The Biblio Blogazine

  One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
  Fiction, 355 pages
  Signet/First American Library/Penguin Books

  First published 1963

One of the better quotes from this book is actually its dedication:

To Vik Lovell who told me dragons did not exist, then led me to their lairs

We have been told throughout childhood and beyond there are no such things as monsters and demons. But ask anyone who has found themselves on the outside of society’s definition of “normal”, and you will find a fearful world where they really do exist, but not always in the guise of evil wishing to do us harm.

To maintain a healthy community of individuals, society demands that we rarely act like one, and only in a manner that still must conform to some type of moral and ethical standard.

Those finding themselves outside those boundaries are often “judged”, or in this case diagnosed, as needing psychiatric help.

Truly, who gets to define sanity? Where does rationality and irrationality begin and end?

Not to long into this read, you will be asking yourself just that.

Are the patients in this story the truly irrational ones?

Kesey wrote of what he knew. He once worked as a night attendant in a psychiatric ward. This experience led to the writing of this book.

Demons do exist. Those we imagine, and those that we struggle against when trying to maintain that sense of normalcy which is expected of us. Some demons come in the form of those who try to help us, telling us that electric shock treatments, drugs, and even lobotomies are the only way to help us be free of what ails us.

But what if it is all a form of control, a way to keep us all in line - - to keep the status quo?

As Nurse Ratched notes:

A good many of you are in here because you could not adjust to the rules of society . . . because you refused to face up to them, because you tried to circumvent them and avoid them.

The men in this novel face such a challenge. Emasculated emotionally and psychologically by their experiences with society, they commit themselves to the one place they thought they would be safe, and hopefully cured. This haven eventually becomes their prison. They become so controlled, so institutionalized, they willingly give up their freedom for this sense of safety.

Emasculation is a strong term, and I am not saying this book is misogynist in nature, but men adversely affected by domineering women is a strong theme throughout and helps in understanding what the characters have experienced and their difficulty in standing up for themselves against Nurse Ratched.

Along comes a man to show them that there is a potential for them to do so. Randle Patrick McMurphy:

. . . boisterous, brawling, fun-loving rebel who swaggers into the world of a mental hospital and takes over. A lusty, life-affirming fighter, [he] rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched.

But this defiance does not go unanswered. It is frightening knowing about the truth which lies behind the story Kesey tells. To anyone who has seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about. Having never seen the film, this book and its ending was more powerful than I can relate.

The strongest impression I am left with is one I have made note of on my white board. Even when he knows he will fail, McMurphy still tries in order to show the others that one’s will can never be broken — only given away.

This book has been challenged many times due to strong language and discussions of sexuality. However, I cannot find that any of what I read was obscene in any form or fashion.

In fact, I would make this a must read on many, of not all High School curricula.

If like me, you have never seen the movie, I urge you to read the book first. If you have seen it, and never read the novel – please do.

This will be one of those books that will have a permanent place in my personal library. I don’t know if I can give it a higher recommendation than that.