Wednesday, January 14, 2009

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I chose One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to read over winter break after hearing good reviews about it from many people. The book is extremely well written and very interesting. It is set in a mental hospital that is run by Nurse Ratched. It is narrated by a man in the mental hospital named Chief. As he narrates, he includes some things that haven't even occurred. One day, Mr. McMurphey comes to the hospital and is basically the trouble maker. He is constantly challenging the authority of Nurse Ratched. The book goes into detail about the lives and daily routines of the men in the mental hospital. Even though there is so much detail and description, the reading goes by very fast. It's interesting to hear about every hour of their lives in that institution, and it makes the reading even more intriguing. 
At first when I was reading about Mr. McMurphey, I thought that he was the normal one in the mental hospital. However, after finishing the book, it made me realize that one of the purposes of the book was to show that everyone, even the people who are considered "normal" and who are not "insane" are actually "insane in their own way. What defines "insane"?

1 comment:

David Lavender said...

Alei,

While I enjoyed getting your reactions to Kesey's novel, this seems pretty darned thin for a book review (it reads more like a blog post--one of the hazards, I suppose, in having you all post your reviews on line). What's hear is great (and I was interested in your speculation about what constitutes sanity); however, this simply doesn't cover all the bases outlined on the hand-out.