Literature Analysis #1

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey

1. The story is told in first person, by a man called Chief. He is a patient in a mental hospital and a wallflower to the mundane happenings there, because he acts deaf and mute. Nurse Ratched is the ward's head nurse, and the main reason for the ward's cold, uncomfortable atmosphere. All of this changes when a new patient, loud, crazy McMurphy is admitted to the ward. The patients immediately notice something different about him. He is lively and friendly, and most of all challenges the nurse's authority, to her disapproval. The longer McMurphy is there, the more he rallies patients together to stand up against Nurse Ratched and fight for their rights. With a new energy in the ward, patients begin to voice complaints and not bend at the nurse's will. The climax of the story is when McMurphy sneaks a prostitute into the ward for Billy. In the chaotic situation Billy goes crazy and kills himself, while McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched. In response to the attack, she sends McMurphy to get the surgery room, where he gets parts of his brain removed. McMurphy returns to the ward, but is no longer his old self, he is dull and mindless.  Chief knows McMurphy wouldn't have wanted to live on this way so he suffocates him. Although Nurse Ratched beat McMurphy, the energy he left behind was still strong and since she had ended him in such a horrid way, the patients were even more inclined to fight. Most of the patients got the nerve to check out of the ward or be transferred.
2. The theme of this novel is to not conform to society's will. Just because things have been one way for a long time does not mean that is the right way. McMurphy proves that there is another way to live, a better way, that patients should fight for.
3. The tone of this story is serious and critical, because Chief is the narrator the audience can hear his opinions of the hospital staff and patients. He is usually a bystander in many parts of the story, so he is more a storyteller, than actor. 
4. Ten Literary Techniques:

• Irony: It is ironic that many of the Nurse’s helpers look down and make fun of the patients at the ward because they are also under the Nurses’s complete control. They are just as afraid and frightened of Nurse Ratched. 
• Metaphor: McMurphy used a variety of metaphors in his often bombastic language and in perhaps the most memorable example he compares the patients of the ward to chickens at a pecking party. "Bunch of chickens at a peckin' party." 
• Symbolism: Symbolism is strewn throughout the novel through things even as common as laughter. Chief recognizes that nobody in the ward laughs the way McMurphy does and accredits it too his determination to be unbreakable. Laughter symbolized strength.
• Foreshadow: The multiple encounters with McMurphy and the Nurse caused the tension between them to rise and rise. The reader could see that this battle would not be finished until something drastic eventually happened which it did during the eventful climax of the story.
• Flashback: Many times throughout the novel, Chief flashes back to memories of his life before the hospital. He remembers when he used to live on the Indian reservation with his father as a child.
• Descriptive Language: Descriptive language is used often in the novel especially during Cheifs hallicinations. The vivid descriptions help the reader feel like they can actually see what is going on.
• Juxtaposition: The author juxtaposes McMurphy’s personality and Nurse Ratched’s personalities so they are so directly opposite of each other that it creates a plot within itself. He makes the characters so extreme in opposite directions that they play off each other perfectly.