How Is Diction Used In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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An important aspect of communicating the truth is through an author’s use of literary elements such as humor and laughter. Diction and phrases such as “literary elements” and “humor” indicate the tone set for the book. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken, Kesey humor is used to define characters and the society they live in. For example, the Chief says, “They don't bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when I'm nearby because they think I'm deaf and dumb. I'm cagey enough to fool them that much. If my being half Indian ever helped me in any way in this dirty life, it helped me being cagey, helped me all these years” (Kesey, Pg.3). Moreover, Kesey uses words like “they”, “helped”, and “cagey” uses humor to communicate the …show more content…
Diction such as “hallucination” means that a person is not aware of reality and what is happening around them. In Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut hallucinations are used how Billy knows what is going to happen in his life before it actually happens. For example, the narrator states, “ Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next ”(Vonnegut, 3). Here, Vonnegut uses diction like “spastic”, “fright”, and “constant” to indicate the truth about Billy and how his is afraid of where his hallucinations are going to take him . In addition to using diction like “spastic”, “fright”, “constant”, Vonnegut uses “act” and “control” to show how Billy feels like a phony for the reason that he is not living his life to the fullest. Ultimately, the truth that is communicated through his hallucinations to show the effect of the war had on Billy. However, there is one time in the book where Billy remembers his past without reliving it. For example, when the narrator says, “ Billy thought hard about the effect the quartet had had on him, and then found an association with an experience he had had long ago. He did not travel in time to the experience. He remembered it shimmeringly ” (Vonnegut, 177). Although this is the first time Billy only remembers his past Vonnegut uses diction like “effect”, “association”, and “shimmeringly” to illustrate the truth about Billy and how he associated his reality with an event that happened in the past. A word like “shimmer” contrast from the devastation that Billy tries to remember. With this event, in particular, Billy associates the barber quartet with the first time the German soldiers saw the devastation of Dresden for the first time. Overall, that is

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