Why Was 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo'S Nest' Banned In Some Schools?

It’s fascinating to me how fiction can be more real than non-fiction. I can read memoirs about life in psychiatric hospitals, but they don’t feel as immediate or real as this novel does. That’s the power of fiction: by using metaphor, symbolism, and hyper-real dialogue, great writers can expose us to deeper truths than non-fiction can. The Combine is not real, but it perfectly captures the feeling of a highly mechanized society grinding out individuality. So while this is not a true story, it is better than true: it expresses a powerful true feeling that we can recognize but have no way to express ourselves.

If you are looking for something with a similar mix of tragedy and dark humor, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is a good choice. Ignatius J. Reilly is a similarly over-the-top character to McMurphy, but instead of wreaking havoc in a hospital, he runs amok in the streets of New Orleans. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks is another highly unpredictable novel, dark and twisted in equal measure, with a mad and possibly murders protagonist. This book was highly disturbing but also very engrossing.

I think One Flew Over the Cuckooos Nest revolves around the failure of language. The nursery rhyme is a simple, encoded means of communication. Chief has lost his voice by the time we meet him. The title, ‘Easing the Pixels’, is a fragment of coherent thought or meaningful language from Chief’s past which pierces through the hospital’s imposed, ‘therapeutic’ language and the cold, sterile announcements of the clinic. McMurphy’s battle against the system is partly a battle to be able to express himself freely with a vital, profane, living language as opposed to the cold, rigid language which the clinic uses to stifle individual expression. So the title of One Flew Over the Cuckooos Nest is a piece of a child’s poetry which stands as a beacon to express genuine human experience and to regain one’s story from the avengeful system that tries to deny it.

Most complaints about this book about to come from parents and school boards come because of its frank handling of issues of human sexuality and drug use. It’s all too much for their comfort level, and thus they consider it ‘inappropriate’ for children to read. But the underlying causes of their discomfort will be too raw and distasteful for most people to wish to confront, and so they project onto the ‘offensive’ parts of the book in order to avoid having to consider the more disturbing and unacceptable ideas.

It is also quite interesting to note how medium affects message here. Kesey could have written a non-fiction book about the horrors of the VA hospital and it probably would have only reached a small, dedicated readership. But instead he wrote a wonderful novel about wonderful characters, and in doing so he managed to convey the same information to a mass audience in a way that is unforgettable. As it stands, McMurphy and Ratched are two of the most recognizable figures of struggle in literature. This would not have been the case had Kesey written a non-fiction expose of the VA hospital. Instead, he wrote a work of fiction that became a vehicle for delivering a true message to those who would otherwise probably never have sought out the information. That he managed to do so is testiment to his great skill as a writer.

the banning of 'Esperanza Rising' in some schools strikes me as both puzzling and concerning. The book, which follows a young Mexican girl's journey from privilege to poverty during the Great Depression, is often challenged for its depiction of harsh realities like migrant labor conditions and racial discrimination. Some parents argue these themes are too mature for younger readers, but that's precisely why the book matters. It doesn't shy away from historical truths about systemic inequality, showing Esperanza's growth as she learns resilience through adversity. The Spanish phrases woven into the text also occasionally draw criticism from those who believe English-only policies should apply to school materials, ignoring how this bilingual element authentically represents immigrant experiences. The objections often stem from discomfort rather than legitimate educational concerns. One common complaint cites the scene where Esperanza sees her mother assaulted - yes, it's intense, but violence against migrant workers was tragically commonplace. Others protest the book's critique of wealth disparity, as if exposing students to economic injustice is somehow dangerous. What these challenges overlook is how 'Esperanza Rising' ultimately celebrates dignity, community, and hope. Pam Muñoz Ryan's writing makes complex social issues accessible for middle-grade readers without sugarcoating history. The attempts to remove this book from curricula reflect a broader pattern of censoring stories that center marginalized voices under the guise of 'protecting' children from difficult truths.

In the grand scheme of things the controversy over this book is pretty small compared to its legacy. The book has sold millions of copies world wide. There was a major motion picture made from it. The book is found on the shelves of most libraries and is considered a classic of youth literature. The attempts to ban the book are just a footnote in the book’s Wikipedia article. What endures in the reader's mind long after the controversy has passed is the ingenious framework of the novel and its vividly imagined characters. Read and reread for decades on end, the satisfaction ofwatching all the separate storylines fall into place is one of the greatest pleasures of reading for a young person – or of any age. Others can frown upon this class of literature all they wish to; they are just opposing the wrong side of history on a really wonderful, fun, and highly constructed young person’s literature. In the meantime, I shall be munching on my onions and enjoying this great story.

There are many books that have been banned but then go on to become bestsellers such as ‘1984’ by George Orwell because it is a strong critique of governments. Another example is ‘The Scarlet Letter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This book was removed from school reading lists because of its ‘questionable morality’. It is discussed in schools today because of its thought-provoking portrayal of the way that an adulterous woman was treated in a puritan community. An interesting note about this banned book is that it is about the silencing of women and was silenced. The story of Hester and her consequences are very real and relatable. They are messy and human and, in a society afraid of things it does not understand, the novel is even more relevant today in terms of issues of shame, women’s autonomy, and who gets to judge.

Ever see how books that have been banned become sort of mythic? I read ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’ when it had been banned due to graphic content. But really it was so bad for another reason – it was so amazingly, brutally and painfully accurate to human hypocrisy. The main character in ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’ is hilarious and pitiful and completely relatable in all of his worst ways. But because of the attempts to ban the book, the themes really ended up accentuating all of the best reasons for the book to have been written. I read ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’ after seeing it referenced in a documentary on literary censorship. Now the book is sort of a footnote to that term but it still packs a rebellious punch.

I also compared it to “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Solzhenitsyn. The book was published in the Soviet Union during Khrushchev’s thaw and it contained a severe critique of the Soviet system. The main difference between Solzhenitsyn’s short story and “Zhivago” is the tone and scope of the books. While “Ivan Denisovich” was a concentrated and brutal picture of a single day in the life of a guy in the gulag, “Zhivago” is an epic, philosophical novel that questioned the very spiritual and historical foundations of the Russian Revolution over a period of five decades. And while the Soviet authorities could perhaps have tolerated a limited critique of Stalin’s excesses, “Zhivago” was a totally different matter – a poetic and holistic doubt of the entire revolutionary heritage of the Soviet regime. Needless to say, Pasternak’s international fame and the fact that “Zhivago” was published abroad were things that did not apply to Solzhenitsyn initially.