One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey (week 2)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey, 1962) is included on Time magazine's list of "100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005," and was voted among "the U.K.'s 200 best-loved novels" in a 2003 BBC poll. The story was adapted into a critically and commercially successful film starring Jack Nicholson, with what is considered one of the greatest villains in film history.

The novel is set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital run by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched and her staff of "white coats." Enter Randle McMurphy: a rebellious, charismatic convict who openly flouts the rules of the establishment and challenges her authority. His defiance starts as sport, but soon develops into a grim struggle between the forces of conformity and individualism, unfolding the novel's critique of psychiatry and the dehumanizing effects of bureaucracy.

The spotless white of the hospital coats--emblematic of sterile absolutism--bolsters the symbolism of another of the novel's prominent articles of clothing: McMurphy's boxer shorts. Gifted to him by a literature major and featuring a pattern of white whales on a black satin background, they are suggestive of Moby Dick and (like the White Whale himself) open to many interpretations. Do they proclaim the ward's pervasive evil? Are they an icon of McMurphy's untamable nature? A phallic symbol, emphasizing his sexuality? A representation of God and Christ-like martyrdom? Or perhaps just a satire on academia's overindulgence in symbolism?

Schedule:

• Week 1 (April 13): Part 1
• Week 2 (April 20): Parts 2-4

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: ~288pp

• PDF
• Amazon
• audible is 10hr 32m ~210pp

Supplemental:

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) movie trailer
• Ken Kesey and Moby-Dick
• Ratched (2020) trailer

Extracts:

• "I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing." (Moby-Dick, 39)

This meetup is part of a series on Fig Leaves and Fancy Pants.