Format:
• Single-space your header, including only name, course title, and date.
• Double-space your assignment.
• Use Times New Roman font.
• Include an introduction with a thesis statement and no generalizations.
• Include body paragraphs with evidence from the text and analysis of that evidence.
• Include a conclusion paragraph that re-states your argument and gestures to a
larger conclusion.
• Use parenthetical citations. No Works Cited list is required.
• 4-5 pages.
Assignment:
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). No matter
which prompt you choose, make sure to use the technique of close reading to prove your
thesis.
1. Explain how Kesey formulates the relationship between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched
as a metaphor for social oppression and forced conformity. Make sure to avoid plot
summary, and to clearly explain how we know that these individual characters stand for
larger concepts.
2. 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?
3. 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.)
4. 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?
5. Explain the portrayal of masculinity in this book. How does Kesey portray both a
prescriptive masculinity and a descriptive masculinity? What are the struggles between the
two for various characters? What resolution, if any, are those characters able to achieve,
and how does that resolution reflect Kesey’s larger argument about social conformity?
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 errors.