Madame's Munchkins discussion

"Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,

Apple seed and apple thorn;

Wire, briar, limber lock,

Three geese in a flock.

One flew east,

And one flew west,

And one flew over the cuckoo's nest."

This is a nursery rhyme by Oliver Goldsmith and the source of inspiration for the tittle of Kesey's novel. Why do you think he chose to name the book using a line from this rhyme. Do you think it is of any significance?

The significance of the title might come later in the book (im about a third of the way through). However, from what I've read so far i would say the that the title describes the conflict in the book. The "one" is McMurphy and the "Cuckoos Nest" is Nurse Ratched's mental ward. And the novel is what happens when McMurphy "flew" (aka visited), the mental ward and has to face Nurse Ratched.

Like Kameron said I see the "cuckoo's nest" being taken figuratively. In the poem, the cuckoo is being referred to as the bird, but a cuckoo can obviously be a name for someone who has gone mad, thus making their "nest" an insane asylum. Now what I see differently from Kameron would be the "flew over". I see that as McMurphy or any patient trying to leave the mental ward. In the poem, the geese who flew "east and west" got left behind or died in the ward, while the one who flew over it was able to escape its walls.

I think the title can have its own meaning without going into the book. The word cuckoo is commonly referee to someone who is crazy as said above. But "One" isn't specific to any person and is referred as a third party. The nest is a home for a bird, in this situation a cuckoo bird. So the cuckoos nest is the home for crazy people and the asylum. That is somewhat self explanatory but I'm curious as to know why the one who flew seems separated from those in the nest. And "flew" refers to past tense, so that happened in the past. I also want to point out that flew creates a feel that the one who flew alsmost had no connection to the nest and was just passing by. I'm not sure if anyone can relate to that but it's the sense that I got from the title.

I believe the title is talking about the different types of people at the ward as Robby said. That the ones who go off the east and west are patients that are lost and cant recover but the one who goes over the cuckoo nest are the ones who get out. Now finishing the book the one who flew over the cuckoos nest can be Chief's when he jumps out of the window symbolizing who he has escaped from being one of the others.

Ibrahim wrote: "I believe the title is talking about the different types of people at the ward as Robby said. That the ones who go off the east and west are patients that are lost and cant recover but the one who ..."

I dont see Chief breaking out of the window as him "escaping from the others". I see it as him being the first to fully embrace the advice of McMurphy. McMurphy would have wanted the able inmates to break the rules because I feel like he though it kept them sane and out of the clutches of Ratchet