One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a historical fiction novel by Ken Kesey, published in 1962. Kesey drew on his experiences working in a veterans’ hospital to develop a critique of then-current psychiatric practices. The novel’s central conflict between a domineering nurse and an unruly patient can also be read as an allegory for the emerging culture wars of the 1960s. The novel was adapted into a Broadway play one year after its publication and, subsequently, into a 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson, which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In 2005, Time named the novel one of the 100 greatest English-language novels published since the magazine’s inception in 1923.

Citations in this guide correspond with the 2003 edition published by Penguin Books.

Plot Summary

The story takes place in the psychiatric ward in an Oregon hospital and is narrated by one of the ward's patients, Chief Bromden. Bromden is a Native American man who presents himself as deaf and mute, though he is neither. He experiences paranoia and frequent hallucinations, including a thick fog that clouds his perception whenever hospital staff exert influence over him.

As the story opens, a new patient arrives in the ward.