Final Book Blog: One flew over the cukoo's nest by Ken Kasey

Comment on the perspective from which the book is told and how the
author’s choice affects your relationship with the book’s content.

The story is told by Chief Bromden's perspective. His perspective is very unique because a reader can note changes in his mental state just by analyzing the way he thinks. Because he is a "deaf mute", the reader is more involved with the story since he or she is the only one who knows what he is thinking.

In the beginning, a reader can automatically acknowledge chiefs mental disabilities because of the way he describes the story. As the story continues, chief talks about the "Fog" clearing in his mind, the reader can tell he is recovering because the narration becomes more precise and clear. The style of writing follows the plot of the story and makes the book more intriguing.

"One Christmas at midnight on the button, at the old place, the ward door blows open with a crash, in comes a fat man with a beard, eyes ringed red by the cold, his nose just the color of a cherry. The black boys get him cornered in the hall with flashlights. I see he's all tangled in tinsel,
and he's stumbling around in it, in the dark.....'Ho Ho Ho', he says.'Ho Ho i must.. be.. going...'

The black boys move in with the flashlights. They kept him with us six years before they discharged him, clean shaven and skinny as a pole"
(Kasey, 73)

Over the years, Chief has come up with many opinions about what the ward can do to a man.For example, he is terrified by the big nurse's clock, the clock is special in the way that it can be manipulated to alter the intervals of time. By analyzing his thought processes, it is apparent that he is still confused and full of conspiracy theories, the reader can observe his progress.



Chief is the unofficial observer of the ward and, although he never talks, he hears and knows everything that happens in the hospital. Chief's gossip includes both the secretive plans made by the other patients and R.P. Mcmurphy, and what was said in the latest staff meetings. Because Chief knows what is going on from both parties of the ward a reader can take on an all knowing perspective of the plot. Forseeing the latest punishment for Mack, or the latest evil trap set for the Big Nurse, allows the reader to analyze characterization as well as of the book's figurative style.