CUCKOO'S NEST , part one .

Discuss what effects Kesey has achieved through his use of stream of consciousness as a rhetorical technique.

So far while reading Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest I noticed that Kesey shares information with the reader by using stream of consciousness.  According to dictionary.com stream of consciousness is defined as pertaining to, or characterized by a manner of writing in which a character's thoughts or perceptions are presented as occurring in random form, without regard for logical sequences, syntactic structure, distinctions between various levels of reality.  I think that Kesey achieves a lot by using this technique to give background information or important information needed to understand or learn more about characters.

On page 11 of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, after hearing McMurphy say, "mighty nice fine day" Chief Broom thinks about his father.  He says, "he talks a little the way Papa used to, loud voice and full of hell, but he doesn't look like Papa; Papa was a fullblood Columbia Indian - a chief - and hard and shiny as a gunstock.  This guy is redheaded with long red sideburns and a tangle of curls out from under his cap, been needing cut a long time, and he's broad as Papa was tall, broad across the jaw and shoulders and chest, a broad white devilish grin, and he's hard in a different kind of way from Papa, kind of the way a baseball is hard under the scuffed leather..."

After reading this part of the story I knew about Chief Broom's father and the connection he made between someone familiar, his father and someone new, McMurphy.  I think by writing this way Kesey will make the book more interesting and easy to read.  So far I am enjoying the book and want to see how many different ways Kesey uses this technique to give more information to the reader.