Examples Of Modernism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

In an age of shock therapy, lobotomies, and neglect, Ken Kesey's 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, explores an even more alarming, yet overlooked, form of inhumane treatment; matriarchy. The main antagonist, Nurse Ratched, “wields a sure power that extends in all directions in hairlike wires...” while she subsequently “...tend[s] her network with mechanical insect skill,” (Kesey). Postmodernist literature includes fundamental elements, the most notorious being its recalcitrant nature, which breaks the unity, reason, and order of romantic and modernist works.
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, told through the mind of seemingly deaf and mute Chief Bromden, provides a startling first-hand look at the “ubiquitous social control