ELA  /  11th Grade  /  Unit 3: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Students study the institutional processes and popular beliefs surrounding mental health in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, as they discuss and debate the themes of power, order, and authority.

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ELA

Unit 3

11th Grade

Unit Summary

Please Note: This unit currently only contains free Fishtank features. In January 2025, we will begin releasing a new set of 11th Grade units, with the full scope of Fishtank Plus resources and features.

Ken Kesey’s novel, popularized by the Oscar-winning movie adaptation of 1975, serves as a study of the institutional processes and the truth (or fictions) behind societal beliefs about mental health. The novel has been widely read and adapted into a Broadway play as well as the film.

Students will analyze the power struggle between the patients on the ward and the terrorizing character of the Big Nurse that serves as the major conflict of the novel. This analysis will draw students into debates and discussions about some of the central themes such as power, order, authority, and the consequences when these are abused. The novel’s instances of raw humanity also allow for students to relate to patients in a mental institution in the 1950s and consider their plight. The empathy Kesey builds in his readers helps to draw them into questioning the “truth” about “sanity” and “insanity,” thematic topics that students will consider in this unit and in other units in 11th and 12th grade English.

Texts and Materials

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Core Materials

Supporting Materials

Text Selection Rationale
Purchase Books

Assessment

These assessments accompany Unit 3 and should be given on the days suggested in the Lesson Map. Additionally, there are formative and creative assessments integrated into the unit to prepare students for the Performance Task.

Content Assessment

The Content Assessment tests students' ability to read a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer multiple choice and short answer questions. Additionally, a longer writing prompt pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.

Key Knowledge

Intellectual Prep

  • Read and annotate both the book and this unit plan. 
  • Watch the film adaptation of the novel.
  • Take the unit exam, including writing the essay response.
  • Read and annotate all paired texts.

Essential Questions

  • Sanity and Insanity: What does it mean to be “crazy” and who gets to decide?
  • Truth: Is truth in the eye of the beholder or is it decided by society?
  • Big and Small: What makes someone “big” or “small?”
  • Rules/Order/Authority: Are rules necessary for society?  At what point do rules become corrupt or oppressive? 

Writing Focus Areas

This unit focuses on a type of writing that is frequently assessed on the new SAT. Specifically, students will explain how an author uses specific literary devices to convey his/her message in a single text. In the future, students will need to do the same for a pair of texts, but for this unit they will focus on just one text.

Spiraling Literary Analysis Writing Focus Area

  • Develop a clear thesis that answers the prompt.
  • Create clear and cohesive arguments to support the thesis.
  • Choose the most relevant evidence to support the claims.

Vocabulary

Literary Terms

metaphor, onomatopoeia, diction, analogy, allusion, juxtaposition, theme, motif, pathos

Roots and Affixes

-otomy (lobotomy, leucotomy), aud- (auditory), jur- (jurisdiction), circ- (circumvent)

Text-based

Part 1: hullabaloo (5), precise (5), calculated (5), enamel (5), seclusion (9), admission (10), acute (15), chronic (15), nuisance (16), ornery (19), persecutes (22), cagey (24), whirring (25), hefting (25), orient (25), hypodermic (27), manipulator (27), intolerable (28), efficiency (29), accumulate (29), appraises (30), hostility (34), frenzied (38), nimble (40), lolling (43), brawn (44), insubordination (45), democratic (49), grievance (49), fester (49), subconscious (50), acoustic (50), murky (55), cadaver (55), prosecutors (56), quaint (57), fracas (57), taut (58), braggart (59), vitals (60), grimace (61), veritable (61), incapable (63), devour (64), astute (65), bashful (65), sly (66), vogue (69), consolation (70), matriarchy (71), juggernaut (71), impregnable (73)
Part 2: scant (77), transmit (79), branded (80), stoicism (80), spiel (80), lacerations (82), flusters (83), hydroelectric (86), bloated (89), outlandish (90), shrewd (91), policy (93), convalescent (97), physique (100), gaudy (100), heathen (105), reminisce (108), maudlin (108), nostalgia (108), auditory (110), spell (117), turmoil (118), mope (119), scowling (120), assets (123), procedure (140), hex (142), jurisdiction (144), recrimination (145)
Part 3: bile (151), fiendish (151), defy (152), comparative (154), thwarted (154), authoritarian (155), smoldering (157), brashness (157), femininity (159), sufficient (159), manufacture (161), haywire (162), silage (165), commenced (165), lope (165), gripe (167), spite (177), confound (179), haggard (180), schematic (182), curtail (183), inadequacies (184), concise (189), perverse (190), rational (190), jargon (191), lucid (192), committed (194), rebellious (199), impose (199), circumvent (199), tactic (205), menace (207), treachery (209), hovel (211), fraternize (212), squalor (212), metropolis (214), sterilized (229), predicament (230), speculation (233), gawk (234), sullenly (238), waiver (242), idle (245), cormorants (247), gaff (248), grim (252), rigorous (255), vaguely (256), woebegone (257)
Part 4: maneuver (261), martyr (264), stingy (266), chicanery (266), cautionary (270), initiative (273), trudging (274), clatter (276), drawling (277), hunkered (277), cogs (282), anoint (283), corrosion (283), vulnerable (291), peaked (293), chastity (296), artificial (301), tranquilize (304), recuperations (306), mellow (308), discretion (315), forcibly (315), contemptuous (316), ordeal (317), shudder (317)

Idioms and Cultural References

Combine (3), Public Relations (9), Eisenhower (21), vial (27), Inside vs. Outside (28), wheelers (28), vegetables (28), latrine (35), spine tap (36), Seconal (37), Punch & Judy (37), Korea (45), shindig (57), takes the cake (60), synthetic opiate (63), Red Chinese (66), Marilyn Monroe (71), black jack (81), Catholic (83), dam (87), catwalk (87), scalpel (88), conman (92), Canada honkers (94), geriatrics (98), twitches (102), IOU (105), Monopoly (114), buck (138), Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun (154), hydrocephalus (172), epileptic (177), Dilantin (177), anti-convulsant (179), hoity-toity (185), herded (188), c’est la vie (189), lobotomy (189), raise Cain (190), frontal lobe castration (191), on the ropes (193), canteen (197), Chinook salmon (209), Hiawatha (212), Spearmint Gum (217), crazy like a fox (264), dry (267)

Content Knowledge and Connections

  • Mental health, specifically: Asylums, Anti-psychotic medication, Electroshock therapy, lobotomy, and other historical approaches to treatment of mental illness and the mentally ill in the United States.
  • Because of the narrator’s identity, there will be some exploration of the history of Native Americans and the United States government, particularly the creation of reservations.

Previous Fishtank ELA Connections

Future Fishtank ELA Connections

Lesson Map

Common Core Standards

Core Standards

RI.11-12.1
RI.11-12.2
RI.11-12.9
RL.11-12.1
RL.11-12.2
RL.11-12.3
RL.11-12.6
SL.11-12.1
SL.11-12.2
SL.11-12.3
W.11-12.1
W.11-12.4
W.11-12.9

Next

Compare and contrast Dukakis and Kesey’s views on electroshock therapy.

Lesson 1
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