One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, was written in 1959 and published in 1962. The story, set in an Oregon asylum, serves as a study of the institutional process and limits of the human mind.
It follows the experiences of Randle Patrick McMurphy, who faked insanityin order to serve out his prison sentence in the easy, laid-back comforts of a mental hospital- or so he thought.
With little medical oversight, the hospital ward is run by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, her three black day-shift orderlies, and her assistant doctors.
The story comes from Kesey’s experiences working the graveyard shift as an orderly at a mental health facility in Menlo Park, California. He not only spoke daily to many of the patients, but witnessed the bureaucratic workings of the institution. He also took psychoactive drugs (Peyote and LSD) as part of Project MKULTRA. As a result he became sympathetic toward the patients lives and daily struggles.
The novel constantly refers to authorities that control individuals through subtle and coercive methods. The novel’s narrator, the Chief, combines these figureheads in his mind, calling them “The Combine” in reference to the mechanistic way in which they manipulate and direct individuals. The authority of The Combine is most often personified in the character of “Nurse Ratched” as she controls the inhabitants of the mental ward through a method of rewards and shame. Her actions are more sinister than those of a conventional prison administrator, as this subtlety in her actions prevents her prisoners from seeing that they are being controlled at all.
The analysis of the mental ward as an instrument of oppression comparable to a prison argues that invisible forms of discipline oppress us on a societal scale, encouraging us to censor aspects ourselves and our actions.
The novel was adapted into a Broadway play by in 1963, as well as the classic 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson, which won five Academy Awards.
Yet, despite these achievements, it never ceases to amaze me that a teacher can’t even make a classroom assignment without some parent complaining and ruining it for everyone else, even if most other students and parents are okay with it. Such was the case in a Greenley, Colorado public school district in 1971, when it was challenged as American Culture reading.
The list of challenges and approved removals covered states across the nation between the late-1970’s and the close of the century. Here are just a few of the examples:
In 1974, five residents of Strongsville, Ohio, sued the board of education to get the novel removed from classrooms. Labeling it “pornographic,” they charged the novel “glorifies criminal activity, has a tendency to corrupt juveniles, and contains descriptions of bestiality, bizarre violence, and torture, dismemberment, death, and human elimination.”
It was removed from public schools in Randolph, New York, and Alton, Oklahoma in 1975; removed from the required reading list in Westport, Maine in 1977; and banned from the St. Anthony, Idaho Freemont High School classrooms in 1978 and the instructor who assigned it was terminated.
Into the 1980’s it was challenged at the Merrimack, New Hampshire High School in 1982 and challenged in an Aberdeen, Washington High School in 1986 for its use in an honors English class because the book promotes “secular humanism.” The school board eventually voted to retain the title.
The 21st century saw it challenged at the Placentia-Yorba Linda, California Unified School District in 2000 after complaints by parents stated that teachers “can choose the best books, but they keep choosing this garbage over and over again.”
Yet, still, these works of art that force us to look at the darker sides of society and civilization are being accused of the most heinous acts upon society; but the real crime is that these subjects need to be written about at all. I guess the truth really does hurt.
Sources: Amazon.com, Yahoo News, American Library Association, Banned Books Resource Guide
© 2011 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions
I did not read this in lit class, but in Psych class. My class did not read the whole book, but were provided with excerpts, which we discussed in class before watching the movie. We also watched Sybil, which led me to read the book, The Three Faces of Eve. My psych teacher also recommended, but did not assign, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. None of these books would pass the panicky-parent test. Each of them proved to be of great value to me as I learned about the human psyche and the human intellect, and the serious nature of psychological abuse. It's cowardly of parents to try to shelter their teens from these realities. Doing so denies the individual a chance to develop an aspect of compassion and rationality that is essential to successful, positive social interaction for which both awareness of, and the ability to figure out and sympathize with, the various experiences of others are key.
I agree. Sheltering them does not make the problem go away, and actually perpetuates the negative stigma that mental health has in this society. It's sad. If mental illness were treated with the same vigor and compassion that even something as simple as the common cold gets, the world would be so much better off.
I agree. Im in ninth grade and we are currently reading this book, and many parents have already complained about the profanity in the book, but sooner or later everybody is going to be exposed to similar to what is in the book, so why not learn about it now. Parents or other adults who say that this book negatively affetcs their childrens' minds needs to grow up and realize that their child can learn a lot from the book.
I read this book for “AP English 12 Research Project 2013 Banned and Challenged Books” The list was huge with novels like The Bluest Eye, The Catcher in the Rye, The Naked and the Dead, Songs of Solomon(Which I read along with Catch 22 for my summer project.) Baltimore County Public Schools do not ban books.
Good literature is “inappropriate” and if it’s not than it’s not good.
It’s so good to hear from younger readers of this column that many schools are still teaching and sharing literature in all of its forms. 🙂
Ha ha! I like your comment about good literature being inappropriate. While I think that you can also have great literature that is as clean as a new whistle, it brings to mind the similar saying about all food that tastes bad must be good for you. 😛
I read this book and am doing a paper on weather it should be banned or not and then I looked at the list of banned books and then at my book shelf and it seems like almost all of them are banned. including the children’s ones. I think that its not necessarily a panicky parent at this point because unless you want your kid to read dr. sues (oh wait, you can’t, he’s on the list too) he is going to have to read a banned book. I think its a uneducated parent because they should be able to see that it is impossible to shelter your child to that extent. it is much better to read a book with a romanticized hero throws a party in a psych ward and drink a bit to make everyone’s day then watch someone get hammered on MTV.
My school assigned this as a summer assignment and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. I’m not a huge fan of literature but this book was one worth reading. I don’t quite understand how this novel could be considered inappropriate for high schoolers to read. As a teenager, I am already exposed to much worse ideas and concepts than this so I was shocked to see that this book had been banned from many public schools. This book has opened my eyes and given me a new perception on how we, as a society, treat others. People always say that we can learn a lot from reading, and I’m starting to see that this is very true. There is more that students can gain from this book than what is lost.
Thank you for your comments.
Yes, there is so much we can learn from reading- both good and bad literature.
For a school assignment, I had to research why “One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest” was banned. I personally believe that there is not a good enough reason for this book to be banned from school districts. I read this book when I was 18 years old and I thought it was very interesting to read about how it is on the inside of a mental institution. I do not believe that it taught me anything that I didn’t already know, when it came to the real world. I do believe the book can provide “inappropriate language” or inappropriate and violent ideas, but I believe that at a certain age; one can read the book and not be misguided by the authors message.
This book is intended for mature minds,reading it illustrates immages in a persons mind.In high shcool I did not dwell or tryed not to dwell on the book,much less read it,as allot of others it did not interest me,sort to say,I had no idea about mental institutions,it was not my cup of tea.I did not want to think about mental illness.I was concerned about the academic fondamentals,simply enough.Though I did not read it,nor wanted to I du remenber certain scenes,or pictures of scenes I immagined having been exposed to them or the book.Isent life disgusting.