Symbols and Symbolism in Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest :: One Flew Over Cuckoos Nest

Symbolism in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest Ken Kesey presents his masterpiece, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, with usual culture symbolism of the 1960s. This strategy helps paint a vivid picture in the readers mind. Music and sketchs of the times are often referred to in the novel. These help to hyperbolise the characters and the state of the mental institution. Popular culture supplies the music which is used as a recurring theme in the novel. McMurphy dislikes the tape playing in the twenty-four hours room because it represents how the ward is run routinely and without change. McMurphy also uses music to obtain good relations with the patients. On his first morning in the hospital, McMurphy is heard tattle several verses of The Wagoners Lad Hard livins my pleasure, my moneys my o-o-own, an them that dont like me, they can leave me alone (Kesey 93 ). In this scene, he sings to express his good spirits (Twayne). Later, in the hall, as one of the aides goes to talk to the ang ry Big Nurse, McMurphy whistles, with an illusion to the Globetrotters, Sweet Georgia Brown as an amusing accompaniment to the aides evasive shuffle (Sherwood 399). after shocking Nurse Ratched with his whale shorts, he accompanies her retreat to the Nurses Station with the song The Roving Gambler to establish his style, define his character, and show his indifference to policy She took me to her parlor, and coooo-ooled me with her fan- I can hear the whack as he slaps his bare belly - whispered low in her mammas ear, I lu-uhvve that gamblin man (Kesey 97). The animated cartoon symbolism demo in One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest helps create dynamic features and traits in each character. Bromden indicates early that the ward is Like a cartoon world, where the figures are compressed and outlined in black, jerking through some kind of goofy story that might be trustworthy funny if it werent for the cartoon figures being real guys...( 31). Technicians in the hospital speak with voic es that are forced and too quick on the comeback to be real talk - more like cartoon comedy speech (33). Kesey chooses to describe some of his characters as symbolic caricatures, and others as stock figures who outgrow their black outlines (Twayne). The Big Nurse remains a cartoon villain, funny in her excessive frustration and hateful in her manipulations towards the patients.