Thursday, October 15, 2009

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

I would not go as far as banning One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest from all schools, but I think that the novel should be banned from middle schools and below because of some language and the somewhat promotional use of racism and sexism between R.P. McMurphy and Chief Bromden. The criticisms are fair for today's world but this book was written in a completely different era with completely different social norms.

The main challenges of having a schizophrenic narrator are that you don know when Bromden is having a hallucination and how he viewing a situation, Bromden could be describing Nurse Ratched chaining him down and forcing food down his throat when he could be sitting in a rocking chair with a tray of food in front of him.


The novel and the "Merry Pranksters" may have ushered in many of the popular drugs of the sixties, because of his success despite the use of hallucinogens.

1 comment:

  1. I agree that the book may have a different meaning now because it is in a totally different time. The book was written during a drug era and it was appropiate at that time but now some of the writing styles and messages being sent may be portrayed a different way now of days. The narrator makes this novel confusing because you don't know if what he is saying is really going on. This book may not be aprropiate now but is was when it was written

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