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by Soccer_Fever on August 4th, 2007

Soccer_Fever

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One flew over the chuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey, my question is what do you think is the significance of the title? My take is that a person(Randle McMurphy) takes over and tries to overthrow the person in charge(Big Nurse) and tries to make a change.

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  • by enforced bliss on February 16th, 2008

    enforced bliss

    Cuckoos are synonymous with lunacy/stupidity in our culture

    The cuckoos nest in the title is both metaphor and pun.

    pun - it takes place in an asylum where all of the patients are, assumedly, nuts (cuckoo). Hence the hospital (or at least the psychiatric wing) is a cuckoo's nest.

    metaphor - All institutions are cuckoo's nests because all institutions (or bureacracies if you prefer) are nuts themselves, run by people made nuts by having to justify a nuts system and make people exposed to it nuts through osmosis.

    MacMurphy never became nuts (except arguably after Billy's death) he managed to remain both himself and sane in the face of an insane system. He maintainned himself.

    In that sense MacMurphy flew (rose above) over the cuckoo's nest.

    Chief Broom's final actions (and possibly his demeanor throughout his stay) could also been seen as "[flying] over the cuckoo's nest".

    Bliss

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You're reading One flew over the chuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey, my question is what do you think is the significance of the title? My take is that a person(Randle McMurphy) takes over and tries to overthrow the person in charge(Big Nurse) and tries to make a change.

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