Imagery and Metaphor in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

Paper Summary:

A short analysis of the imagery and symbolism behind Ken Kesey's, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", an epic work on society, individuality, and fear. Quotes from the book are used to support the conclusions drawn from Kesey's supposed intentions. A major theme in the paper focuses on how Kesey emphasized the importance of delusions versus reality.

From the Paper:

"The old-fashioned "mental asylum" was rumored to be full of screaming men, popping pills in their world of illusions; utterly unfit to lead civilized lives and left to shriek and cower in isolation. Modern medicine and modern politesse have changed the ancient chaos of the Bellevue into a white padded room, full of calm and care and cures. Both the past and the present stereotypes are equally false, because the ones who create them are not the ones living them. Whether true to the conventional idea of reality or not, it's the inhabitants who create the habitat and imbue it with their perceptions. One of the miracles of Ken Kesey's book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, was that he created an false reality that could be easily accepted as fact. Kesey created a psychotic Indian and made his delusions of machines and mutations as indisputably real as the starched white uniforms of Big Nurse herself. It was the imagery Kesey was able to evoke that lent the hospital its sense of validity, not because of what it really was, but because of what it really seemed."

More papers on Imagery and Metaphor in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest":

• Analytical Essay # 40142 : "Individual and Authority in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
• Film Review # 120558 : "Image in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"
• Book Review # 119574 : "McMurphy in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

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