Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1985

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

The primitive-as-mentor character in American fiction has been adapted by Ken Kesey in his two novels, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion. In Cuckoo's Nest the primitive is Randle P. McMurphy. His spontaneity, physical independence, and intuitive responses to life qualify him as a primitive. He teaches Chief Bromden, the Indian narrator, that a full awakening of the senses can lead to a deeper humanity and that fear of the Combine is worse than the Combine itself. McMurphy transfers his life to the Chief and sets him psychologically free. In Notion Hank Stamper is the primitive. His physical approach to life and his self-determined existence brand him as a primitive. He rescues his half brother Lee from an overly intellectual life in the suicidal East and a near deadly quest for revenge in the wilds of Oregon.

Extent

101 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1985.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT14270

Format

pdf

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