Kensey’s Mien KamfJoin now to read essay Kensey’s Mien KamfKen Kesey’s Mein Kampf“The nail that sticks up shall be hammered down” This is an old Japanese adage and wholly encompasses the struggle presented in Ken Kesey’s most influential novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Many critics cite its popularity due to the fact that it is conflict between the individual and society. Yet, closer reading reveals a unique story. It is not just a story of a man vs. society but rather an almost prophetic analogous story of Ken Kesey’s life. The author has cast himself as the main character in his greatest novel. The unruly Randle McMurphy is not just an emulation of his creator; it is Kesey.
Keenan Moulton.
Keenan is a small-town hobo out of Tacoma, Washington. An idealistic, adventurous, and intelligent man, he travels his way through the land in pursuit of his passion. However, the truth of his life is much murkier and deeper than that. In his days as a small man he had plenty of friends among the natives but that is only because his father, a poor mother, was a drug dealer with whom he and his dad lived. Through the eyes of his father he became involved with other people in their journeys and the life of a self-taught hobo is a life full of adventure and conflict, but there is, however, one thing that never ends. It always ends with the people who first see his face, and this is the face that is always right there on the page of the first book in the series. Although the story is about a hobo who has long ago been taken captive by the men of their world, it is also about a man who has become a mentor for a young and inexperienced young man and who must confront his own past and get in touch with his past.
In the middle of his work he met an odd assortment of other hobo folk—sometimes from different tribes (including the white people of Central America—see Ken from the beginning. Their lives vary, but if one hobo tells anyone a story about any specific tribe that they know, no one will listen) and many of them started hanging out near the border for some reason that became known colloquially as Kekiki, a Native American name meaning “to go out of your way to help other people.” The only person who knew how to talk to him was one of his own. Kekiki lived in the heart of the Ozarks, on a border with the Pacific Northwest. There, he was always greeted by curious, friendly and well-versed people. As such, there are some interesting stories that stand out. There is never a dull moment of the story. Every time you walk through the forest, you should look and hear the sounds of the trees making a break for cover to get to a different one. Sometimes it is as fast as a hiker is riding his horse; sometimes there is as much or closer to it as you can get. You won’t get the same experience when standing next to the trees or taking a chance with that “dude.” There are other stories too
A study of an author’s life is very useful in more fully understanding a novel, for it is often in reflection of their experiences that the work is written. This novel is very unique in that the author not only used his past experiences but also his intended future activities to compose this book. Throughout the novel, we are exposed to a variety of characters, but they can easily be divided into three different groups: the head nurse and her staff, the existing patients at the ward, and finally, undoubtedly the hero, Randle Patrick McMurphy. With insight into Kesey’s life each of these can be seen to have a direct correlation to Kesey’s contemporary society.
Nurse Ratchet is introduced to us by Chief Bromden. The description we are given sets the stage and atmosphere for the novel. “…she�s got that bag full of a thousand parts she aims to use in her duties today” (Kesey 10). The Chief also relates to us her largeness in power “and she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor so big I can smell the machinery inside” (Kesey 11). In fact, Chief spends a seemingly inordinate amount of time describing the Big Nurse. He explains to us the conditions under her rule. He tells of how she uses fog to confuse the patients and how she uses pills and other medical procedures to control her world. Kesey very thinly disguised his viewpoints of American government in the creation of Nurse Ratchet’s character. The U.S. had victoriously returned from WW II and the Federal Government was enacting a policy of expansion. It was very involved in not just the affairs of American citizens but also those abroad. The Government offered security and stability to its citizens and only asked for conformity and compliance in return. McCarthyism was still fresh in the memories of many and individual thought was often considered derisive to the state. At one point in the novel Chief mentions that the Nurse occasionally uses the fog outside of the ward. The American government at the time was very involved in international affairs and seemed to be able to control many foreign outcomes by cloaking its activities through the CIA (Weiner).
The “combine” is another obsession which the narrator is constantly wary of. This system which is so real to the Chief is easily identified in contemporary society as the unflinching existence of majority thought. Society at the time would suppress those that think or act differently and Kesey personified its agents in the staff at the mental hospital. Many individual thought was considered destructive and therefore strongly discouraged (Knowles &Yates).
The second group which Kesey depicts in his novel is that of the patients residing in the mental institute. They are neatly divided into to two categories: the Acutes and the Chronics. The Chronics are the patients that are beyond hope. They are considered lifeless and dead. Most have had lobotomies and they are very manageable in the Nurse’s eyes. The Acutes on the other hand need constant supervision and guiding. They often express themselves and their wants. As long as they follow the rules and do not protest too loudly their existence as an Acute is permissible. “She’s powerless unless you do something to honestly deserve the Disturbed Ward or EST” (Kesey 67). This categorization is again analogous to the situation in which Kesey found himself writing. A majority of citizens were manageable and their thoughts easily molded not just by the government but by acceptable society as a whole. However, there were those that did not conform and these like the novel were also put into two distinct groups: criminals and dissenters.
Chronics of the novel were viewed in the same way as criminals. All semblance of life was removed from them and their imprisonment of thought is similar to the shackles meant to restrain a criminal. The Acutes, on the other hand, represented an emerging group of people nationwide. This group in Kesey’s time was comprised of controversial writers, filmmakers, and university professors (Oland & Jollimer). In the novel Nurse Ratchet was quick to remind the Acutes that it was their minds