How does Kesey portray games as a counterpoint to authority?

Write a thesis-based analytical essay on Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Please feel free to refer to the following prompts for inspiration, although you are not
required to use these prompts (and may address a theme of your own choosing):
1. Explain how Kesey formulates the relationship between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched
as a metaphor for social oppression and forced conformity.
2. Electroshock therapy and lobotomies were going out of fashion by the time OFOTCN was
published, but they were still used occasionally. Explain Kesey’s social goals in this novel:
how does he show the dangers of EST and lobotomies? How–and why–does he warn
against their misuse?
3. Examine Chief’s metaphor of water vs. machinery. Address why that imagery is
important to Chief, how it is used throughout the novel, and how it relates to the end of
Chief’s story (as well as the beginning). How does that metaphor illuminate Kesey’s larger
argument about society?
4. Explore the issues of race, class, sexuality, and/or gender that this novel raises. How and
why does Kesey focus on marginalized groups, and how much do race, class, sexuality, and
gender matter in the social power struggles that he portrays? (Tip: you may not want to
address race and class and sexuality and gender; it’s too much for one essay of this
length.)…
5. Describe the function of games in creating a homosocial community in the ward. How
effective is that community at creating friendships? How are those friendships colored by
surveillance and distrust? How does Kesey portray games as a counterpoint to authority?
Your Grade Will Be Based on Your Paper’s:
 Originality. Do not regurgitate lecture. Instead, build on the class lecture and
discussion in order to make a new point about the text(s) you have chosen.
 Thesis. Your paper should make a nuanced, provable argument. Avoid repeating
yourself: do not prove one point many times. Prove one complex point once.
 Analysis. Do not summarize. Remember who your audience is: someone who knows
what happens in the text, but not why it matters for your thesis. Write to them. Base
your analysis on quotations from the text and close readings of those quotations;
they are the evidence that proves your thesis. Feel free to draw on other material we
have covered in class.
 Clarity. Write well: Use transitions to connect ideas. Define difficult terms. Explain
why a quotation matters. Format your paper neatly. Proofread for typos and