The Analysis Of The Strength Of American Individualism Shown In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Individualism is the core value of Americans. American individualism derived from varieties of ideological trends of Europe. The Westward Movement and the appearance of Emerson’s transcendentalism play an important part in the "Americanized" course of individualism. Human identity, pursuit of freedom and happiness, self-reliance and responsibility are the best qualities of American individualism. It has great strength in awakening the individual’s full realization of the importance of "self" and leading to the individual’s salvation from a conformist society.American individualism has exerted a profound influence upon various aspects of American society. As a result, many writers present this motif in their works. Ken Kesey is one of the most remarkable writers in the1960s in America, when he was noted for his counter-culture life in California. His masterpiece One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is the product of his thoughts at this stage of life. This novel has attracted much attention of the readers as well as the critics since it came out in1962. Narrated by an Indian psychopath, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest presents us a world where the individual, though nearly stifled to death by the authority, are able to earn their freedom with the weapon of American individualism. Based on illustrational research, this paper tries to demonstrate how the strength of American individualism plays an important role in transforming the paranoid patient Chief Bromden into a normal and self-reliant person.This thesis analyzes One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest with American individualism, which is a new perspective among researches into this novel both at home and abroad. The strength of American individualism is reflected in the novel through the analysis of the transformation of Bromden’s life from insanity to sanity, paranoia to soberness, and a conformist to an individualist.Hopefully, this thesis can help Chinese readers to know more about the positive sides of American individualism so as to absorb what is the best from it. Further more, the writer of this thesis hopes that this thesis can rouse readers’interests in Ken Kesey and his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.