Books are great source of information. Even books that are a hundred percent fiction can bring about ideas that shape our world, but not all books are allowed everywhere. Certain books are banned in different countries, regions, and schools. However, not all books deserve to be banned from something like a high school curriculum. For Example, Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest should not be censored in high school curriculums.
Critics argue that One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest should be censored because it encourages acts of violence. One of the main characters, McMurphy, is known for “fight[ing] too much” (Kesey 19) which shows on his knuckles that are “covered with scars and cuts, old and new” (Kesey 28). The cuts are proof of his violent nature which doesn’t change throughout the novel. Another cause for concern is when McMurphy shatters the nurses window for the third time, pins down Big Nurse, rips her blouse open, and pries his “heavy red fingers [into] the white flesh of her throat as if they were her neck bones” (Kesey 268). This almost kills Big Nurse and is a very violent act that critics don’t want children to imitate. However, the notion that reading about violent acts will make students want to commit violent acts is a faulty analytical assumption. McMurphy doesn’t attack Big Nurse simply to be violent; it was the other patients’ “need that was making him push himself slowly up from sitting” (Kesey 268) to commit the crime. McMurphy, a stable minded man in a mental institution, put himself on the line to help the other patients who were being manipulated by Big Nurse and her regime. Critics also argue that the novel is too sexual for a high school curriculum. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is riddled with sexual innuendo. As McMurphy challenges Harding for the position of “bull goose loony,” Harding replies that they can “settle the affair at high noon, libidos a-blazing” (Kesey 25). This is a blatant sexual statement towards the beginning of the book, a harbinger of future sexual messages. One of McMurphy’s previous crimes involves statutory rape with a girl who he claims was “tripping [him] and beating [him] to the floor” (Kesey 46). Whether or not the incident was McMurphy’s fault, an underage girl having sex with him is not something that parents want their children imitating. But the fact that the novel is sexual is irrelevant to its educational value. The novel provides insight into the way society appears to favor conformity over individuality. Big Nurse who was “smooth, calculated, and precision-made” (Kesey 12) made sure the patients did the same things throughout the day at the same time and crushed any resistance they showed to her authority.
In addition, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest provides insight into the way mental institutions were once run. Big Nurse had absolute control of the ward after the doctor and if one were to force her hand, they would be sent to her “filthy brain-murdering room” (Kesey 21). The patients didn’t really have a say in what went on, and if they tried to change ward policy, Big Nurse would convince them that it was a bad idea, or her very presence would scare the patients into keeping their opinions to themselves.