Abstract
Considering Louis Althusser’s inquiries into the function of ideology in sustaining power, the writers of this article discuss the operation of ideological and repressive apparatuses in the asylum Ken Kesey portrays in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962). The novel recounts the story of a group of people contained in an institution that is supposed to treat their allegedly mental problems, whereas under the facade of psychiatric treatment lies a ruthless controlling system whose major purpose is to turn the inmates into obedient, submissive “subjects”. The agents of the institution preserve the patients’ docility through strict rules besides the so-called mental therapy that actually results in more confusion in inmates who consequently lose their self-consciousness and self-confidence. But since every ideological system, besides inducing docile “subjects,” raises a sort of resistance among them, gradually resisting forces are formed in the asylum of the novel by the coming of a new inmate who defies the dominant ideology of the institution. By his jovial, life-affirming ideology, he breathes new life into others, makes them think and believe in themselves and trust each other, and thereby acts as a source of inspiration for several inmates, specially the Indian American narrator of the novel that subsequently challenges his schizophrenia, and finally, when his friend is shocked by electrical devices as the result of which he totally loses his consciousness, smashes the control panel of the ward to escape from that penitentiary.
Highlights
Presenting an Altusserian reading of Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), this article deals with the suppressive operation of ideology as portrayed in the asylum of Kesey’s novel
After a while a resisting force appears in the institution by the arrival of a new inmate who urges others to defy the strict rules of the authorities
Althusser believes that no one can release themselves from the bondage of the dominant ideology and whatever a person does is entwined in the complicated web of ideology
Summary
Presenting an Altusserian reading of Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), this article deals with the suppressive operation of ideology as portrayed in the asylum of Kesey’s novel. The American writer Kenneth Elton Kesey (1935-2007) is best known for his famous novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest whose cinematic adaptation won five Academy Awards in 1975 He was a non-conformist writer in line with the “beat culture” of the 1960s whose motto was a return to nature against the industrialization of the time. Kesey’s familial background is endowed with perseverance and “self-reliance,” along with an intimate relationship with nature – the attributes discernible in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest His works disclose his increasing awareness of the functioning of the prevailing ideology that his rebellious spirit permanently refuted and defied. They heed Kesey’s depiction of psychological, social pressures on individuals, they do not tackle the operation of ideology in exerting those pressures
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