One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Final Essay Topics - Please Choose One to Answer
Rohlfs
Essays are due at the beginning of the period on Wednesday, October 30th.
Make sure essay is typed, FULLY double spaced, 12-point font (suggestion for Times New Roman).
Provide a Works Cited page and properly cite all documented, woven quotes and/or paraphrased information.
Please make sure to submit into www.turnitin.com
Be careful!!! Try not to use quotes which are regularly quoted from OFOCN. Work to create your own analysis, finding
material from the novel which best suits the essay prompt.
Hints/Suggestions:
DO NOT reiterate the plot (I have read the novel, I know what happens) thinking this is the best way to answer the essay
prompt. Work to analyze WHY and FOR WHAT PURPOSE the events take place, fully answering essay prompt. No
contractions in formal essays. Have introduction and conclusion compliment each other. Author’s name and title of
novel need to appear in the introduction. DO NOT LIST in your thesis statement. Strengthen connections between
argumentative paragraphs - do not just link with a weak prepositional phrase transition sentence, have the arguments build
upon one another.
1) Abraham Maslow created a hierarchy of needs to order to
explain how some needs take precedence over others. Within these needs, self-actualization may be achieved when
driving needs, or B-needs, are met. Based on the fictional characters created in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest, analyze why the ward (with its stringent policies and its employees), is NOT functional in helping acute patients
satisfy their B-needs, with an ultimate goal of having these patients be “cured” by joining society as full, functioning
adults. Need at least four examples from the novel.
2. Please review the lyrics from Eminem’s song “Like Toy Soldiers.” As Eminem raps about his frustrations about being
a “soldier,” Randle Patrick McMurphy from Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest can easily commiserate.
Analyze with four examples from the novel.
3. Many songs in today’s society evaulate what could be considered “flaws” in human relationships. Pick a song.
Analyze its message in connection with characters from Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Have at least
four evaulative responses in your essay. Please also print and attach the lyrics of the chosen song. Your song may have
explicit lyrics, but be careful! Do not just pick the song due to its beratement of relationships - work to find one which
emphasizes serious/significant relationship issues.
4. Both Randle Patrick McMurphy and Nurse Ratched have very manipulative and powerful personalities in Ken Kesey’s
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. How do two characters in the novel suffer due to these strong and aggressive
personalities? How do two characters change/improve due to these strong and aggressive personalities? A suggestion for
this essay is to review the psychological term of passive/aggressive behavior.