GENERAL INFORMATION
The book I read is called ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’.
It is written by Ken Kesey and first published in 1962 by Methuen & Co. Since its first publication, Ken Kesey’s extraordinary first novel has achieved the status of a well-known classic. The book I read was published in 1973 by Picador and has got 310 pages.
The story is told from the first person perspective of one of the patients: Chief Bromden.
In 1975 the book was filmed with Jack Nicholson as the main character.

TITEL EXPLANATION

The title is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Cuckoo means ‘crazy’ or ‘madman’ in America. That’s why cuckoo’s nest is an appropriate term for a hospital for mental patients. The mental hospital is the most important place in the book. The title comes from a nursery rhyme that tells the story of three geese who left the nest: ‘… one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.’ The one who flew over the cuckoo’s nest in the book, is McMurphy, the main character. The story tells what happened when he arrives and stays in the mental hospital.

THEME

I think the theme of the book is the conflict between the system and the individual. Big Nurse Ratched and her henchmen, the black boys, represent the system; Everything must be in control and everyone must follow the rules as they say. The ward at the hospital is a society in itself. It has its own laws and punishments. Randle McMurphy represents the individual. He wants to live and laugh and express himself in the ways he want. So he fights against the strict rules of the Big Nurse and challenges her from the time he arrives.

An example is the one night that McMurphy has called Candy, a prostitute who he met during the fishing trip with the other patients. He plans a visit for Candy to the ward so that she can have sex with Billy Bibbit, with whom she became close during the fishing trip. The girl brought booze and a friend. McMurphy did this all to help his friend in the mental hospital and to go against the Big Nurse. That’s what he does. He tries to help his fellow patients, his friends by breaking the strict rules of the ward.

One time Chief and McMurphy got in a fight with the black boys, who work for the nurse. It was because of Charles Cheswick, a loud-mouthed patient who always demands changes in the ward. According to Chief, he "climbs onto a soapbox" and "shouts for a following." The guards took him down. At that point Chief and Randle stood up for him, and so got in that fight. The Nurse took them away for shock therapy. That is the punishment for the patients when they misbehave. They were dismissed only when she wanted to. This example is from the point of view of Nurse Ratched. She had the power to punish them and to control the patients. Even Randle McMurphy.

SUMMARY

Set in a mental hospital in the 1960's, the novel is the story of Randle Patrick McMurphy, and his attempt to thwart the head of the ward into which he is transferred. The head of the ward is Nurse Ratched, referred to by the patients as the Big Nurse. The story is told in first-person narration through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a six foot two Indian who has pretended for the past thirty years to be deaf and dumb.
When McMurphy arrives at the ward, he immediately sets things on edge, mocking the staff policies and joking with the patients. He reveals himself to be a master gambler, who conned his way into the hospital in an attempt to get an easier sentence. Things are not exactly as he expected, however; the men are shy, frightened mice who can hardly chuckle, and who live in constant terror of the Big Nurse and her indirect attacks. McMurphy makes a bet with them: in one week, he can break down her defenses.
It takes him the whole week, but he manages it; by making fun of her every chance he gets, and going behind her back to get changes made in ward policy. He convinces the men to vote to change the TV viewing time so they can watch the World Series. At first the men are too frightened to go along with it, but he drags them along. When the Big Nurse refuses to accept the vote, he and the rest of the men sit and watch the television anyway, even if it's just a blank screen.
Bromden and McMurphy become friends, and Bromden starts to talk again, almost by accident. McMurphy takes him and a number of the men on a fishing trip, giving them a chance to do things most men take for granted, and their fear starts to go away. However, the Big Nurse tries to chip away at McMurphy's reputation every chance she gets. McMurphy and Bromden are forced into shock therapy after getting into a fight with the black aides.
The men plan an escape for McMurphy, but he sticks around to meet a girl from the outside, who he arranged to meet one of the men, Billy Bibbit. Billy and the girl spend the night together, and when the Big Nurse comes in that morning, she finds the two of them in bed. When she threatens to tell Billy's mother, Billy committed suicide. McMurphy attacks the Big Nurse, ripping open her shirt and nearly strangling her. He is taken away, and when he returns, he has been lobotomized. He no longer speaks or moves but just lies in bed. Bromden suffocates him with a pillow, then breaks out of the ward, free at last to return to his life.

Source: http://www.bookrags.com/notes/ofc/SUM.htm

OWN OPINION

I have seen the movie several times, and I love the story. So now I really wanted to read the book. I thought the book was a bit strange in the beginning. I didn’t understand all of it because it was difficult with all the terms and names of the patients in the mental hospital. So in the beginning you really had to pay attention of what you were reading. After the first part it became more interesting. What I really liked about the language is such words as ‘damn’ and ‘huh’. It keeps reading more interesting because you recognize daily language. Still it was a little difficult to read.

I thought the book was very moving. I commiserated with the characters in the mental hospital. Also because the events, described by Chief, were very realistic, for a mental patient. You get an inside view of their life. After a while I couldn’t stop reading because that really kept me interested.
It was not boring at all, because of the unpredictability. Only the parts of Chief’s flashbacks; those are about his father and his youth. When I read that, I felt like it was inappropriate because Chief isn’t the main character, he isn’t the one you want to keep reading about. But you do get to know him trough the book. He is a beautiful and very interesting person though.

The characters in general are all a little over the top and crazy. I really liked it. If it was not it would be boring after a while, but the characters kept surprising me. I have read somewhere that the writer Ken Kesey has wrote this book under the influence of LSD. After that a few things became clear to me.

The part I loved the most was the end. The totally unexpected end (when you haven’t seen the movie a thousand times like I have.) But even though I knew what was going to happen, I still thought it was very touching to read it. It is a beautiful story with a beautiful ending. You see how Chief has grown with the indirect help of his friend Randle. And at the end Chief releases Randle of his pain, and then escapes. One of the most important motives of the book is friendship, because of such elements.

QOUTES

1 One quote I was really touched by was a quote from the friends of McMurphy. It is almost at the end of the book (page 306). I was very curious if the book would have the same ending as the movie.
This is the situation: They all know that Billy Bibbit committed suicide because of some remarks of the Big Nurse. Randle gets so angry that he attacks her. They drag him away and he stays away for three weeks. When he comes back he has been operated.
‘The ward door opened, and the black boys wheeled in this Gurney with a chart at the bottom that said in heavy black letters, MCMURPHY, RANDLE P. POSTOPARATIVE. LOBOTOMY’

“After a minute of silence Scanlon turned and spat on the floor.”Aaah, what’s the old bitch tryin’ to put over on us anyhow, for crap sakes. That ain’t him.”
“Nothing like him, “Martini said.
“How stupid she think we are?”
“Oh, they done a pretty fair job though” Martini said
(…)
“But they can’t do that look. There’s nothin’ in the face. Just like one of those store dummies.”

I remembered this part because it was very touching. They are his friends, they care about him and want to help him. But still they are mental patients. At first they think he has had a new look and a nose job. This part in the book is better than the same part in the movie. It was more affectionate. In the movie this is all shortened up.

2 The situation is the one that Randle wants to see the games on television. The nurse has told him not to, and then told him about the daily schedule. He has come up with a plan; They will watch TV in the afternoon and they will clean during TV time at night. First nobody listens. But after a while everyone is with him again

“The hell with the schedule. You can get back to the bloody schedule next week, when the Series is over. What do you say buddies?”

I thought this was a good part that explains in what way the mental patients get manipulated by the nurse in a negative way, and they get also manipulated by Randle but in a positive way.

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

The character I’d like to describe is the main character Randle McMurphy. He is a red-haired, smooth talking convict who fakes being mental ill. Then he is diagnosed psychotic, but he isn’t insane. It is only to escape the hard work at a work farm for prisoners. The mental hospital seems to be a better place. Once he is there he struggles with the rules. His behavior annoys the ‘Big Nurse’ and turns her towards drastic measures.

First when he came to the psychiatric ward he was very selfish. He made fun of the shy patients and of the nurses and the guards. He called the patients “chicken-shits” when they didn’t agree with him. He broke all the rules of nurse Ratched and didn’t seem to care about anyone. The only friends he made were the one who were looking up to him, because he broke the ‘laws’. His friend in the early days on the ward was Charles Cheswick.
He taught his inmates to gamble. As a result they lost all their cigarettes to McMurphy.

When it’s too late, Randle realizes that his visit to the psychiatric ward won’t end with his prison time, but by grace of Nurse Ratched. So he calms down a little. He tries to make friends with all of his inmates and he notices that they were all good people. He becomes also friends with Chief, the man who tells the story in the book. Chief is a real support for him and also vice versa.

At the end of the story of the book you realize that his inmates really care for him. He made real friends. And it truly hurts him to see that they are some sort of prisoners in that ward. He breaks the rules again by trying to escape. But before he hooks Billy up with a girl. It was a mistake to help his friend, because nurse Ratched came to destroy it. Randle is so angry at the nurse that he tries to kill her. But what you realize here is that he is coming up for his friend for whom he didn’t care at all at first.
As I said before, I believe the most important motive of the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is friendship.