Joseph Conrad once said, “The task of a writer is by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel- it is above all to make you see.” This means that in literature, authors write about issues, which the reader can reflect on, see the truth in, and change the problem of. I agree with the lens. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey proves the validity of the above lens.
In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey protests the inability to live with oneself by putting up a mask. The story takes place in a mental ward in the 1950’s. Chief Bromden sees the mental ward as a secure place from the outside world, or what he calls the Combine. The Combine controls society and forces people into conformity. In the mental ward, one looses themselves and falls to the rules and regulations that are placed upon them by the Big Nurse. The story is written in first person, which gives the reader insight into how the main character is feeling, seeing, and interpreting everything around him. Chief Bromden is the narrator of the story. He tells the story how it appears to him, which is significant because at first his reality is very foggy and hallucinated. Chief lets himself fall into the fog because he would rather relax than have to deal with the painful reality that he’s living in. Chief also makes the others think he’s deaf and dumb, which is significant because he can hear vital information being spoken around the ward without anybody suspecting him of anything. At the beginning of the story, Chief Bromden is sweeping in the hall with the black boys instructing him to do so. The nurse enters the ward; mechanical and stiff in her starched white uniform. Kesey uses the machinery reference because machinery is something that society uses to gain control of people and restrain individuals from their natural instincts. The Nurses starched uniform is used to hide her femininity. The Nurse wants to hide her large breasts from the men because they would...