemingly simple plot and just how much is it worth to evaluate the picture to comprehend the truth?

The main location of the plot is an ordinary psychiatric hospital. Time could be the 60s of the 20th century. A quiet work plan of the institution suffers changes when the threshold of a medical facility is crossed by a criminal who claims to be a mentally ill person to escape punishment – Randle Patrick McMurphy. He is an Irish redhead man, a strongly expressed leader, a rebel, and so the schedule and regime of the hospital evoke his anger and protest. Intermingling the patients’ private lives all through therapy, neglecting personal opinion, hospital’s staff domination and obeying their absolute rules – every one of these problems don't leave the key character aside. He starts the combat the regimen, confronts the key antagonists, but many of his attempts are broken from the rocks – a strong Nurse Ratched, whose figure changes with the course of the plot. She's a powerful elderly woman, a strongly expressed perfectionist, she everybody being disciplined and does not tolerate any wrangling, has a real impact on living of a medical facility and, unfortuitously, she enjoyed it and felt satisfied when she suppressed the opinion of other people and forced them to follow the principles that were invented by herself. The confrontation between the protagonists – McMurphy and Nurse Ratched – is the central theme of the novel. They are fighting for their interests, defending their points of view. As well as radically different points of view, the enemies have entirely different characters. Randle is a “hurricane man, ” he never sits straight back, has a very active life position and does not hesitate to express his protest. However is Nurse Ratched – an unemotional, cruel and relentless woman, she is a tyrant, enjoys the enduring of others. Elaine B. Safer describes the image of this heroine as “to be monstrous and not a monster, hateful but not grotesque, the very type of the good citizen working, disastrously… [She is] Of power, squelching her patient’s manhood with the blandest of smiles” (132).

The task erases specific frames of the sex stereotypes. It’s no secret that in everyday life there's a cliche a man should be a leader, solve important matters rather than be influenced. On the other hand, the girl must follow the male decisions, for some reason obey also to be weak. Noticeable that the novel reveals male and female images in entirely different forms, destroying previous stereotypes. For example , it really is evident that Nurse Ratched has a dominant status on the male patients of her department. She does not provide a reason for them to decide on their very own and forces them to check out the rules developed by herself, thereby killing their self-esteem. Subsequently, men fear so much Nurse Ratched, because they understand that the punishment for disobedience can be very severe and strict – a female has special pills on her behalf arsenal as well as can use electric shock.

Yet another actual dilemma of the novel is the theme of the race. A medical facility is high in people of different races and nationalities – it becomes apparent after describing the characters. Noticeable that there is a parallel with the American population racial diversity – there are Chief Bromden (by the way, the reader watches the story through his eyes, as he is a narrator), the Irishman McMurphy, Americans with the roots of different countries, a Japanese nurse and black hospital staff. The most contrastingly are these three black medical orderlies – Washington, Williams, and Warren. They've been secondary characters, not regular scene heroes, but their presence in the story is not accidental – they symbolize weak-minded people who succumb to the authority of other people and disrupt their anger at the weak ones. Their figures are described as “crazy and hating all” (Kesey 9). ” Men work according to Nurse Ratched’s directions, sometimes savagely and soullessly dealing with the patients, consequently, the woman treats the staff with overt prejudice, demonstrating her dominator qualities. There exists a certain mention of the the slave trade instances when the scenes of the contact between “The Big Nurse” and the men are shown.

The book received worldwide recognition, it was a new air breath in the 60s literature world, gaining a lot of attention till this very day. The author presented such topics as relations between genders and racial discrimination in a unique manner, for which the novel was subjected to minor criticism. The key reason for this was that the Kesey’s book didn’t have its predecessor or analogs, which would describe such themes in a simultaneously defiant and veiled form, therefore it took time to comprehend the actual meaning of the book by critics and ordinary readers.

Ken Kesey, the writer of “One Flew On the Cuckoo’s Nest, ” did tremendous work, creating a novel, that many literary critics and readers all over the world have named the legendary. The subtlety with that your author conveys rather serious themes, such as for example racism, humiliation, moral impact, combines with the vivid and contrasting figures of the main characters of the novel – the rebel Randle McMurphy, the cold-blooded castrator Nurse Ratched, and the giant Indian Chief Bromden. Kesey initiated a fresh literary era and showed new views on life in general by destroying stereotypes about human nature and relationships, even though such works are usually criticized. However , it really is worthwhile to check out the result – more than half a hundred years later this book is re-read both old and young people, and each finds its meaning laid down by the writer. One thing is clear: the planet will never function as same following the release of the masterpiece.

Works Cited

Kesey, Ken. One Flew Within the Cuckoo’s Nest. Viking Press & Signet Books, 1962. Print
Safer, Elaine B. It’s the facts Even if it Didn’t Happen: Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Salisbury University, Spring, 1977. Print