While no actual sex is described except as happening offstage, references to it abound, sometimes in bragging, sometimes in juvenile teasing, sometimes in hostile rants. McMurphy is serving time for statutory rape; Nurse Ratched uses her patients' sexual inadequacies to keep them in thrall; there are various references to porn magazines, etc. Two related episodes involve prostitute friends of McMurphy's.
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While the book is not awash in gore, it's fraught with violence. Most of its characters are confined to a mental hospital, where the employees regularly subject them to mental and physical abuse. Some of the patients are there because they're violent themselves. The narrator has dreams and visions involving worse violence. Physical attacks, some resulting in injury and death, occur in the book.
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While this book requires a mature reader because of its harrowing setting and adult themes, it does offer a cultural snapshot of the mid-20th century and the effects of rapid industrialization that will resonate with today's nature-vs.-tech issues. Also, while Kesey's style is vernacular, he's well steeped in literary tradition, so fans of mythology and heroic tales will find much to delight them here.
Positive Messages
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With the stipulation that this is not a kids' book, there's a positive message in the various ways characters find their strength and stand up for themselves, and the overall sense of justice being done.
Positive Role Models
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While no parent would choose McMurphy as a role model for their children, his indomitable spirit would be admirable even if Kesey didn't load him up with so much Christ-figure baggage. Chief Bromden, the narrator, is notable for his steadfastness, strength of character, and, as it turns out, wise perspective.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that while this book is on many short lists for the Great American Novel, and with good cause, it is one big Parental Advisory from cover to cover, starting with politically incorrect racial references in the second sentence and progressing rapidly to variations on sex, violence, hatred, and people treating each other badly before the plot's even gotten under way. And this in the context of a mental hospital, so there's an extra element of pathology to it all. There is not merely smoking, drinking, cursing, drugs, and gambling, but also hookers. The protagonist reminisces fondly about having sex at age 9 with one of his contemporaries. In short, it's not for innocents or the faint-hearted, yet it is often assigned to upper-grade high school students. Parents may want to read it themselves in preparation for discussing any issues that arise -- both the peculiar behavior and the literary themes. One can also check out the 1975 film version, which won five Oscars, including one for Best Picture.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is an appraise-worthy title not only because of beautiful prose and memorable characters--but also because of its controversial approach to politically charged storytelling. And with this last facet comes some potentially inappropriate material; lots of racial tension present throughout the story. This is mostly through frequent prejudiced references to the "black boys"--staff members at the asylum in which the book takes place--and to the main character's Indian heritage. Racial slurs; "J-p," "Inj-n," "c--n," and an instance of the "N" word. Others call the main character "Chief." Besides racial terminology, swearing includes infrequent uses of "c--ksucker," "f--k," "s--t," (and derivatives including "motherf--ker," "bulls--t," and "chickens--t,"). On top of that various sexual references--to prostitution, breasts. Very frequent smoking, plus drinking (beer, hard liquor, cough syrup). Ultimately, lots of disturbing and depressing material, including underlying themes of mental illness, and, more secondarily, suicide. Older, more mature readers should give it a try because of its important social messages and masterfully crafted writing style.
I teach high school English, and I use this in my 11th grade American lit class. There are so many topics that can be discussed and analyzed, and the characterization is rich and in depth.
It has many positive messages as the characters find ways to gain strength in the face of adversity. It also gives us a glimpse of what psychiatry was like at that time, so provides some historical perspective. I think it's a great example of the finest American lit has to offer, my students always love it, and although there is some risqué content, it's no worse than many classics that are standard fodder for high school English (think of Native Son, read in many high school classes, which contains a graphic description of two men masturbating in a movie theater, as well as a graphic description of Bigger murdering his girlfriend by smashing her head with a brick until it felt like "wet cotton"). I only wish I could follow the book by showing the film, unfortunately the language in the film is even worse than in the book, and I'm not comfortable showing it to 17 year old kids.
What's the Story?
As told by Chief Bromden, the giant, half-Indian inmate who's been in the mental hospital for decades, pretending to be deaf and dumb, Nurse Ratched has the ward running with fine-tuned precision till the day Randle Patrick McMurphy arrives. McMurphy, a career con man currently serving a sentence for statutory rape (he claims the charge is bogus, though his sex drive clearly isn't), figured his sentence would be easier if he pretended to be crazy, so he got transferred from the work farm to the mental hospital. Soon he's encouraging the patients to stand up for themselves, which throws Nurse Ratched's carefully managed world into disarray. Cosmic, tragicomic clashes follow.
This mature novel is excellent, although it's certainly possible to find fault with the over-the-top quality of Kesey's writing or his fondness for the larger-than-life. But the themes of the individual being swallowed up by the Combine, of industrialization destroying nature to our peril, and what we should be doing about it, to say nothing of the universal human imperative to develop a spine, all remain timeless.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the fact that Kesey was using the mental hospital as a metaphor for the larger society of his time. Why? Also, do you think treatment for mental illness has progressed since this era?
This book is considered a seminal work of the 1960s. What do you know about Kesey and his influence in that era, and his later work?
Chief Bromden talks about how his people lost their land and had it taken away for a dam. Today some of those tribes are involved in salmon restoration efforts. What do you know about that, and other work to restore rivers to their natural state?
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
