One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis
Zachary Crandall
Mrs. Dietrich
English 11 Honors-9/10°
11 October. 2011
In the novels One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, there is a strong central focus of the challenges faced by having an alternative outlook on society by which is normally perceived by the majority of people. Both novels share a character that is an outcast in society due to several factors such as insanity, ignorance, and negligence. These two characters speak in first person narrative telling the reader about their life in the past years. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this character is Chief Bromden, a psychiatric patient in a hospital telling the story of a man named McMurphy, who enters the ward and …show more content…
Much of Holden’s separation from society is due to his standing between childhood and adulthood. Holden does not have the maturity to become an adult, and expresses his many weaknesses by talking about how “phony” or “ignorant” people are. “It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques” (Salinger 131). Holden expresses his desire for being different from others and does not want to live by societies norms. Much of Holden’s confusion and lack of desire to be involved with other individuals is caused from the pain and disappointment received by it. Holden finds himself being lonely for much of the novel, and whenever he finds a companion, he will lead him/her on resulting in pushing a possible new friend away. Due to Holden’s lack of friends and involvement with other groups, he does not participate in common events that other kids his age would. “I remember around three o’clock that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill…You could see the whole field from there” (Salinger 2). Caulfield lives his life as a “spectator” standing far away from the events that are happening, just watching the
Mrs. Dietrich
English 11 Honors-9/10°
11 October. 2011
In the novels One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, there is a strong central focus of the challenges faced by having an alternative outlook on society by which is normally perceived by the majority of people. Both novels share a character that is an outcast in society due to several factors such as insanity, ignorance, and negligence. These two characters speak in first person narrative telling the reader about their life in the past years. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this character is Chief Bromden, a psychiatric patient in a hospital telling the story of a man named McMurphy, who enters the ward and …show more content…
Much of Holden’s separation from society is due to his standing between childhood and adulthood. Holden does not have the maturity to become an adult, and expresses his many weaknesses by talking about how “phony” or “ignorant” people are. “It's full of phonies, and all you do is study so that you can learn enough to be smart enough to be able to buy a goddam Cadillac some day, and you have to keep making believe you give a damn if the football team loses, and all you do is talk about girls and liquor and sex all day, and everybody sticks together in these dirty little goddam cliques” (Salinger 131). Holden expresses his desire for being different from others and does not want to live by societies norms. Much of Holden’s confusion and lack of desire to be involved with other individuals is caused from the pain and disappointment received by it. Holden finds himself being lonely for much of the novel, and whenever he finds a companion, he will lead him/her on resulting in pushing a possible new friend away. Due to Holden’s lack of friends and involvement with other groups, he does not participate in common events that other kids his age would. “I remember around three o’clock that afternoon I was standing way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill…You could see the whole field from there” (Salinger 2). Caulfield lives his life as a “spectator” standing far away from the events that are happening, just watching the