One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey

 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey (published 1962)

·       Time Magazine – 100 Best English Language novels 1923 – 2005

·       BBC – 200 best-loved novels in the UK’s in 2003 poll

·       One of America’ most challenged and banned novels

Characters
Patients	Staff
Acutes – able to be fixed R. P. McMurphy – newest Cheswick Billy Bibbit Martini Harding (graduated college, Pres Patient Council) Maxwell Taber Fredrickson   Chronics – no fixing Chief Bromden – narrator Colonel Matterson George Pete Bacini Scanlon Harding Sefelt Ellis Ruckly Old Blastic   Vera – Harding’s wife	Nurse Ratched   Dr. Spivey   Therapeutic Community – get along in the group to learn how to get along back in the community   Three black boys in white suits McGeever Sam Washington   Nurse Pilbon – birthmark, night nurse   Nurse Flinn   Mr. Turkle – night aide   Young residents   “Public Relations”   Billy Bibbit’s mother – receptionist, friend of Nurse Ratched

 

For Discussion:

NOTE: Page numbers are from the 2016 Berkley premium edition (paperback).

1.       Were you surprised to read that many of the patients were there voluntarily, for example Harding, Billy, Sefelt, and Fredrickson?

2.       The narrator, Chief Bromden, pretended to be deaf and dumb for years until McMurphy came.  He was hesitant to sign up for McMurphy’s fishing trip because that would let everyone, including the staff, know he had heard all the things said around him for years when people thought he could not hear and would not tell!  How would people knowing he could hear and talk change how they treated him?

 

3.       Bromden related that “people first took to acting like I couldn’t hear or talk a long time before that” (page 210).  This treatment started as early as elementary school and continued through when he was in the Army.  He said, “That was the way they figured you were supposed to act around someone looked like I did” (page 210).  How does the way we look influence how people treat us?

4.       Bromden’s father told him, “people will force you one way or the other, into doing what they think you should do, or into just being mule-stubborn and doing the opposite out of spite” (page 210).  Why did Bromden act the way people expected of him?  How did knowing McMurphy change him?

5.       McMurphy’s final act was to physically attack Nurse Ratched.  Could he have done anything else?  Bromden thought the group could not stop him “because we were the ones making him do it…It was us that had been making him go on for weeks” (page 318).

6.       As you were reading the novel, what did you think about Nurse Ratched?  Was she basically well-intentioned, misinformed of sound medical practices, or just evil?

7.       Was Nurse Ratched justified in what she did to McMurphy at the end of the novel?

8.       The plan at the end of the novel was for McMurphy to escape, but he fell asleep with the girl and never got away.  How do you think he would have made out if his escape plan had worked?

9.       What did you think about the last three pages – Bromden kills McMurphy and then runs away?   Do you think McMurphy would approve of what he did?

10.   Is there a deeper meaning to the book than just the surface story?

11.   Why does this novel elicit such a wide range of feelings in people – from being one of the best and best-loved novels to being banned and challenged?