Merry Pranksters Essays

  • Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place

    1041 Words  | 3 Pages

    This documentary was compiled from home videos shot by Kesey and the Pranksters, which lends itself to a sense of authenticity because there are to actors trying to portray the Pranksters. This compilation of original footage shot by Ken Kesey and his friends, known as the Merry Pranksters, follows their cross country bus trip in 1964 from California to New York to see the World’s Fair. Besides Kesey, the most well-known Prankster was Neal Cassady, who was the inspiration for Dean Moriarty in Jack

  • Ken Elton Kesey and His Works

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nest by Ken Kesey." 2012. Lone Star College System. 8 April 2014 . "Ken Kesey Biography." 2014. The Biography Channel Website. 7 April 2014 . Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Signet Books, 1963. Railton, Stephen. "Ken Kesey & The Merry Pranksters." 2012. University of Virginia. 9 April 2014 . The Oregon Historical Society. "Ken Kesey Biography." 2009. Oregon History Project. 7 April 2014 .

  • The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Takin' it to the Streets as Drug-influenced Literature

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Takin' it to the Streets as Drug-influenced Literature Art influenced by drugs faces a unique challenge from the mainstream: prove its legitimacy despite its "tainted" origins. The established judges of culture tend to look down upon drug-related art and artists, as though it is the drug and not the artist that is doing the creating. This conflict, less intense but still with us today, has its foundations in the 1960s. As the Beatnik, Hippie, and psychedelic

  • Parallels Between the Life of Ken Kesey and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    Barbaric treatments for mental patients such as lobotomies and electric shock therapy were often used in mid-twentieth century psychiatric wards. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, set in one of these wards, is a fictional novel about committed mental patient R. P. McMurphy and his power struggle with the emasculating Nurse Ratched. The mastermind behind this novel, Ken Kesey, was a prominent figure in American counter-culture who struggled with figures of power during his lifetime as well. Ken Kesey

  • A Comparative Analysis of Armies of the Night and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in Regards to New Journalism

    2194 Words  | 5 Pages

    Taken at face value, Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night and Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test may seem very similar. They are both centered on a major author of the 1960s and his experiencing of historical events of the time, while set in the style of New Journalism. When examined closer, though, it becomes apparent that these novels represent two very different sides of New Journalism – Armies of the Night an autobiography with personal and political motivations, The Electric Kool-Aid

  • Acid Test

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wolfe created this documentation of the Merry Pranksters is that he attempts to re-create both the mental and physical atmosphere of their adventure and exploration across America. 4) Specific evidence in supporting the aforementioned thesis can be found in the “Author’s Note” section of the book but also in the writing style used to develop this masterpiece. Writing in a basic journal style, Wolfe documented the extraordinary life style lived by the Pranksters through personal experiences with them

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1950’s, mental hospitals weren’t what they are now. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, he shows how people in mental hospitals were treated at that time all through the eyes of an Indian man named Chief Bromden. Ken Kesey uses his personal experiences to add settings and even characters to show this in his writing. His life is clearly seen by McMurphy’s problem with authority which goes perfectly with his own and by the setting of a mental hospital, which Kesey once worked

  • Alfred Kinsey Homosexuality

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alfred Kinsey was raised by a very Christian family with his father being a part time Methodist preacher. With his father being a part of church and being so strict with religion he was severely discouraged from any sexual contact with woman. With his sexuality being stunted and being so repressed Kinsey looked to other things to feel accepted and feel academically more superior. His father’s strict lifestyle was not the only thing that compelled Kinsey to become the man he is known to be today,

  • The Two Towers

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gollum who wanted them to give him the ring of Power. Sam thought that Gollum only want to kill them, but Frodo knew that the creature Gollum was the person Sméagol a long time ago. In the lands of Rohan Aragorn, Gimbly and Ligulas were searching for Merry and Pippin. In the morning a red sun came up, which mean that someone died. A few minutes later they saw a group of horsemen. They let them pass and then they asked if they had seen the two. The cousin of the king, who is the leader of the group, told

  • Natural Forces

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    to pick up and it started raining a bit. Within five minutes, the weather progressed and there was so much wind blowing around the car that we could no longer hear the radio. I can remember when I saw a stop sign spinning in circles like a “merry-go-round'; with electrical problems. I do not remember how my mother got us home so quickly and where we were because all around us was a thick gray fog. However, all I can recall from that point on was sitting with my head in my lap in the back seat

  • lord of the rings, fellowship of the ring

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gollum by Bilbo, who finally gives it freely to Frodo. "Sauron has been searching for the Ring for years," Gandalf tells Frodo, "and now he has sent his nine Black Riders, to the Shire to look for it." Frodo and Sam consult with their loyal friends Merry and Pippin, and when the Black Riders appear, the hobbits trick them into going into a mushroom-patch, disorienting the Black Riders just long enough to escape the Shire. But the tone of the book rapidly becomes more serious as the Black Riders pursue

  • Merry Christmas

    2375 Words  | 5 Pages

    Christmas break had just started and a chilly gust of air blew right through me as I walked up to my front door, still in shock from the night’s trauma. Dave called me as I was driving home from my boyfriend, Mike’s house and said that he needed to talk to me about Julie, my best friend and his girlfriend. Because we were also good friends, I, of course, agreed. He was driving home from a basketball camp and said he would call again when he was on his way over. I thought nothing of it because

  • American Pastoral

    1526 Words  | 4 Pages

    physiological, and not at all psychological. The psychiatrist “got Merry thinking that the stutter was a choice she made, a way of being special that she had chosen and then locked into when she had realized how well it worked”(95). The belief that you will not stutter has no effect on your speech. The anticipation of stuttering does not cause stuttering (5). Stuttering is a developmental disorder that starts in the early childhood and nothing Merry did could change that. It develops at the same time as children

  • Appearance vs. Reality in Merchant Of Venice

    1947 Words  | 4 Pages

    this point that Shylock is deceiving Antonio; although Shylock pretends to like Antonio “Antonio is a good man” and wants to be friends he has already expressed to the audience his hatred for Antonio. Shylock also describes the bond as “this merry bond”. A merry bond is a bond which is not serious, a joke, and if the terms of the bond were broken you would not expect to see Shylock wanting to take up the strict terms of it. Again, this is another deception, as later in the play Shylock wants full

  • The Development of Benedick's Character in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

    1664 Words  | 4 Pages

    of the play it becomes obvious that he is a clear-thinking character who is able to take action and keep his head in a crisis. The change in Benedick's character is accompanied by the change in his relationship with Beatrice, as they move from 'merry war' and 'skirmish of wit' to become lovers, though Benedick does still protest that he 'love thee (Beatrice) against my will'. Throughout the play, Benedick's relationship with Beatrice is an important mark of his character. In the first scene they

  • William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    a plan to get her and Romeo together, the Friar had no choice but to go along. But still, the Friar was the one that came up with a plan. That plan might not have worked for many reasons, but the Friar didn’t think ahead. Hold, then. Go home, be merry, give consent To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow. Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone; Let not the nurse lie with thee in thy chamber. (4.1.89-92) This part of the plan already might not work. For example, the nurse could insist on sleeping

  • The Lord of the RingsTrilogy by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    include Aragon, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Sam Gamgee, Gandalf, Merry, and Pippin. The genre of the book is fictional fantasy. Bilbo Baggins has a magic ring that makes you invisible. He leaves this ring to his cousin Frodo. Bilbo’s friend Gandalf of Grey tells Frodo how dangerous the ring is. It was made by the evil lord of Mordor, Sauron, in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo decides to set out to the wise elves of Rivendell accompanied by Sam, Merry, and Pippin his friends. On the way, Sauron’s servants known

  • Analysis of Gerrit van Honthorst's Painting, Musical Group on a Balcony

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    will sit upon the rocks,/ Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks.” The group high above us on the balcony could be the very “melodious birds” about which Marlowe’s shepherd speaks. Just as we are onlookers of the merry musical group, they look upon us as well, inviting us to join in their merry-making. A man stands with his arms around his lover, as though singing “Come live with me, and be my love.” The entire group seems to be saying t... ... middle of paper ... ...nd to its earthly, pastoral feel

  • Sir Gawain and Green Knight Essays: Triumph or Failure?

    510 Words  | 2 Pages

    and desolation became fierce. Gawain, however, continued on his way. Three times did the lady tempt him and twice he managed to neither offend her with discourteousness nor accept her amorous advances and defile his chastity. "In destinies sad or merry, True men can but try." Tests and decisions are as numerous in any man's life as are the beats of his heart. The consequences follow him forever - he is judged by them and they affect his entire existence. However, judgement should not be passed on

  • Book report lord of the rings

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    arrive to attack Gondor, they successfully plot to have Aragorn positioned so he must face the Witch-King in single combat. The battle is too much for Aragorn, and just as he is about to die he is saved by Eowyn, a woman of Rohan who loves him, and Merry, who slays the Witch-king in single combat by using ancient hobbit-magic and so reveals himself to be the lost Thain of the Shire. Even as the forces of Mordor retreat, they are swept into the Sea by great ships brought by Faramir, the true Prince