1. SO, where do we even begin? In order to understand the 1960’s - you need to understand the 1950’s - which can not be understood without going all the way back to the early part of the 20th century…

2. The Victorians… Society in the US from the 19th century up through the early part of the 20th century (early 1900’s) was very modest.

3. Things were really nice and neat! Gender roles played a large part of society –Women were in charge of Domestic life (taking care of the home and children) –Men were in charge of taking care of earning money outside of the home (they occupied separate spheres of life)

4. Things started to change… in the early part of the 20th century with the suffragist movement The 19th amendment was ratified in 1920…

5. The 1920’s introduced… The flapper… –Short hair –Short dresses

6. Society began to look “modern” … The Roaring 20’s was a time of prosperity …after WWI the economy was booming…people partied and spent $ for the first time with what we call “disposable income”

7. But…the GREAT DEPRESSION… Was right around the corner…1929 the stock market crashes…and doesn’t really recover until the 1950’s…

9. In 1941 the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor… And the US enters WWII … The war helps lift the US out of the Depression

10. When the War Ended in 1945… Returning GI’s were greeted with parades and privileges… 16 million men were returning to the states

11. How did people dress? Women dressed "smartly' in the Fifties. Good grooming and a tailored look were prized. Acting and looking "every inch the lady" was taught virtually from the cradle. Although not seen, a girdle was a necessary part of all ensembles

12. Men wore hats in the Fifties. Not sometimes. All the time. There was some variation as to style, but no man was dressed unless a hat adorned his head.

13. Leave it to Beaver - the perfect American family

16. Time Man of the Year William J. Levitt

18. Aerial view of Levittown

19. Drive-in Culture

21. The 1950’s

22. How do you get from the straight laced 1950’s to the crazy “psychedelic” 1960’s? The beat poets have a large part to play…

23. Who were the beat poets? The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

24. American author Jack Kerouac introduced the term Beat Generation sometime around 1948 to describe his “alternative” friends and as a general term describing the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering then in New York. They were also known as the “counter-culture.” Poetry readings were a common forum for Beatniks to articulate dissatisfaction with societal constraints. The Beat Generation

25. Allen Ginsberg’s poem HOWL illustrated what many “mainstreamers” viewed as the moral and social decay of the time. Groups such as the Beats were a part of a larger movement called the “counter-culture.” This movement led to the emergence of the “hippies” of the 60s. Hippies were dedicated to peace, love, and happiness and they endeavoured to ‘expand their minds’ through the use of mind-altering drugs such as LSD The Beat Generation

26. Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg

27. bohemian the term "bohemian" can describe any person who lives an unconventional artistic life, where self-expression is the highest value — that art (acting, poetry, writing, singing, dancing, painting etc) is a serious and main focus of his/her life.

28. What is a BEAT? Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase Beat Generation sometime around 1948 to describe his friends and as a general term describing the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York. The adjective beat had the connotations of "tired" or "down and out," but Kerouac added the paradoxical connotations of upbeat, beatific, and the musical association of being "on the beat."

29. The Beat Generation : "Beat doesn't mean tired, or bushed, so much as it means beato, the Italian for beatific: to be in a state of beatitude, like St. Francis, trying to love all life, trying to be utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart. How can this be done in our mad world of multiplicities and millions? By practicing a little solitude, going off by yourself once in a while to store up that most precious of golds: the vibrations of sincerity." - Jack Kerouac, "Lamb, No Lion," 1958. (Kerouac coined the phrase "Beat Generation")

31. What was going on the 1960’s that caused this “rebellion” … The 60s were the age of youth, as 70 million children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young adults. The movement away from the conservative 50s continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change in the cultural fabric of American life.

32. The 1960’s… 1961 - Peace Corps created by Pres. Kennedy 1963 - Martin Luther King delivers his “I have a dream” speech 1963 - Pres. John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas 1963 - Lyndon Johnson becomes President of the United States Malcolm X assassinated in 1965 MLK Jr assassinated in 1968

33. Ken Kesey

34. Kesey’s Early Life Ken Kesey was born in Colorado, but grew up in Oregon. This also happens to be where One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest takes place. The Oregon State Mental Hospital

35. Voted Most Likely to Succeed as a Senior in High School Kesey’s College Years Ken went on to the University of Oregon where he became a star wrestler and lead actor in college plays. He married Faye, his high school sweetheart during his freshman year.

36. While at Stanford, he participated in government-funded experiments involving chemicals at the psychology department to earn extra money. These chemicals included psilocybin, mescaline, and LSD. This experience fundamentally altered Kesey, personally and professionally. While working as an orderly at the psychiatric ward of the local VA hospital, Kesey began to have hallucinations about an Indian sweeping the floors. This formed the basis for Chief Bromden (for "broom") in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – the project he worked on at Stanford College

37. After College Kesey and Faye went to Hollywood to try to land a part in a movie. However, Kesey couldn’t resist the urge to write and enrolled in Stanford in 1958 on a creative- writing fellowship.

38. Ken Kesey - Perry Lane Days

39. At this time, Kesey lived at Perry Lane, a bohemian community in Palo Alto, where he became notorious for throwing parties in which certain chemicals mysteriously found their way into the punch. Kesey published One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1962. The novel was an immediate critical and popular success. Partying

40. Perry lane cottages Perry Lane, a cluster of two-room cottages inhabited by young, promising intellectuals.

41. Ken’s best friend on Perry Lane told him about some experiments the local VA hospital was conducting with hallucinogenic drugs. They paid Ken $75 a day to come in and lie down in a bed while they gave him a series of capsules of placebos, Ditran, and LSD.

42. The doctors had never taken LSD and couldn’t understand the effects and feelings. Ken managed to provide all his friends on Perry Lane with LSD. To the counter-culture of the 1960s LSD was a good thing; it helped hippies to explore their own mind and expand their horizons.

43. Ken Kesey took part in scientific experiments at a hospital, Menlo Park Veterans Hospital, trialling LSD as a state-controlled mind-altering substance. LSD was thought that it could help those suffering mental disorders such as schizophrenia. It was not so effective as a medical tool as it induced hallucinations. LSD

44. Kesey’s Job on the Psych Ward Ken got a job covering the night shift at a psychiatric ward in order to write his first book, Zoo, which was never published. Once he got there and started interacting with patients, he discovered the punishing abuse of power by the system.

45. Kesey’s inspiration for Cuckoo’s Nest Kesey would come to work high on LSD in order to try to achieve a similar state of mind as his patients. It was during one of these acid trips that he envisioned his narrator, Chief Broom, a deaf-mute, paranoid schizophrenic Native American mental patient.

46. Immediate Success One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was the first book that Ken published (in 1962). The book was immediately adapted into a successful stage production a year later, and then became and Academy Award winning film, sweeping five major Oscar categories in 1975.

47. Kesey’s opinion of film - 1 Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy 6’ 7” Will Sampson as Chief Bromden Kesey wanted Gene Hackman to play McMurphy Kesey was originally involved in creating the film, but left two weeks into production. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights.

48. Kesey’s opinion of film - 2 Jack Nicholson as Randle Patrick McMurphy 6’ 7” Will Sampson as Chief Bromden Kesey was apparently angered by the fact that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by the Chief Bromden character, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson being cast as Randle McMurphy (even though Nicholson went on to win Best Actor)

49. The Move to La Honda, California After the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken and Faye moved to La Honda. His Perry Lane friends followed and their communal LSD culture continued. They nicknamed themselves the Merry Pranksters.

50. Author Hunter S. Thompson remembered La Honda as "the world capital of madness. There were no rules, fear was unknown, and sleep was out of the question."

51. The Merry Pranksters were a circle of people with Ken Kesey at the center, living communally at his home in La Honda, California. Their “acid tests” were chronicled by Tom Wolfe in his “non-fiction novel” The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

52. Kesey filmed a significant portion of the journey and later showed clips from the trip to chemically induced audiences at his parties. Kesey became the proponent of the local band knows as The Warlocks, which later became the Grateful Dead. Are You On the Bus?

53. After completing his 2nd novel, Kesey & his Merry Pranksters bought an old school bus for $1500, painted it in Day-Glo colors and rigged it up with speakers, microphones, and recording equipment In 1964, they traveled across the United States the bus labeled “ Further.” The trip’s original purpose was to visit the World’s Fair in NYC

54. They drove across country getting high and recording home video footage for The Movie! and wore masks and little to no clothing on the trip, picking up hitchhikers and strangers to join in the experience.

55. When the government made LSD illegal, Kesey & the Pranksters fled to Mexico, where Kesey tried to fake a suicide in order to escape later prosecution. But when he returned to the U.S. for a final performance, he and his 13 Pranksters were arrested on a marijuana charge, leading to a five-month prison sentence at the San Mateo County Jail. Upon his release from jail, he moved to a farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, with his wife to raise his four children. He quietly taught a graduate writing seminar at the University of Oregon. At the end…

56. Avoiding Another Arrest In order to mislead the police and avoid jail time after two subsequent marijuana arrests, Ken faked his own suicide, leaving a note with his abandoned truck near an oceanside cliff. He escaped to Mexico, but when he returned to the United States eight months later, he was arrested and sent to prison for five months.

57. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters To all appearances, Ken Kesey had a considerable share in the invention of what has since come to be known as the counterculture of the 1960s. He authored the sensational best- selling novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest — his literary debut, published in 1962, before he turned twenty- seven.

58. While released on bond, Ken initiated his first Acid Test. It was a multimedia acid extravaganza with movie footage and asynchronous sounds being flashed in an enclosed area.

59. More Acid Tests Ken would recruit at Grateful Dead Concerts, and the Dead even came to the second test after one of their shows. During this time, Ken became a celebrity among the young American beatnik culture.

60. Ken Kesey The Final Acid Test Participants

61. Kesey’s Later Life Shortly after being released from prison following the Mexico escape, Kesey renounced his image as a drug hero. He said it was time to graduate to something else and moved to a farm in Oregon with Faye. They had 3 children. He died in 2001 at age 66 from liver cancer. Faye Kesey by her husband and son’s gravestones

62. Decades after his counterculture experience, Kesey never settled down. As he attested on his website late in life, Kesey warned that every now and then he got the itch to do "something weird." Kesey died on November 10, 2001, following cancer surgery on his liver. His death

63. Kesey’s iconic stature Ken and his Merry Prankster’s became known as the link between the Beatnik generation of the 50s and the hippies of the 60s. Although he published 11 books, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was by far his most well-known and successful literary work. to

64. Post Modernist : reaction to the Modernist movement, a literary and artistic trend that defied the expectations cultivated over centuries of writing and artistry. Beat Generation : group of American novels and poets who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase Beat Generation sometime around 1948 to describe his friends and as a general term describing the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering then in New York. The Beat Generation has also been called the Counter Culture. Terms to Know…

65. Stream of consciousness : a literary technique which describes an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes. Stream-of-consciousness writing is strongly associated with Modernism. Stream-of-consciousness writing is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing as they do a character's thought process and internalized feelings, rather than the spoken word. Terms to Know…

66. Inspiration for Cuckoo’s Nest came from Kesey’s time as a volunteer at MenloHospital. Kesey believed patients were not insane but that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to behave. Cuckoo’s Nest published in 1962, at the height of the Cold War. It was an immediate critical and popular success. Film centers on Jack Nicholson’s rendition of McMurphy, and Chief Bromden loses his narrative powers. About the novel:

67. Relevant vocabulary: Combine Existentialism Lobotomy Psychotic santiy Symbols: combine fog character names fishing trip prostitution medicine death sex (both action and gender) Bromden (both as character & symbol) Nurse Rached’s body Relevant Motifs : Role of the narrator (and issues of voice) Conflict Notion of sanity Man versus “the machine” Individual v. Society (same thing?) Masculinity vs. Femininity Memory American dominance

68. THE NOVEL Ken Kesey's tragicomic novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, takes place in a mental hospital during the late 1950s.

69. THE NOVEL The book can be read on two levels: -On the surface: the story of how a highly individualistic, near-superman named McMurphy becomes a patient and for a time overturns the senseless and dehumanizing routines of the ward. -If one looks deeper: a commentary on U.S. society, which the Beat generation of the late 1950s viewed as so hopelessly conformist as to stifle individuality and creativity.

70. Beatniks of the late 1950s, who used poetry, music, and fashion to express their dissatisfaction with conformist society hippies of the 1960s, whose counterculture rebellion included free love and drug use. THE NOVEL *Published in 1962, Kesey's book bridges the transition from:

71. THE NOVEL *Because Cuckoo's Nest was both timely & provocative, it became an instant hit with critics & with a college generation that was ready to take on the establishment full-tilt. *It started receiving scholarly attention in the 1970s, particularly after it was made into an Academy Award-winning movie starring Jack Nicholson, who gave a brilliant performance as the irrepressible McMurphy.

72. The novel, set in an Oregon asylum, serves as a study into the institutional process in America, and the human mind… Narrated by the gigantic but docile half-Native American inmate "Chief" Bromden Focuses on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, who fakes insanity to serve out his prison sentence for statutory rape. The head nurse, Mildred Ratched, rules the ward with a mailed fist and with little medical oversight. She is assisted by her three black day-shift orderlies, and her assistant doctors. The story

73. The novel constantly refers to different authorities that control individuals through subtle & coercive methods. The novel's narrator, the Chief, combines these authorities in his mind, calling them "The Combine" in reference to the mechanistic way they manipulate and process individuals. The authority of The Combine is most often personified in the character of "Nurse Ratched" who controls the inhabitants of the novel's mental ward through a combination of rewards and subtle shame. More detail…

74. Nurse Ratched - Although she does not normally resort to conventionally harsh discipline, her actions are portrayed as more insidious than those of a conventional prison administrator. This is because the subtlety of her actions prevents her prisoners from understanding that they are being controlled at all.

75. The novel is set in an insane asylum, thus obviously setting the stage for characters of unusual or questionable sanity. The narrator himself—Chief Bromden—is a patient who experiences severe hallucinations and presents these to the reader as if they actually happened. In addition, the narrator is unusual in that he has pretended to be deaf & dumb for years, when in fact he is perfectly capable of both hearing and speaking. These are not the typical actions of a sane man. Major Themes: Sanity

76. However, the novel questions traditional definitions of sanity. Although the Chief is far from normal, he has good reason for pretending to be a mute. This allows him to hear and see things on the ward to which the other patients are not privy. It allows him to survive on a daily basis. Bromden himself considers his actions cagey. In the beginning of his narration, he tells the readers: “It’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.” He realizes that some of his story is difficult to believe. All of the things he recounts might not have literally happened—like the fog being pumped into the ward or the nurse growing to twice her size—but his story is nonetheless true. His hallucinations provide a different insight into the ward, and this insight is truthful even if not exactly true. Major Themes: Sanity

77. McMurphy is an intensely sexualized figure. He describes himself as overzealous in sex, and lost his virginity at ten years old to a nine-year- old. He calls himself a “dedicated lover.” McMurphy is, by far, the most virile figure in the novel. He is also the most active, prepared to do what is necessary to assert his independence and individuality. McMurphy’s character is an illustration of the importance of expressing sexuality. Sexuality and repression

78. On the ward, however, sexuality is a topic of shame, thanks to Nurse Ratched’s influence. Sex is a frequent topic of the group meetings. In the first group meeting that McMurphy attends, the patients discuss Harding’s feeling of inadequacy because of his wife’s ample bosom. The orderlies presumably commit deviant sex acts on the ward, (although they are never explicitly caught), with the nurse’s implicit approval. The novel implies that it is the air of sexual repression and shame that leads to this sexual perversion on the ward. Continued..

79. Nurse Ratched herself makes an effort to be as unsexed as possible, despite her large bosom. She hides or covers up all traces of her femininity. In addition, she wields a castrating power over the men in her ward. They call her a “ball-cutter” because she removes all sense of masculinity from the patients. She delights in emasculating them. At the end of the novel, McMurphy finally ends her tyrannical influence by sexualizing Nurse Ratched. He rips her uniform to expose her breasts, “forever ruining any other look she might ever try to use again.” Continued…

80. Some images that McMurphy would have seen in his ward…

81. And…