A Review of Ken Keasey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Keasey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is as much an indictment of bureaucracy in general as it is a cross section of American culture. Described by the disease addled Chief Bromden, the ward is simultaneously strict and immoral in its policies; run by people so caught up in the system that they've entirely forgotten their original purpose. R.P. McMurphy is the spark that ignites open rebellion against the tyrannical rule of Nurse Ratchet. Their battle is both epic and subtle; Keasey is able to weave a metaphorical struggle for freedom into the everyday lives of these sick men. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is without a doubt a great American novel.

Chief Bromden is Keasey's narrator. Forced from his native lands as a child and now imprisoned inside a ward for the insane, his point of view makes the story objective and compelling. Everyone else is drawn into the drama, but Keasey has his narrator pretend to be deaf and dumb throughout the majority of the novel. Bromden alone can see all sides, though his tragic sickness compels the reader to take pity on him. Keasey explores disease and its effects on perception. The Chief can be said to be the protagonist, he alone is able to change himself and break free of the ward.

Cuckoo's Nest is a novel entirely of character conflict. Before McMurphy, the men on the ward sheepishly accept the reality and rules of the Head Nurse. When this new force of masculinity and energy arrives, they are unable to immediately pick a side. The central tension of the novel is the struggle between Mr. McMurphy and Nurse Ratchet to control the men on the ward. In this way the novel has gender connotations, the harsh and often illogical female rule is struck down by the male joker. Keasey's genius is in the generalization of the conflict, anyone who has ever attended a female-run grammar school or workshop will immediately recognize elements of their teachers in Nurse Ratchet. She has inhuman control and denies the very core of her gender, her breasts and motherhood. Keasey's novel is not a tale of one ward, but of all mankind fighting back against tyranny with the only weapon he has left - laughter.

Thematically, Cuckoo's Nest is a complicated novel. Elements of history like the forced extrication of the Native Americans sit side by side with pieces of 1950's medical jargon. R.P. McMurphy continues his struggle after he learns it will cost him his freedom because he is the champion of the weak "rabbits" on the ward. Keasey incorporates elements of the knight's code of chivalry next to the theories of Freud himself. The basic struggle is that of man versus authority, but in the process McMurphy must examine himself and decide to carry on.

The real power of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is its emotion. Watching a man in his prime destroy himself for a group of mentally ill goes against all natural instincts. By the end Chief's lack of emotion contrasts with the reader's watery eyes. Keasey's novel is a cry for all men to stand up for those weaker, a cry to every government everywhere not to get caught up in red tape and forget the people themselves.