Study Guide to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

Book excerpt: A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which was an immediate critical success upon its release in 1964. As a novel of the late 1900s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a product of Kesey's drug stimulated imagination, and much of the original material was written under the influence of LSD and peyote which Kesey took to induce in himself a state of mind similar to that of his narrator, the schizophrenic Indian Chief Broom. Moreover, Time magazine called it "a roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the invisible Rulers who enforce them." This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Kesey’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains: - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.