One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Thesis: The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, should be a must-read book because the text addresses the controversial issue of corruption in insane asylums in the early 20^th century, examines the power of laughter, and shows how the intellectual value of the allegorical nature of the book overpowers the “vulgar” characteristics of the book.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s examines the motif of laughter and its capabilities. Kesey shows this through the character Randal McMurphy. Randal McMurphy gets the inmates out of the asylum and on a fishing trip. Chaos ensues after departure where everyone seems to be having his or her own problem; McMurphy expresses a very interesting response that he is remembered for in this book. Chief Bromden watches,“McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther and farther backward against the cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the water—laughing at the girl, the guys, at George, at me sucking my bleeding thumb, at the captain back at the pier and the bicycle rider and the service-station guys and the five thousand houses and the Big Nurse and all of it. Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy” (Kesey 237). This quote examines the idea that laughter is one of the most powerful forces of deliverance in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Laughter, as the Chief describes, keeps one from becoming “plumb crazy.” If this is true, can McMurphy be crazy because he laughs so much? The answer to this is no. Laughter is what kept McMurphy from being a true psychopath. In the beginning of the book, McMurphy’s résumé is examined by the doctor. He is listed to be a rapist. McMurphy has had trouble in his life that could have driven him “plumb crazy.” But the reader believes laughter saved his “bleeding” and his “hurt.” Laughter is what gave him “balance” in the world. He tries to explain this to the other inmates. He explains that they are no crazier than anybody else on the street. The reader believes this is untrue because they lack happiness. But when McMurphy comes, he liberates them and brings them back balance, through laughter. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest argues some things about laughter that could be beneficial to the reader. Liberation and laughter do not seem like things that may come with each other; but maybe they do. Laughter clearly “balances” out the things in people’s lives that could drive them “crazy.” When one is “bleeding” like the Chief’s thumb or is “hurt” by anything in the world, it is the worst feeling of all. Something needs to balance that out. Something needs to liberate humanity and keep it from going insane. And maybe laughter is the emancipation from those worries. Maybe that is what separates the “normal” from the lunatics and the murderers and the rapists. Humanity laughs at its troubles and in turn, it is reborn. Laughter gives people a fresh start. This information could be valuable to the reader in coming of age or even for adults down in the dumps. This book could save them, before they go “plumb crazy.”