Ken
Grabber
“A man should have the right to be
as big as he feels it’s in him to be.”
–Ken Babbs
Kesey
Ken
1935- takes
2001
Kesey’s
Thesis A
distinct
conventional
and
presents
literary
voice
American
ideas
them
in
very
unconventional fashion, combining the
Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), Sometimes a
self-reliance of the
Thesis B
traditional American West with the
Because of his masterful story telling
blurred reality of the 1960s.
gifts, in addition to his insight into
(1992),
Essay Map
In his novels One Flew over the
Great Notion (1964), and Sailor Song
voice
Kesey
through
exhibits
his
use
strength
and
the American spirit in both traditional
his
literary
and modern senses, Kesey deserves
of
literary
to
be
included
devices—specifically and most notably,
literary canon.
“strength” as a motif—his insight into
the
the “grit and gumption” condition of
the
Biography
American
West,
and
his
classic
in
the
American
His work, particularly
One
Flew
Over
the
Cuckoo’s Nest and his masterpiece
Sometimes
a
Great
Notion,
Works
embodiment
of
the
Postmodern
represents the mindset of a formative
o Parents
were views
dairy farmers
who gradually
migrated era in American
o One history
Flew Over
philosophical
which define
the
and the
the
west,
ending
up
in
Springfield,
OR.
Cuckoo's
literature of the 1960s.
frontier values upon
whichNest
the (1962,
nation
o As a student, Kesey was fascinated by magic and was built.
novel)
anything “just outside the reach of ordinary
o Sometimes a Great
experiences.”
o Kesey majored in speech and communications at
the University of Oregon, and spent his time there
heavily involved in theatre and sports, especially
wrestling.
He described himself as “playing the
campus wonder boy.”
o Kesey started writing fiction in college and was
awarded the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to enroll in
the creative writing program at Stanford University
o At Stanford, Kesey had become “the man whom
other young rebels tried to imitate, almost like
Hemmingway in Montparnasse during the 1920’s”
o In California, Kesey became involved in a study of
psychedelic drugs at Menlo Park’s veteran’s hospital,
setting Kesey on a course of personal experiments
Notion (1964, novel)
o Kesey's Garage Sale
(1973, collection of
essays)
o Demon Box (1986,
collection of essays and
short stories)
o The Further Inquiry
(1990, play)
o Sailor Song (1992,
novel)
o Last Go Round (1994,
novel, written with Ken
Babbs)
Distinctive features of Ken Kesey’s

Literary
work
devices—use of “strength” as a motif
Literary: “Now that’s real logical, don’t you think? That’s real
simple. If You Wants To Win You Does Your Best. Why, a body
could paint that on a plaque and hang it over his bedstead”
(Sometimes a Great Notion 111).

Critical: “It is a recurring conceptual metaphor… ‘Powerful is Big,’
where power and strength are related to size” (Semino and
Swindlehurst 8).
Philosophical viewpoint—Postmodernism

Literary: “Besides, there are some things that can’t be the truth
even if they did happen” (Sometimes a Great Notion 74).

Critical: Kesey often asserted that “fact and fiction blend well and
both are essential in presenting ‘the True Happening of the
moment’” (Tanner 5-6).
Insight into American condition—frontier values

Literary: “Hank scooped him up before he could finish and perched
him on his shoulder. ‘Bee-cause, bub, how you ever gonna get
fierce, you don’t learn to get out yonder an’ meet the Hidebehind
in his own territory? Takes some grit an’ gumption, but it’s gotta
be did or you’ll spend your life in a hole like a gopher”
(Sometimes a Great Notion 295).

Literary: “I’m just as concerned as the next guy, just as loyal. If
we was to get into it with Russia I’d fight for us right down to the
wire.
And if Oregon was to get into it with California I’d fight for
Oregon.
But if somebody—Biggy Newton or the Woodworkers
Union or anybody—gets into it with me, then I’m for me!
When the
chips are down, I’m my own patriot” (Sometimes a Great Notion
363).

Literary: “A man is always surprised just how much he can do by
himself” (Sometimes a Great Notion 618).

Critical: “His characters flourish best among the innocent ideals of
the Jeffersonian landscape… populated with peaceful, hardworking,
independent yeomen, roused to instant action by any threat to their
independence” (Barsness 30).

Critical: “An admiration for self-reliant action runs deep in the
American psyche” (Tanner 19).
Conclusion

“Classics are books that exert a peculiar influence, both when they
refuse to be eradicated from the mind and when they conceal
themselves in the folds of memory, camouflaging themselves as
the collective or individual unconscious” (Calvino 126).


Ken Kesey was not included in Bloom’s list.
On Sometimes a Great Notion: “The range of subject runs from
youth drug culture to redneck intolerance. The range of motifs
spreads from Hamlet to Captain Marvel. Allusions to literary
classics appear side by side with vernacular oral tales.
To get so
many diverse elements working harmoniously to convey a definite
theme is a singular accomplishment. It requires an effort and
concentration that Kesey has shown no inclination to undertake
again.” (Tanner 85)

Kesey unknowingly summed up his literary career in One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: “He came to life for maybe a minute to
try to tell us something, something none of us cared to listen to or
understand, and the effort had drained him dry” (55).