1. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

2. Key Facts: Allegorical novel Written in late 1950s Published 1962
First person
Narrator—Chief Bromden
Told as a flashback after his escape
Setting—mental hospital, Oregon
Protagonist—Randle P. McMurphy
ALLEGORY—An allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself

3. Theme:
—the central idea or ideas explored by a literary work.

4. Themes: Struggle for power/control Women as Castrators
The Power of Laughter
STRUGGLE FOR POWER/CONTROL—
WOMEN AS CASTRATORS—Except for the prostitutes (shown as good), women are portrayed as threatening and terrifying. Patients suffer emasculation or castration at the hands of Nurse Ratched and the hospital supervisor (a woman). Fear of women is rampant (Billy’s fear of his mother who treats him like a baby as cause for his suicide; Bromden’s mother portrayed as domineering—father took mother’s name; hospital run by women who have the power over the men; Nurse Ratched lobotomizing McMurphy, taking away his individuality and freedom). – SparkNotes.com
THE POWER OF LAUGHTER—Nurse Ratched’s ability to dominate the patients is a result of her controlling their laughter. McMurphy notices that, “the first thing that got to me about this place, that there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing. A man go around lettin' a woman whup him down till he can't laugh any more, and he loses one of the biggest edges he's got on his side. First thing you know he'll begin to think she's tougher than he is. . . (Kesey 65).

5. Themes (contd.): Imagination vs. Reality Violence
Altruism vs. Selfishness
Fear of experience vs. Experience
Euthanasia

6. Motifs:
—recurring elements that develop and inform the major themes.

7. Motifs: Invisibility Power of Laughter Reality vs. imaginary
Bromden’s deaf and dumb act
Fog
Hallucinations
Power of Laughter
Reality vs. imaginary
INVISIBILITY—Bromden trying to be as invisible as possible by pretending not to understand or hear what is going on around him. The references to a fog that hides and keeps him safe.
INVISIBILITY—Hallucinations about hidden machines controlling patients. McMurphy smashing through glass that he presumably can’t see.
POWER OF LAUGHTER—McMurphy’s is the first genuine laughter on the ward in years. None of the patients can laugh or smile. Bromden remembers the power of his father’s laughter when mocking government officials. After the fishing trip, Harding, Scanlo, Dr. Spivey, and Sefelt are all able to laugh—showing their recovery.
REALITY VS. IMAGINED SIZE—Bromden describes people according to the size of the power/control they have. Despite his height, Bromden is cowed by Nurse Ratched. Bromden states how his mother is twice the size o he and his father. With McMurphy’s help, Bromden overcomes the belittling and is “blown back up to full size” as he regains the self-esteem.

8. Symbolism:
—use of objects to represent things such as ideas and emotions
—something that represents itself and something else

9. Symbols: The fog machine The white whales on McMurphy’s boxer shorts
The electroshock therapy table
THE FOG MACHINE—clouds vision, obscures sight. Bromden sees the fog as a safe place, free of life’s reality. –SparkNotes.com
THE FOG MACHINE—Ratched wants to keep the patients in the fog, but McMurphy drags all the patients out and forces them to look at realities.
MCMURPHY”S SHORTS—White Wales on black satin equal Moby-Dick and the untamed nature that conflicts with a controlled institution. – SparkNotes.com
ELECTROSHOCK TABLE—equates with crucifixion. It is shaped like a cross, with straps across the wrists and over the head. It performs the function of destroying lives and making public examples of those who rebel against the ruling powers. –SparkNotes.com

10. Symbolism (contd.): McMurphy as Jesus Christ
Other men on the ward as Christ’s disciples
The sacrifice of McMurphy for the men in the hospital.
McMurphy choosing the men for the fishing trip because they all possess some aspect he needs (i.e. boat captain).
Electroshock therapy – McMurphy sacrifices himself to go first for Bromden.
McMurphy saving the lives of others on the ward with his attitude and behavior.

11. Foreshadowing: The story of Maxwell Taber
Electroshock therapy table shaped like a cross
The deaths of Rawler, Cheswick, and Billy
Bromden’s dreams and hallucinations
THE STORY OF MAXWELL TABER—A former patient who stayed in Nurse Ratched’s ward before McMurphy arrived. When Maxwell Taber questioned the nurse’s authority, she punished him with electroshock therapy. After the treatments made him completely docile, he was allowed to leave the hospital. He is considered a successful cure by the hospital staff. FORSHADOWS—McMurphy’s lobotomy and Bromden’s departure.
ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY TABLE—foreshadows McMurphy’s “sacrifice” and resulting death.
DEATHS—foreshadowed McMurphy’s demise.
BROMDEN’S DREAMS—foreshadow what happens next to the patients.

12. Types of Characters: Flat or Static Characters— Round Characters—
Minor characters who do NOT undergo substantial change.
Round Characters—
Major characters who encounter conflict and are changed by it.

13. Chief “Broom” Bromden:
The narrator
Six feet seven inches tall, but believes he is small and weak
Son of the chief of the Columbia Indians and a white woman
Faked being deaf and dumb
Has paranoia and hallucinations, received multiple electroshock treatments, been in the hospital for ten years—longer than any other patient in the ward
Bromden sees the hospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform
No clear reason for Bromden’s hospitalization.
Rumored to have received 200 electroshock treatments.
His narration is the story of the hospital, Nurse Ratched, the patients, McMurphy. It is also the story of Bromden’s journey toward sanity. (–SparkNotes.com)

14. Billy Bibbit: 31 years old Stutters Paranoid Immature
Deathly afraid of his mother
Shy and impressionable
Looks up to McMurphy
Billy voluntarily placed himself in the hospital because he is afraid of the outside world. (--SparkNotes.com)

15. Charles Cheswick:
The first patient to support McMurphy’s rebellion against Nurse Ratched’s power
Talks a lot… does little
Drowns in the pool as a possible suicide
Cheswick drowns in the pool in a possible suicide after McMurphy does not support his stand against Nurse Ratched.
Cheswick’s death makes McMurphy realize the extent of his influence on the other patients and his mistake in conforming. (--SparkNotes.com)

16. George Sorenson: Big Swede
Former seaman; recruited to captain the fishing excursion
Nicknamed “Rub-a-Dub” because of his cleanliness fetish
Taber is considered a successful cure by the hospital staff. (--SparkNotes.com)

17. Dale Harding:
A college-educated patient who voluntarily entered the institution
A homosexual
He checks himself out of the ward
Harding has difficulty dealing with the social prejudice against homosexuality.
The development of Harding’s character identifies the success of McMurphy’s battle with Nurse Ratched to the point where he checks himself out o the ward. This departure makes it easier for other cured patients to leave. (--SparkNotes.com)

18. Maxwell Taber: A former patient before McMurphy arrived
Like McMurphy, Taber questioned the nurse’s authority
Made docile by the electroshock therapy
Permitted to leave
Taber is considered a successful cure by the hospital staff. (--SparkNotes.com)

19. Sefelt and Fredrickson:
Two epileptic patients
They don’t receive the care they require
Sefelt—refuses to take his anti-seizure medication because they make his teeth fall out, and has a lot of seizures.
Fredrickson—takes both his and Sefelt's share of the medication because he is terrified of the seizures.

20. Rawler: A patient on the Disturbed ward
Commits suicide by cutting off his testicles
Castration is SYMBOLIC of the routine emasculation to which the patients are subjected.)
EMASCULATION means castration or removal of the testicles of a male human being or animal.
Also means to weaken somebody; to deprive of effectiveness, spirit, or force.

21. Doctor Spivey: Mild-mannered doctor Addicted to opiates
Easily cowed; dominated by patients
Often supports McMurphy’s unusual plans for the ward
Castration is SYMBOLIC of the routine emasculation to which the patients are subjected.)
EMASCULATION means castration or removal of the testicles of a male human being or animal.
Also means to weaken somebody; to deprive of effectiveness, spirit, or force.

22. Warren, Washington, Williams, and Geever:
Hospital aids
Hired because they are filled with hatred
Completely submissive to Nurse Ratched
Castration is SYMBOLIC of the routine emasculation to which the patients are subjected.)
EMASCULATION means castration or removal of the testicles of a male human being or animal.
Also means to weaken somebody; to deprive of effectiveness, spirit, or force.

23. PROTAGONIST— ANTAGONIST—
The main character and one the author wants you to cheer on.
ANTAGONIST—
Villain or character that causes trouble for the character the author wants you to support.

24. Anti-hero:
ANTI-HERO—Character whose actions or morality may be flawed, yet he/she is not a villain. The Anti- hero accomplishes a useful deed or even does good deeds, so the audience supports him/her even though there are no traditional heroic qualities.

25. Randle P. McMurphy:
Thirty-five years old, built, with red hair, a scar on his face and tattoos on his body
Transferred from a work farm
Diagnosed as a psychopath, but he is not really insane
Loud, confident, laughter
Outgoing and uninhibited
McMurphy represents sexuality, freedom, and self-determination—all contrary to the institutionalize controlled by Nurse Ratched.
He is not crazy, but is trying to manipulate the system to his advantage.
His self-sacrifice on behalf of the ward-mates mirrors Christ and the martyrdom achieved by sacrificing his freedom and sanity.

26. Anti-hero Qualities: Accused of Statutory Rape Five fights
Vulgar/sexual comments
Racist behavior
Insults Dr. Harding
Uses the men
Self-serving
ANTI-HERO—Character whose actions or morality bay be flawed, yet he/she is not a villain. The Anti-hero accomplishes a useful deed or even does good deeds, so the audience supports him/her even though there are no traditional heroic qualities.

27. “Big” Nurse Ratched:
The head of the ward; middle-aged; former army nurse
Very harsh and controlling
Hires staff if they are submissive, and easily controlled
A former army nurse, Nurse Ratched represents the oppressive mechanization, dehumanization, and emasculation of modern society—in Bromden’s words, the Combine. Her nickname is “Big Nurse,” which sounds like Big Brother, the name used in George Orwell’s novel 1984 to refer to an oppressive and all-knowing authority. Bromden describes Ratched as being like a machine, and her behavior fits this description: even her name is reminiscent of a mechanical tool, sounding like both “ratchet” and “wretched.” She enters the novel, and the ward, “with a gust of cold.” Ratched has complete control over every aspect of the ward, as well as almost complete control over her own emotions. In the first few pages we see her show her “hideous self” to Bromden and the aides, only to regain her doll- like composure before any of the patients catch a glimpse. Her ability to present a false self suggests that the mechanistic and oppressive forces in society gain ascendance through the dishonesty of the powerful. Without being aware of the oppression, the quiet and docile slowly become weakened and gradually are subsumed.
Nurse Ratched does possess a non-mechanical and undeniably human feature in her large bosom, which she conceals as best she can beneath a heavily starched uniform. Her large breasts both exude sexuality and emphasize her role as a twisted mother figure for the ward. She is able to act like “an angel of mercy” while at the same time shaming the patients into submission; she knows their weak spots and exactly where to peck. The patients try to please her during the Group Meetings by airing their dirtiest, darkest secrets, and then they feel deeply ashamed for how she made them act, even though they have done nothing. She maintains her power by the strategic use of shame and guilt, as well as by a determination to “divide and conquer” her patients.
McMurphy manages to ruffle Ratched because he plays her game: he picks up on her weak spots right away. He uses his overt sexuality to throw her off her machinelike track, and he is not taken in by her thin facade of compassion or her falsely therapeutic tactics. When McMurphy rips her shirt open at the end of the novel, he symbolically exposes her hypocrisy and deceit, and she is never able to regain power. (--SparkNotes.com)

28. Antagonist Qualities:
No World Series.
No changes.
Belittles the patients.
Makes patients worried.
Offers no solutions to the problems.
Uses threats.
Causes trouble for the main character.

29. Lobotomy:
Surgical procedure severing the nerve fibers connecting the frontal lobes to the thalamus as a relief of some mental disorders.
Treatment
An estimated 50,000 lobotomies were performed in the US in the 1930s and 40s electroconvulsive therapy was introduced in the 1930s (used mainly to treat depression) psychiatric drugs became available in the 1950s.
Before this, the only other treatments for the severely mentally ill were incarceration and physical restraint .
By today’s standards, conditions in the mental hospitals of the past were unimaginable. Many patients were severely agitated, extremely violent, and incontinent. The hospitals were dirty, overcrowded, and understaffed.
Many severely ill patients benefited from lobotomy with decreases in violence and agitation.
Lobotomy often caused serious adverse effects, including disturbances of mood and personality, euphoria, poor judgment, impulsivity, loss of initiative, intellectual deficits, and seizures.

30. Electroconvulsive Therapy:
A medical treatment for severe mental illness in which a small amount of electricity is introduced to the brain.
The purpose was to provide relief from the signs and symptoms of mental illnesses such as depression, mania, and schizophrenia.
The most common risk are disturbances in heart rhythm.
Broken or dislocated bones occasionally occur.
(-- dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/electroconvulsive+therapy)

31. Works Cited http://sparknotes.com