ed the characters on the personalities of people in the ward; also, his use of drugs while writing allowed him to make scenes such as Chief Bromden's (The Chief is the narrator of the story. He is a Native American who happens to be a paranoid schizophrenic.) dreams much more vivid (Ken 2). As mentioned in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, "...certain passages ¾ like Chief Broom [Chief Bromden] in his schizophrenic fogs ¾ [it] was true vision, a little of what you could see if you opened the doors of perception, friends (Wolfe 328).
             Ken Kesey's altered mental state while he wrote Cuckoo's Nest is what truly makes it unique. The novel's message of rebelling against authority was very influential to the counterculture generation of the 1960's. Kesey and his writing became a key factor in a decade filled with drugs and anti-establishment feelings.
             One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental hospital in which the patients' individuality is suppressed by the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. When a sane con-man (Randle P. McMurphy) has himself committed to avoid a prison sentence, the machine-like order that had previously existed on the ward is immediately challenged. Initially, McMurphy is a very selfish man whose only desire is to cause problems for authority figures, Nurse Ratched in particular, and to make life for himself as easy as possible. Eventually, this all changes as the battle between himself and Nurse Ratched becomes their battle for the souls of the inmates. McMurphy's struggle to "free" the other inmates is a difficult one, ultimately resulting in
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