One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Due to college coming around the corner, I decided to choose a book, for this report, that would be linked to an interest of mine. I've always been fascinated by the inner workings of the brain and the environment around it, and what better of a book than Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Although I have been told that this book is a depressing novel(and a dry one at that), I have also been told that this book is one of the few I should read in my lifetime. The book is a fictional tale, loosely based on an experience Kesey had at a hospital in Eugene, Oregon. The entire book takes place in an asylum in Oregon, except for two chapters on an excursion to the docks, during the mid-fifties.

The story is told from the narrative of Chief Bromden, who has trained the entire faculty and inmates to believe he is deaf and dumb. Due to his "inability" to hear, many discussions between the nurses and aides are clearly observed by Bromden. After witnessing everything from the electroshock therapy and the lobotomies that have occurred over the past ten years, a new kind of inmate steps in with the ability to change the entire ward. Randal McMurphy, a red-haired nut-case, creates havoc in the ward, but utilizes it to free the inmates from the Catch-22 situation created by the cold-hearted Nurse Ratched.

The thing I liked about this book was that Ken Kesey does a great job of analyzing how the human mind works, and how society treats the individual. Kesey tries his hardest to show that a Catch-22 arises out of the parameters we call life: only a sane man would question authority and those who fight society are deemed insane. Though the book could be quite dry at times and superfluous (two chapters about a fishing trip for 50 pages?), the overall message of the passages and the intent of each character is well stated and designed. Kesey also does a good job of incorporating humor and sexuality into the novel.

My favorite character throughout the entire book was Bromden. Although he suffers from extreme schizophrenia and dementia, including hallucinations about fog machines in the hospital, he is the most accurate depiction of the hospital. His "deaf" ears happen to hear things that no other patient would, and he has witnessed every part of the ward, from the room where the staff has their meetings to the electroshock room. Kesey created a deep character, utilizing flashbacks at very appropriate times, to create the emotionally difficult Bromden, who, after suffering the loss of his tribe and watched his father turn into an alcoholic at the hands of his controlling white wife, is able to try and question authority without being as outspoken as McMurphy.

Ken Kesey is an interesting character. Throughout his years, he wrote many famous books, including One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Right Stuff. After graduating from University of Oregon with a degree in journalism, he volunteered for the CIA's "Project Multra," which resulted in Kesey's mass intake of psychedelic drugs, including LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and DMT. Kesey's involvement with the drugs led to a habit of throwing big parties known as "acid tests" and inviting (in the future) famous acts, like the Grateful Dead, to play with the drugs and entertain the drugged-out guests. Kesey was once arrested for drug-possession and faked his own suicide to avoid the police. After escaping from Mexico and returning to the open arms of the police he lived the rest of his life in seclusion. He died in November of 2001 from complications with surgery on the cancerous growth in his liver.

Cat's Cradle: Project Report

Vonnegut, Kurt. Cat's Cradle. United States. Holt, Rhineheart and Winston: 1963.

Though reading this novel was a project requirement, I was previously yearning to read this classic. Cat's Cradle, is a first person, satyrical, anti-war book. The novel takes place on both the island of San Lorenzo and the United States. Many of the events are shaped around the book's original creation, in the mid-sixties, but most ideas in the novel can be applied to current war times.

The main character, John, is composing a book about the creation of the atom-bomb. John chooses to write the book based on the events that occurred to those involved with the deceased creator of the bomb, Dr. Felix Hoenikker. Throughout the book, John meets many different odd characters that affect the author's perspective of the Doctor. Along the way, the narrator begins to get involved in a religion, Bokonism, which was started by a Calypso singer. This dominant, yet illegal religion, helps shift many ideas into a conclusion.

I feel that the most interesting character in the whole novel is that of Dr. Hoenikker's boss, and close colleague, Asa Breed, even if he is not a crucial character. Breed quaintly states in his first appearance that even though he was Hoenikker's supervisor, there was nothing he could do to control the man. This is one of the first of many statements from the character that lead to Vonnegut's strongest character development ever put on paper. Asa unravels to be a man who, even after losing the love of his life to his colleague who proceeded to ignore her love, considers his rival, Hoenikker, to be a great man. He is able to put aside Felix's responsibility for his wife's death and remember the man in a positive light.

This book helps unravel the mystery of practical application. The whole theme of the book deals with the idea that anything can be used for war. Felix is considered one of the most pacifist scientists who only wants to learn for the sake of learning. Unfortunately, the government, displayed by the same democracy that dropped the technology, will always find a way of taking knowledge from scientist's hands and turning them into something to gain an upper advantage in a battle.

Like all of Vonnegut's novels I have read, I enjoyed this novel immensely. Vonnegut never betrays his satyrical sense of reality and his ability to express it. The author has the ability to weave in ludicrous religions and ideas to create an added element of sarcasm and pessimism. Even if the writing was a little less coherent than that of Slaughterhouse-V, it is obvious why this book was Kurt's breakthrough novel. I recommend this to anyone who wants to read a good book.

Current Event of the Day

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/world/middleeast/08mideast.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

This is quite possibly the most depressing news to happen in a while. A former Arab driver from Jerusalem attacked students at a Yeshiva and killed 15 students. The shooter burst in while they were praying and attacked.

What bothers me most about this story was the fact that there were palistinians dancing in the street because of this atrocity. Where is the morality? Where is the sympathy? Fifteen students, who were doing nothing but praying and learning their religion, were shot, and people are celebrating?

I'm so dissapointed with how this is turning out. Why are people against the side that is acting in self-defense? How can the world back such a ruthless terrorist nation with conditions that are at a peak worst.

Lucky Sevensssss Vocab

His state of hubris was infuriating and frustrating; he couldn't even stop bragging about himself for a minute to work on the project.

In deference to my sister's condition, I let her rude comments slide by without making a retort.

As if it weren't hard to tell them apart to begin with, the twins would emulate each-other's behavior, making it impossible.


Though it seems ingrained in culture to an extent that it is natural, folk music is endemic to the United States, and many countries do not know of its artists.

There were many empires throughout the ages that would eliminate aborigine populations in order to help set up its empire.