Cuckoo's Nest 1

I feel that reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest can be a bit difficult because of the narrator's, a distracted, mysterious "chronic" in a psych ward, delivery. He falls into flashbacks in which a part of his past are revealed, but are never are the flashbacks concluded, leaving gaps in the chronology of Cheif Bromden. We know that his heritage includes American Indian, hence the title "Cheif", he was born on a reservation, and we have a physical description of him. We also know that he is the oldest member of the ward, and has been there the longest. In the ward, he is labled as a "walker" and a "chronic" which means that he is mobile and, by the ward's opinion, does not have a chance for recovery. He plays the role of a deaf and mute person, but as we understand, it is only an act. At this time, however, we still do not have much information on why he is in the psych ward.

The stream of consciousness style used by Kesey is very effective because of the setting and narrator. This feature lends more credibility and adds to the authenticity of the novel. It helps capture the full character of Cheif Bromden rather than having a third person, omniscient narrator.