One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

Last night I saw a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest preformed by the Central Carolina Community College and a few members of the local community. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, originally is a novel by Ken Kesey, is about an insane asylum and the men that have been committed to it and the challenges they face everyday with their very strict nurse Ratched. Randle P. McMurphy is the newest member of the asylum, even though he is not actually insane, just a little hot tempered and difficult to deal with. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest uses many literary techniques like realism, metaphors, and irony to create tone that leaves you feeling enlightened by its whit and disturbed by its realistic interpretation of an insane asylum.

The whole story is a metaphor comparing the struggle between the sane and the insane human being. McMurphy, just an edgy man with an attitude, is treated with electroshock therapy and a lobotomy because he was violent towards. Using the different treatments in the story is a realistic depiction of insane asylums before the movement in the 1970s towards deinstitutionalization, which moved patients from the asylum into a special community. The story uses irony throughout the story, After McMurphy has had his lobotomy the patients walk out and see him strapped to a stretcher saying he's not a real person and that it's not really McMurphy. This is an example of dramatic irony because the audience knows he is really McMurphy.

I love this story because it is so real and uses a lot of literary techniques to set a funny and depressing realistic tone. It has this great style of sardonic humor similar to Mark Twain's wrting. I recommend that everyone sees this play, watches the movie, or read the book because the story is very unique and risky.