One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Essay | Critical Essay #2

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Critical Essay #2

In the following excerpt, Quinn argues that despite its language, sexual content, and graphic portrayal of psychological treatments, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest can be a valuable subject for high-school discussion if issues of sexism and racism are addressed.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey's 1962 novel of life in a hospital for the mentally ill, is a document of the sixties. Its anti-institutionalism, its celebration of boisterous rebellion against a seemingly rational (but actually unnecessarily repressive) establishment spoke to a generation of long-haired beaded and bearded anti-war activists. That the novel records something important to that era is not enough (perhaps) to justify its inclusion in a public school curriculum, we generally seek a universal and timeless quality in the works we teach to students. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest possesses tills broader vision, however, and transcends its own timelessness by addressing a...
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