One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
by Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Style 1 key example

Key Examples in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Part One
Explanation and Analysis:

The style of the novel is descriptive, but often the richest descriptions are not of objective reality. Instead, Bromden makes liberal use of figurative language to convey his own subjective experience of life in the mental hospital. One example occurs in Part One, when Washington gets in trouble for failing to provide McMurphy with a uniform:

I can see how if he don’t get a move on she might freeze him and shatter him all to hell by just looking; all the hate and fury and frustration she was planning to use on McMurphy is beaming out down the hall at the black boy, and he can feel it blast against him like a blizzard wind, slowing him more than ever. He has to lean into it, pulling his arms around him. Frost forms in his hair and eyebrows. He leans farther forward, but his steps are getting slower; he’ll never make it.