Biographer+and+Opening+Activity

Shelby B.  **__ Opening Activity: __** Everyone will sit together and get to be a character. I will be Nurse Ratched. I will hand out cookies at the beginning, act as if everything is great. Then in a few minutes I will take them back and trade them for crackers. (Everyone must act their role/part.) ** Summary: ** Ken Kesey grew up normally, and went to college like most students. One thing he did to make him stand out was to work in a mental hospital with all the inmates; this would make sense considering //One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest// has much to do with this experience. In addition, he and one of his friends experimented with LSD. He wrote //Sometimes a Great Notion// and //Ken Kesey's Garage Sale//. Kesey is a very intellectual individual. ** Response: ** Ken Kesey is a very well known, wise individual, but at the same time greatly influenced by the world. While Kesey is a very smart individual he may feel that he has to hide it, and to do so he may not speak out too much, as to not sound like a show off, “he received his Bachelor of Arts Degree” (Background). Ken was a very smart man, I believe that through his experiences at the mental hospital he learned a great deal about people in general and more about himself. Also, knowing more about others and himself I believe helped him to write //Over Flew the Cuckoo’s Nest//, “It was during this period that he wrote the first draft of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Most of the characters in the novel are based upon actual patients he met while working at the hospital,” not only did they help him discover more about himself but they became people he would look to and admire (Background). During this time new drugs were coming out and impacting many lives. Kesey claims to have tried LSD with a friend, while he may not have thought he was doing anything harmful, I think that his friends were having a huge influence on him. As they influenced him, he kept writing and wrote other books, but still had the impact of others on his life. As many other authors Kesey has once again proved that the world can be brutal awakening, even when prepared. **Links:** To access this one when you go to Literary Resourse Library if you type in //One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest// and only have the biographer checked then, enter it. It will be the second full text that you want to read. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=LitRC&userGroupName=litt24484&tabID=T002&searchId=R2&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=2&contentSet=GALE%7CH1101700000&&docId=GALE|H1101700000&docType=GALE&docLevel=FULLTEXT#BiographicalInfoEssay http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmCuckoo09.asp ** Works Cited: ** “Background Information-Biography: Ken Kesey.” 7 May 2007. PinkMonkey.com. 29 April 2008.  ** Bibliography: ** "Ken (Elton) Kesey." Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Gale, Literature Resource Center. Gale. ARAPAHOE HIGH SCHOOL. 28 Apr. 2008 . Kesey, Ken. __One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.__ New York: Penguin Books, 1962.