Research Paper on:
Kesey Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
of mental illness. What many do not realize is that this movie was based on a book written by Ken Kessey in 1962. Set against this backdrop of abnormality come  the themes of freedom from repressive authority and a more liberated view of sexuality. The action begins with the admittance of Randall Patrick McMurphy from the prison work farm. He  has been sent to the work farm because of a statutory rape conviction, and it is the considered opinions of most of the staff that he is not insane, but  merely lazy. When viewing the ensuing events, where McMurphy rebels against the regulations, organizes the other patients to follow his lead, and begins a slow and systematic move for change  in just about every aspect of life on the ward. During the time in which the book was written Keesey would hav been exposed to the beatnik movement and  their flaunting of the rules in the face of a very established and staunch set of moral and social rules. This created a clash between generations and ideologies. This clash  is clearly evident in McMurphys problems with Nurse Rached. The ward, itself, becomes a living metaphor for the suppressive and oppressive sentiments that existed during the 1960s in America.  However, if the book only presented this anti-establishment theme, then it would never have had the complexity and depth which have earned it numerous awards, one should think. Instead, Keesey  also raises some interesting questions about insanity, what it is and explores the question of where sanity ends and madness begins. In an almost philosophical way he compels the reader  to examine the amount of control that is mindlessly given over to the government and other institutions. He may be saying that this is the greatest insanity of them all,