Examples Of Individuality In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Nate Skupien
Mrs. Decker
English IV
9 Mar. 2023
Midterm Essay In the novel, One flew over the Cuckoo's nest, Kesey constructs a world with an underlying theme of individuality versus conformity and shows it in numerous ways. The literature describes a world in which the main character, a man named Chief Bromden, lives at a mental hospital with a myriad of different people with different conditions. One day a man named Randal McMurphy is admitted into the ward. would fundamentally change the way the patients of the ward would act, and be treated by the hospital staff. McMurphy has the spotlight for the majority of the novel, and embodies the very meaning of individuality. Throughout the book, he displays numerous times the positive effects standing up for oneself can have, as well as the negative ones. The narrative builds an interesting picture around the theme with intruiging character building, evolution, and the completion of many story arcs. In the beginning portions of the novel individualism is restricted to one character, McMurphy. The actions McMurphy performed day after day constantly disrupted the typical flow of the hospital, leaving

A great example would be from the words of Chief,”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.” (211) The dialogue here suggests developed emotional knowledge, contrasting with earlier sections of the novel. The development here, that stems from McMurphy’s actions, is that of emotional independence from the stale and repetitive daily routine at the ward. Advancements such as these are important to the plot because they represent a midpoint of many of the characters personal journeys with emotions playing a huge role in the future actions of some of the