One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest Literary Analysis
Ken Kesey was born on September 17th, 1935 in La Junta, Colorado. While he was in a fellowship to Stanford 's Writing Program he worked at a Californian Veterans ' Administration hospital in the psychiatric ward as a night guard ("KnowledgeNotes Study Guide", par. 1). Kesey 's first published book was One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, which was published in 1962. Many of the experiences Kesey endured while working at the hospital were inspirations for the book ("KnowledgeNotes Study Guide", par. 1). The novel was written in the Post War period and was part of the Beat Movement.
I believe that Kesey wrote this book to show people that patients in psychiatric wards aren 't really sick and crazy; they are just misunderstood outcasts of society.
Kesey received his Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Oregon in 1957. Afterwards, he participated in a fellowship to Stanford University 's Writing Program, while he also worked as a night attendant at a Californian Veterans Hospital in the Psychiatric ward. While at the hospital Kesey volunteered for government sponsored experiments involving psychedelic drugs such as LSD and Methamphetamines. He soon became addicted to how much more aware he seemed while under the influence of the drugs and began taking them regularly, he even wrote parts of One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest while under the influence of peyote ("KnowledgeNotes Study Guide", par. 2-3). In 1966, Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana and faked his own suicide by placing his bus on a cliffside road with a note reading "Ocean, Ocean, I 'll beat you in the end", and fled to Mexico. Unfortunately his facade failed and he was eventually brought back to America and prosecuted and sent to jail for 5 months ("Ken Kesey", p.6).
Kesey 's final work was a poem calling for peace for Rolling Stone magazine after 9/11. Kesey died weeks later from complications following an operation for liver cancer, at the age of 66, in November of 2001
I believe that Kesey wrote this book to show people that patients in psychiatric wards aren 't really sick and crazy; they are just misunderstood outcasts of society.
Kesey received his Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Oregon in 1957. Afterwards, he participated in a fellowship to Stanford University 's Writing Program, while he also worked as a night attendant at a Californian Veterans Hospital in the Psychiatric ward. While at the hospital Kesey volunteered for government sponsored experiments involving psychedelic drugs such as LSD and Methamphetamines. He soon became addicted to how much more aware he seemed while under the influence of the drugs and began taking them regularly, he even wrote parts of One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest while under the influence of peyote ("KnowledgeNotes Study Guide", par. 2-3). In 1966, Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana and faked his own suicide by placing his bus on a cliffside road with a note reading "Ocean, Ocean, I 'll beat you in the end", and fled to Mexico. Unfortunately his facade failed and he was eventually brought back to America and prosecuted and sent to jail for 5 months ("Ken Kesey", p.6).
Kesey 's final work was a poem calling for peace for Rolling Stone magazine after 9/11. Kesey died weeks later from complications following an operation for liver cancer, at the age of 66, in November of 2001
Cited: "Authors Page." ProQuest Learning: Literature. 2007. 9 May 2007 <http://proquest.umi.com/login> 2007. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metaphor>. "Metaphor Analysis." NovelGuide. 2007. 16 May 2007 <http://www.novelguide.com/OneFlewOver/metaphoranalysis.html>. "Protagonist." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 20 May. 2007. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/protagonist>.