A Portrayal and Analysis of Human Behavior within Ken Keseys One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - Research Paper Example

Thoreau came to such an understanding while he was interred and reasoned that due to the “rule of the majority” within society, the free thoughts expression, and non-conformity of others are most likely to be represented within such a place. Although Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is not specifically written about the penal system, it does represent the unique dichotomy between abnormality and normality within society as a function of discussing the mental health of individuals deemed as normal, moderately insane, and severely insane.

By using the insane asylum as a unit of measurement, Kesey can contrast the behavior of the seemingly “normal” and well-adjusted medical professionals, i.e. Dr. Spivey and the Big Nurse, with that of the supposedly maladjusted and abnormal representations of McMurphy, Chief Bromden, and Harding (Nastu 48).

By using these microcosms of the reality that exists within the broader context of society, Kesey can draw a level of inference into the way that individuals are stratified into the segments of normal and non-normal. Although a litany of reviewers has compared the unnatural stratification and subsequent rebellion to how the repressed virtues of humanity ultimately arise and force a new paradigm, this particular research paper would be remiss if it did not at least mention this as a fundamental and overarching theme that pervades the novel (Rosenman 23).

Before the introduction of the character of McMurphy, the wards of the institution were dominated by an overbearing staff that sought to force them into the similitude of normality that the staff themselves had engineered. The most powerful integration of the attack between the differentiation between insanity and sanity comes with the introduction of the character of McMurphy. Originally, his character was sent to the institution as a means of taming his wild and outlaws behavior.

Before his introduction, the population of the institution had been docile and easily controlled by an overbearing and socially repressive staff (Safer 132). However, with his introduction, the social fabric that the staff had worked so tirelessly to affect soon came undone. The author uses such an instance to underscore how the rejection of the norm and the creation of a new dynamic among the outcast can ultimately work to transform the given environment in a powerful and lasting way.