Cuckoos+Nest+New+Historicism


 * __Discussion Questions__**

1. After what we've learned about the American Dream, what do the men in the asylum represent about condemned and accepted behavior in America?

2. Kesey said in an interview that LSD 'exposes us to the nothingness we've built our lives on.' How do you see the influence of LSD in the book?

3. Why do you think Chief Bromden pretends to be deaf and mute? Do you think he's really crazy?

4. What are your feelings about Mr. McMurphy? Is he a savior or a 'manipulator'?

5. What definite roles do you see emerging in the asylum?

[|interview with kesey about outside influences] [|overview of ken kesey]

(**these links sometimes work. more often, they don't**. the internet is so cute. both of them can be accessed just looking through abc-clio and literary resource center under 'ken kesey')

In his interview with Ken Kesey, the author of //One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest//, Robert Faggen breaches the topic of LSD. Kesey served as something of a figurehead for America in the 1960s and his first novel, published in 1962, seems to embody his beliefs perfectly. With his band of LSD aficionados, the Merry Pranksters, he traveled cross-country and experienced firsthand some of the revelations he expresses in his texts. Kesey talks about how LSD has impacted his viewpoint, both in his life and in his stories: "Let's say you have been getting on your knees and bowing and worshiping; suddenly you take LSD, and you look, and there's just a hole, there's nothing there" (Faggen). His bleak outlook seems (at least thus far) reflected in his portrayal of the insane asylum in //One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest//, where hope goes to die. Further proof that //Cuckoo's Nest// is LSD reflected in novel form comes when Kesey, still talking about LSD's creation of absence, remarks that "There's only a big hollow... which is scarier than hell, scarier than purgatory or Satan. It's the fact that there isn't any hell and there isn't any purgatory, there isn't any Satan" (Faggen). I'd previously wondered if the asylum was a metaphorical purgatory, but Kesey seems to imply that desolate places, both mental and actual, are never as simple as they seem.
 * Summary Response**

Bibliography

"Ken Kesey." __American History__. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 28 Apr. 2008 <[|http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com>.]

Kesey, Ken. __One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.__ New York: Penguin Books, 1962.

Works Cited

Faggen, Robert. "The Great American Hollow." __Harper's Magazine__. 289.1731 (Aug. 1994): p22. __Literature Resource Center__. Gale. Arapahoe High School. 28 Apr. 2008 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=litt24484.

- //laura h//