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Ken KeseyKen Kesey One flew over the cuckoo's nest is a novel written by Kenneth Elton, Ken Kessey. Ken Kessey was an American author living from 1935 to 2001. He considered himself as the link between the 'beat generation' and the 'hippies'. He was indeed too young for the 'beat generation' and too old to be a hippie. He volunteered as a an experimental subject. This experiment he took part of turned out to be a top-secret CIA-finianced study on the effects of certain psychoactive drugs on people. Later, he worked in a hospital which treated psychiatric unstable people. He often spoke to these patients. He believed these people weren't psychical unstable but just didn't fit the society's standards on how people are supposed to behave. His experiences from these projects inspired him to write his most famous book 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'. The succes of this book made him quiet rich. He bought a big villa in California and threw big parties which he called 'Acid tests'. These included psychadelic music, black lights and, of course, psychadelic drugs. One flew over the cuckoo's nest The book 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' takes place in a psychiatric hospital. The book is narrated by 'Chief' but focusses on 'McMurphy'. McMurphy faked insanity to avoid going to prison for gambling. He is a very intelligent and rebellious man. From the moment he entered the hospital he is hitsing everyone up to rebel against the authorities in the hospital. Nurse Ratched is the leader in the hospital and rules with an iron fist. McMurphy bets he can break the 'Big nurse' without getting electroshock theraphy, being send to the disturbed ward or being lobotomized. (Lobotomized means they cut into your brain behind your eyes with an iceprick. Depression is caused by overactive emotions, so why don't just cut the emotions away?) When everything isn't going too bad he suddenly realizes Ratched could do anything to him without a single reason he backs off. Just when Ratched is getting the upper hand again McMurphy attacks again. This time is a little too extreme and invites a bunch of prostitutes, steals drugs and gets everyone drunk. Ratched attacks back by treatening Bibbit to tell his mom he went with a prostitute. He panicks and kills himself. Ratched blames McMurphy for this incident. McMurphy doesn't take this easy at all and rips off Ratched's shirt revealing her breasts. He also almost chokes her. This incident causes McMurphy to be lobotomized. When he returnes Chief wants to free him from his body and kills him. Then he escapes from the hospital to go to Canada. The incident with Murphy rippings Ratched's shirt off was a very important and symbolic move in the book. With this he revealed that Ratched was a woman, and only a woman. Woman were seen as the weaker sex in the 1960's. Because they were the weaker sex they were less powerfull. The book appears in ALA's top 100 Banned Books from 2000-2009. This is mainly because of the ripping shirt incident. Many schools label it pornographic because of this. Also, it glorifies criminality and murder and contains 'bizzare violence and torture'. |