symbolism


 * Discussion Questions**

1. In chapter 5 the doctors talks about creating surrounding that will help the patients get back to normality and to become functional members of society. If normality and society are what they want for them why aren't they given more normal experiences?

2. Can people be symbolized as machines that are placed into their role in society?

3. Pete talks about any emptiness in his life and how he was born dead. Do you think that Kesey's experiences with LSD were a part of this section? Why would he talk about this if it was a negative in his life?

4. If the people in the ward are nothing more than machines or rabbits, why is McMurphy trying to change them?

5. What is the importance of laughter? Why does the Cheif talk about there never being laughter? Is laughter a norm in society and why does it matter?

Spend 5 min. thinking about weather Harding's idea of rabbits and wolves in correct in normal society. Write down examples from the book or from real life experiences where this is true or not. Why do you think Harding thinks this is true? and how is McMurphy going to change this idea?
 * Opening Activity**


 * Links

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Summary Response**

In this essay about Ken Kesey's novel, //One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a// uthors Elena Semino and Kate Swindlehurst addresse the issue of relationships and they way reality is looked upon. Kesey had previously worked in an asylum and had experiemented with the drug LSD. The idea of "mind style" is "concerned with the construction and expression in language of the conceptualisation of reality in a particular mind" ("Mind Style" 159). Kesey had experienced so many events in his life that influnce his writing. Kesey writes in a very sarcastic tone and it is hard to differentiate what is reality and what is assumption. Kesey has patterns in his writing that is considered his mind style. One of these reoccuring patterns is laughter. He is hard to understand weather he is talking about the reality in normal society or what is normal in the ward. Further examples of his mind style would be the dialog between the characters. In reality they are all there because they are considered abnormal and a threat to society but we assume that they deserve to be there. Kesey shows us this because he portrays the characters to be a little on the werid side but still they are real people who can maybe be normal.


 * Bibliography**

Semino, Elena and Kate Swindlehurst. "Metaphor and Mind Style in Ken Kesey's //One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest//." __Style__. 30.1 (Spring 1996) 143-166. **Rpt. in** __Contemporary Literary Criticism__. Ed. Tom Burns and Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 184. Detroit: Gale, 2004. 143-166. __Literature Resource Center__. Gale. ARAPAHOE HIGH SCHOOL. 30 Apr. 2008 http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRC&u=litt24484.

-Courtney Q. =  =