While working as a night aide in the psychiatric ward of the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital, Ken Kesey was struck by an idea that would later turn into his first novel. That novel, titled One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, became his most famous work and a celebrated piece of modern American fiction (Lupack 566). One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest tells the story of a psychiatric hospital that works quite well until a new patient enters the ward and sets the chaos in motion. This new patient, McMurphy, disagrees with the rules of the ward's authority figure, Nurse Ratched, and makes no attempt to hide it. Thus begins an all-out war between authority and the individual, leading to the suicide of several patients and even the lobotomy and death of McMurphy himself when he crosses the final line (Kesey). In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey uses the theme of sacrifice to reflect on the fight against the counterculture of the 1960s. One way Kesey shows his theme of sacrifice is through the book's narrator, Chief Bromden. The Chief is a large, six-foot-tall Native American who has been on the ward longer than anyone except Nurse Ratched. He was subjected to repeated electroshock treatments to the point of going deaf, or so everyone else thinks. In reality, he pretends to be deaf so as to be left alone. The Chief explains this farce by saying, “or say anything” (Kesey 210). ..... half of the document ...... Ames Encyclopedia of Popular Culture Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast Vol. 3. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. Gale Virtual Reference Library .Madden, Fred. “Sanity and Responsibility: Big Boss as Storyteller and Executioner.” Modern Fiction Studies 32.2 (1986): 203-17. Rpt. in modern critical interpretations of Bloom.Ed. Harold Bloom. New ed. New York: Infobase, 2008. 107-21. Print."One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Novels for students. Ed. Diane Telgen. vol. 2. Detroit:Gale, 1997. 218-39. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Network. November 1, 2011. Pendergast, Sara and Tom Pendergast, eds. Reference Library of the Sixties in America. vol. 2.Detroit: UXL, 2005. Biographies. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Network. November 1, 2011. Sherman, W. D. "The Novels of Ken Kesey." Journal of American Studies 5.2 (1971): 185-96.JSTOR. Network. October 29. 2011.