Julie L English HP Period 3 21 January 2010 Ken Kesey Reading Ken Keseys novels has made me notice a lot

of things. It is really interesting how much you can learn about a person just through reading their writing. You can learn so much about their preferences, lifestyle, and many other small things. Also, it has taught me that although two books may seem completely different, there are always small details in one book that can be related back to another book, or even the authors life. Ken Kesey was born in Colorado and raised in Oregon. As a child, he would hunt, fish, swim, box, wrestle, and play football. He went to college at the University of Oregon, then went to Stanford University, and eventually dropped out. He joined the "counterculture" movement, which advocated drugs and sex. As an adult, he volunteered/worked at a psychiatric hospital to experiment drugs and report their effects. This inspired him to write his first book: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1962. Two years later, he wrote Sometimes a Great Notion. In 1965, Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana. After his 5 month prison sentence, he settled with his wife and four children in Oregon and continued to write novels. Kesey died in 2001 from liver cancer. I read three popular books written by Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Sometimes a Great Notion, and Demon Box. I found several similarities between the 3 books that can be related back to Kesey's life. All of these books are dedicated to a person, followed by a short poem. Next, Kesey describes the characters he uses in his books very directly. He also makes each character speak with a certain regional dialect, and when needed, he gives a character their own individual dialect. Finally, Kesey uses very descriptive beginnings to his books, and individual chapters. One element Kesey uses repeatedly in all of his books is a dedication page. All of these books are dedicated to people, but none to the same person. Under each person's name is a small poem. Furthermore, the page after every dedication page contains a longer poem. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the dedication page reads: "To Vik Lovell- who told me dragons did not exist, then led me to their lairs". As I did research on Kesey's life, I discovered that Vik Lovell is the person that convinced Kesey to work in a psychiatric hospital at one point in his life. This inspired him to write this book. He would give patients LSD which led to a setting for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The main character-Cheif Bromden was based on an Indian man that would sweep the floor in the hospital he worked at. None of this would have happened if Vik Lovell had not been the person to lead Kesey to the dragon's lair-what ever the dragons symbolized in their case. Following this page in the book, is a page that says: "One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the Cuckoo's nest." This is a children's folk rhyme that Kesey put into the book most likely to get the reader thinking about the book. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a book that strongly shows how Kesey was part of the counterculture movement. The book was based on Keseys drugs experiences in the hospital he worked at, and

sex is spoken about several times in the book. Sometimes a Great Notion is dedicated to Kesey's mother and father. The poem reads: "Who told me songs were for the birds, then taught me all the tunes I know and a good deal of the words." Through reading Kesey's biography, I learned that Kesey's mother and father were very "hard-shelled baptists" and led him to have great respect for the bible as he grew into an adult. Although the poem may not be referring to that specific event, it can be inferred that the "tunes" and words of the songs refer to the bibles words and messages that Kesey kept along with him throughout his life. The poem on the following page of the novel are lyrics from a song called "Good Night, Irene." They read: "Sometimes I live in the country, sometimes I live in the town, sometimes I get a great notion to jump into the river...an' drown." He could have put those lyrics there because they inspired him to write the book or gave him the idea. Demon Box is dedicated to a person named Jed. I have not read about anyone named Jed in his biography, and the poem below his name on the dedication page only says "across the river riding point." However, the poem on the page after this says a lot about Keseys life. Below the title that reads "Tarnished Galahad," it says: "-written later, on the run, in Mexico". The poem speaks of pesos to dollars, "dopefiends," and the last 2 lines: "Keep running and hiding 'til the next time you're busted and locked away to suffer your guilt, and shame." It is signed, "-pretty much what happened." This doesn't mean much when read alone, but after reading Keseys biography I learned that Kesey was arrested in 1965 for possession of marijuana. Before being arrested, he tried to fake his own suicide and fled to Mexico. This turned out unsuccessful- but this experience was reflected in his book. This goes to show that not only did Kesey always include dedication pages and poems in his books prior to the story, but as far as I have discovered he always intertwined a deeper meaning to them. The second thing I noticed about Ken Kesey's novels is that he almost always uses direct characterization to describe characters. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey writes: "This guy is redheaded with long red sideburns and a tangle of curls out from under his cap, been needing cut a long time, and he's broad as Papa was tall, broad there oh high heels with her purse held tight over her belly" (11-12). Later in the book when Kesey is describing Harding, he writes: "Harding is a flat, nervous man with a face that sometimes makes you think you seen him in the movies, like it's a face too pretty to just be a guy on the street. He's got wide, thin shoulders and he curves them in around his chest when he's trying to hide inside himself. He's got hands so long and white and dainty I think they carved each other out of soap, and sometimes they get loose and glide around in front of him free as two white birds until he notices them and traps them between his knees; it bothers him that he's got pretty hands" (20). In Sometimes a Great Notion, when describing Jonas Armand Stamper, he writes: "...he appears more sturdylooking, stiff-arched, and impressive than all the others put together. His hair is long and glossy, showing Indian blood; his eyebrows and mustache exactly horizontal, as though rulered parallel onto his wide-boned face with a heavy graphite pencil. Hard jaw, tendoned neck, deep chest" (17). In Demon Box, Kesey writes: "...leather jacket, striped pants and shoes, silver whistle hanging around my neck" (1). Although all of these passages cannot really be related back to Kesey's life or experiences, it tells me about his writing style. I can tell that Kesey prefers to explain characters in direct characterization as opposed to letting us

discover what the character is like throughout the book. Another thing that I noticed through reading his books is that most of the time when he explains characters directly he only talks about their physical features. I don't remember reading a part when a character describes another character's personality directly. Another thing that stuck out to me in Kesey's novels is that he always uses regional dialect for his characters and individual character dialect. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the "black boys" say: "This ol' fart Blastic, he's comin' to pieces befo' my very eyes. I can't tell no more if I'm feeding him bacon puree or..." (33). In Sometimes a Great Notion, Henry says: "We got 'er by the tail, men. Yessir. Goddam right" (31). Additionally, in Demon Box, a character says: "Oh, that ol' city be just right, Saturday night still cookin'. If I can get me to a bus, that is" (7). Simply changing the way the characters talk in the book changes the whole mood of the book. Before even reading Ken Kesey's biography, I had an idea of what time period he lived in just because all of his books contained characters that spoke in that certain dialect. After reading his biography I discovered that he lived from 1935-2001. He wrote most of his books during 1950's-1960's, and he was born in Colorado and grew up in Oregon which explains the dialect he selected to write in. Another dialect he wrote in was Billy Bibbit's stutter in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest : Billy Bibbit's stutter: "There's not m-much else he can do, I guess. He's deaf...If I was d-d-deaf...I would kill myself" (24). Giving this character a stutter adds a tacit personality to him that the reader can decipher without knowing what he is like too much. Finally, I noticed that Kesey uses very strong beginnings sentences in the beginnings of both his books and chapters. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he uses a repeated beginning to several of his chapters: fog. He starts many of the chapters off with a description of fog. Not only are many of the descriptions strong but the fact that he is repeatedly using fog as a beginning makes it very powerful. "When the fog clears to where I can see, I'm sitting in the day room" (9). "Before noontime they're at the fog machine again but they haven't got it turned up full; it's not so thick but what I can see if I strain real hard" (42). "There's long spells-three days, years-when you can't see a thing, know where you are only by the speaker sounding overhead like a bell buoy clanging in the fog...I believe the fog affects their memory some way it doesn't affect mine" (117). "Nobody complains about the fog. I know why, now: as bad as it is, you can slip back in it and feel safe" (127). "I know how they work it, the fog machine. We had a whole platoon used to operate fog machines around airfields overseas" (130). The idea of fog is used so much throughout the book, that the reader realizes that it means more than just fog. The whole theme of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the idea what makes a person "crazy?" And what defines crazy? The prison putting fog out is a way of showing that they are in charge of the people's thoughts, and they can control what they do and don't know. The fog is meant to show who is in charge, but ironically, it makes us wonder if the patients are more sane then the ones in charge. In addition, the fog creates a great layout for beginnings of chapters because every time a chapter is started off with fog, it makes the beginning of that chapter very strong because it brings the reader back to the theme of the story; the whole idea of saneness. Kesey starts off Sometimes a Great Notion with a very powerful description of the setting: "The first little washes flashing like thick rushing winds through sheep sorrel and

clover, ghost fern and nettle, sheering, cutting...forming branches...Metallic at first, seen from the highway down through the trees, like an aluminum rainbow, like a slice of alloy moon...A river smooth and seeming calm, hiding the cruel file-edge of its current beneath a smooth and calm-seeming surface"(1). This description is continuous all through the first and second pages of the novel. It is very powerful to start off a book with such a strong, descriptive beginning that paints such a vivid image in the reader's mind. In Demon Box, Kesey starts off a short story with a beautiful description: "-hibiscus blooms fall with heavy plops, lie sprawled on the sunny cobblestones and cement benches like fat Mexican generals, scarlet-and-green parade uniforms, gawdy and limp, too hot and tired to rise back to the rank of their branches. Later, perhaps. Now, siesta..."(16). The beginning of another story in Demon Box is started off very strong with another description: "Killer, the one-eyed one-horned billygoat-rearing fully erect on his hind legs, tall as a man, tucking his cloven hooves beneath his flying Uncle Sam bear, bowing his neck, slanting his one horn, and bulging his ghastly square-lensed eye and M'kehla's back-came piledriving down" (164). One day in class we discussed how every word and every punctuation that a writer selects is important. Why that word? Why that specific punctuation? Through reading Kesey's descriptive paragraphs I can definitely see how every little thing is important. Why did he choose to start off a short story with a hyphen? Why didn't he just directly start it off saying "Hibiscus blooms fall..."? I have learned that it is very important to look into paragraphs, sentences, words, and punctuation marks, deeper than we think is necessary. It is obvious to me that Kesey also believes in putting complete effort into finding the perfect word to describe something. From reading Ken Keseys novels, I have learned a lot of things about him. I have learned that he had many important people in his life that he dedicated his novels to. I learned that Kesey uses direct characterization when describing his characters, and he gives many of his characters a certain dialect to fit the novel. Lastly, he has a very specific way of starting off books or individual chapters that makes his novels very strong. In addition to all of that, I have learned a great deal about his life and his experiences. There is so much you can find out about an author through reading their writing. And in the bigger picture, there is so much you can find out about a person through any form of their work or expression.

Works Cited Kesey, Ken. Demon Box. Boston: Penguin (Non-Classics), 1987. Print. Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: (Great Books edition) (Penguin Great Books of Penguin (Non-Classics), 1999. Print. Kesey, Ken. Sometimes a Great Notion (Penguin Classics). London: Penguin Classics, 2006. name:. "Ken Kesey." www.kirjasto.sci.fi . N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2010. Print. the 20th Century). Boston:

<http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kkesey.htm>.

"The Counterculture." Oracle ThinkQuest Library . N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. <http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/counter.htm>.