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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

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Ken Kesey was born in 1935 in Colorado. In 1946, his family moved to Oregon, where he become champion in wrestling, both in high school and college (Ken Kesey Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography).
He attended Stanford University and later in 1960 Kesey volunteered in the experiment organized by U.S army, in which he was using drugs such LSD, mescaline, psilocybin and then reporting on their effect. He also spent some time communicating with patients in the hospital's psychiatric ward. It was an experience which encouraged Ken Kesey to write his 1962 novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” (the book I’m reading right now), which examined the abuses of the system against the individuals and the theory that patients weren’t insane, but …show more content…
Kesey was hallucinating about the Indian man sweeping the floor, which later he used as a narrator in the novel. The story is told by Chief Bromden, a schizophrenic native american from Columbia, who has been in a psychiatric hospital for 10 years pretending to be deaf and dumb. First person perspective from the point of view of Chief Bromden, makes novel even more interesting, because his schizophrenic state of mind makes reader question the reliability what he says. As he is experiencing number of hallucinations and the feel of imaginary fog around him, caused by unclear state and his will to avoid reality. So it’s up to reader to trust or not some of the stories Chief Broom Writes about. This type of writing also helps the reader to understand characters thoughts, their emotions and gives us closer look at the book and the psychiatric hospital. Unlike the third person writing, it helps the reader to have personal bonds and connections with characters. As Ken Kesey later says, even knowing nothing about American Indians, Chief Bromden was perfect character from whose point of view he could see a “schizophrenic” state of mind. (Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher.The New York Times) (Kesey,

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