Narration, Metaphors, Images and Symbols in One Flew Over the Cuckoos

Narration, Metaphors, Images and Symbols in One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest In 1962, when One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (the Nest), was published, the States was at the start of decade that would be characterized by turmoil. Involvement in Vietnam was increasing, civil rights marches were taking place in the reciprocal ohm and a new era of sexual promiscuity and drug use was about to come into full swing. Young Americans formed a subgroup in American society that historians termed the counterculture. The Nest is a product of time when it was written. It is anti-authoritarian and tells the tale of a mans rebelling against the establishment. Kesey used metaphor to make a social commentary on the America of the sixties. In this paper I will deal with three issues that seem to strike out from the novel. First is the choice that Kesey made in his decision to keep the novel using first person narration. The second part of this paper will be an analysis of some of the metaphors and Kesey uses to describe America in the sixties. in the end I will speak about the some of the religious images that Kesey has put in the novel. For the reader of the Nest, the most familiar character of the story would be caput Broom Bromden, a half Indian, paranoid schizophrenic, who has been in the institution since World War two, (about 15 years). He spends his days dwelling in the clouded header that his mental illness has produced. This illness is characterized by audio and visual hallucinations. He makes constant reference to the fog, the combine, and the machine. Bromden lives in a world inhabited by populate who have been implanted with machines. In part one of the novel, we read nothing but the delusions of a madman. The novel opens ... ...illan Company of Canada Limited, 1962. Klein, Maxwell. The Images and Metaphors of Flower Children. Chicago University of Chicago Press. 1988. Kunz, Don. mechanical and Totemistic Symbolization in Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest . A Casebook on passel Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Ed. George J. Searles. Albuquerque University of brand-new Mexico Press. 1989. Pratt, John Clark. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. New York The Viking Press. 1973. Semino, Elena, and Swindlehurst, Kate. Metaphor and Mind Style in Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Northern Light (online posting) Spring 1996. <www.northernlight.com/cgi-bin/pdserv?cbecid=6619970923010053874&ho=monsoon&po=508&cb=0> Unknown Author. Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. (online posting) <httpwww.nhmccd.cc.tx.us/contracts/lrc/kc/kesey.html>