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Narrative Perspective in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the narrative perspective given by Chief Bromden of a mental hospital is portrayed as something surreal. Metaphors are used to back up his concepts as well as machinery imagery. The Three black boys that methodically obey an irritated nurse with a cold heart are just part of the cast of characters that live in what resembles mostly a factory than a sanatorium. The “Fog Machine” is something that the staff gave to the patients for them to be quiet, as well as the machine noises described by the Chief. The Big Nurse, Miss Ratched is illustrated “as tense as steel” and instead of her carrying a normal purse like women do, she carries one with “wheels and gears, cogs polished hard to glitter, tiny pills that gleam like porcelain, needles, forceps, watchmakers pliers, rolls of copper wire....”. Through diction, the reader discovers by seeing through Chief Bromden’s eyes, the medical s...

Posted by: Justin Rech

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