Examples Of Mcmurphy In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Throughout McMurphy’s stay at the hospital, one of his only goals was to take Nurse Ratched off of her throne. He didn’t like the way she ran the hospital, and he was the only one to do something about it. He brought together

McMurphy learns that involuntarily committed patients cannot leave the hospital without staff approval. Therefore, he cannot leave at the end of his six months sentence, but when Nurse Ratched says he can and he begins to submit to her authority. However, by this time, he had become the leader for the other patients. Their sanity, their claim to manhood lies in the balance. Cheswick, dismayed by McMurphy’s surrender, commits suicide.

Through the novel, Kesey illustrates McMurphy as an archetype to portray the parallels between McMurphy and a Christ Figure. Early on in the novel, McMurphy “brings to the ward a zest for life and an insistence upon individuality and exploration” (Vitkus 56). He allows for the patients to reawakened without fear of the consequence. He can serve as an enthusiasm causing the patients to smile and laugh with being frightened of being analyzed by the nurses. Another instance, McMurphy is crucified when he was sent to the electrical shock therapy, the way he laid on the table “ ironically, like a cross, with a crown of electric sparks in place of thorns” (Kesey).

Ken Kesey utilizes Jesus Christ as a constant symbol throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The protagonist of the story acts as a model and leader for other characters in the book, just as Christ was for his disciples. It is appropriate that such a leader would be closely associated with a powerful, and worshiped figure. Kesey's use of Christ associates the ideas or theories in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with the bible. McMurphy, however, may seem an unlikely Christ-figure due to his violent, sexual and seemingly immoral behavior. His behavior is merely an embodiment of the reforming movements that both Jesus and McMurphy share. Kesey's

When McMurphy first enters the ward he is joyful and full of energy but Chief notices that “at first … he’s making everybody over there uneasy … with the big wide-open laugh of his” (15). The other patients are uncomfortable with McMurphy’s personality. This shows a motif of machines because Nurse Ratched has control of the patients and she makes them feel like little children. Towards the middle of the book, the reader begins to see how McMurphy has been struggling mentally: “He cuts to shuffle again, and the cards splash everywhere like the deck exploded between his two trembling hands” (155). The author uses imagery to portray how McMurphy is struggling to help the other patients. At the beginning of the book McMurphy could shuffle the cards with ease but now he struggles to keep his hands from trembling. McMurphy says, “Tell me why. You gripe, you bitch … how you can’t stand this place, can’t stand the nurse … and all the time you ain’t committed” (161). Here the reader sees how McMurphy finally feels about all the complaints the men give him. The reader gets some negative diction with words like “bitch,” and “can’t”. Most of those words show how a person does not feel like they have the power to do something about a problem. Towards the end of the book, Chief notices that McMurphy’s head “slumped over with his head hung … it was just as hard for him to stand straight as it was for

Although the nurse has seemingly won because the patients were not able to achieve their primary goal, in reality, their real victory is their combined resistance against Nurse Ratched. The adventure on the fishing boat also exhibits how the patients aid McMurphy in his rebellion. Though he charges them for their endeavor, they once again decide to accompany him and go against the institution, further implying their admiration for him and his cause. Even though McMurphy knows that the nurse will likely punish the twelve other patients severely for lying and leaving the ward with a prostitute under false pretenses, he does so anyway, showing that he will risk great punishment to help his “disciples.” Finally, the patients support the party that McMurphy has in the ward with alcohol and the two prostitutes. The main reason behind this event was to ensure that Billy Bibbit, one of the patients on the ward who lacked self-confidence, got to have a date with Candy, one of the prostitutes whom Billy liked. This event is another example of how McMurphy would risk trouble for himself for the betterment of others and how they supported him in his actions.

In dark times mankind often finds itself looking to a higher power for help or guidance. A sort of savior to save them from whatever horrid situations soceity drops on them and bring them to better times. A perfect example of this is in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Where R.P McMurphy is portrayed as a Christ like figure there to save the ward and guide them from hellish place it is. To guide them from The processed control of the combine and of the devilish Nurse Ratched. Throughout the novel, Kesey alludes to all of the hell like characteristics of the ward, as well as its Christ like figures and its savior R.P McMurphy.

Kesey’s setting of a mental health institution pits the sane against the insane, the powerful against the powerless, representing the two opposing sides of a situation. McMurphy symbolizes the conflicting motivations of people, particularly in challenging situations, to promote their own best interests or those of other people. Kesey’s description of McMurphy’s history including a difficult childhood, war experiences in Korea, a prison stay and ultimately, his placement in the asylum would suggest he would consider his own needs first. However, his biggest gamble in attempting to outsmart Nurse Ratched cost him everything. Because McMurphy is an ambiguous character, readers are able to notice the connection between the novel and themselves and their

In the end McMurphy loses his life in the fight to change the system, but he left a substantial impact on the hospital and the policies of Nurse Ratchet. His fight to change the system was well worth it because of the positive change it brought to so many patients. Before his ultimate death, McMurphy does win some major battles at the ward. From battle to battle against the system, McMurphy leads his lost chronic soldiers beyond enemy lines and toward safety. Even after being smothered from his command position, it was as if he had never left their side. For the path he paved was much to large to be coverup with the leaves left by Big Nurse. By following McMurphys footsteps, the squad finally found the light within society, and stepped into it with open arms and wishful smiles. No longer were they under the control of the system and its rules. he had broken free from the routine, and in the end, changed the world as they knew it. It is evident that it 's very difficult to change the system, but it is possible. The right type of character and personality is a big help when you are trying to achieve success in fighting the system. In order to make a true difference you have to keep on trying and fighting. Even if you just change a small area of the system, the majority of the time it is well worth the fight. In this novel the main character was successful in changing some aspect of the system. To him, the corruption unfair practices, and indecencies were enough. Something

Kesey has also given this novel great Symbolic value. As an opposer to the McCarthy scheme, he has used the mental hospital as a scale model of how society breaks free of society's conformity. McMurphy acts as the ‘liberator', or rebel of the ward's excessively strict conformity. He saves the patients from "the

The scene in the book where the lifeguard at the pool who once was admitted to the ward tells McMurphy that the nurses are the ones who decides how long one stays in the ward, and in the movie Washington tells McMurphy that information. At one point of the book McMurphy and Bromden are sent to the disturbed ward after getting into an altercation with the nurses when McMurphy tried to stop them from forcing medication onto George in the shower who is known to be extremely cautious of germs. Unlike the book the movie shows this scene as McMurphy getting into a fight with the nurses after breaking the nurse’s station window to get Cheswick’s cigarettes in order to calm him down. After Chief helps him, all three of them are sent to the disturbed ward. Due to all of the changes in the movie compared to the book it was hard to follow the movie at times. When certain scenes happened in the movie that didn’t in the book it confused me and when they brought in new characters or changed the way the characters were portrayed made it difficult to relate the movie back to the book. I don’t believe the film changed my perception of McMurphy’s Heroism because both in the book and film he played the significant role of standing up to Nurse Ratched even though she was known to belittle all of the patients. McMurphy continued to try and help the patients escape the ward before he thought about himself leaving and that showed the type of character McMurphy was.

From the first day on the ward, McMurphy questions the music and the medication that the hospital forces upon the patients. When McMurphy enters the nurses’ station and tries to turn down the music, Nurse Ratched criticizes him, all the while talking down to him in a slow, patronizing tone. Having been repeatedly locked up McMurphy is used to being told what to do, but he is not used to being treated as if he is crazy. Although he is trying to pass time hiding in a mental hospital he is unwillingly to give up control over himself like all the

McMurphy can also be considered a tragic hero. Although he could almost always take control of a situation and never let the combine get the best of him, he could not always control his temper. It was the one think that could get him in trouble because Nurse Ratched could not punish him with electric shock therapy unless he had an outburst. The best thing that McMurphy could have had in the hospital was patience and a calm temper because the only weapon Nurse Ratched had was to try to frustrate him. Since she has ultimate power on the ward, she could do anything she wants and make any rules. For instance, when the patients wanted to watch the world series and they clearly had a majority, she didn’t let them because she wanted them to know that she has authority

When McMurphy came to the institution, he was seen as being a problem. This is because he was going against Foucault’s argument of being docile. He did not want to conform to that. McMurphy soon realized that many of the patients were in the institution voluntarily, which caused for him to become more disobedient. He always tried to go against the nurses by telling the patients that they aren’t lunatics. He would consistently break the rules by trying to change the routine, by taking the patients fishing, teaching them to play basketball, and by sneaking in alcohol and girls during the hours of dark. Foucault would say that McMurphy was an anarchist rather than a conformist.

When McMurphy finds out that he is one of two patients that are involuntarily committed to the hospital, it makes him realize that he alone is fighting for his freedom, and the others have been repressed by Ratched to the point of being afraid to rebel against her or simply leave. McMurphy fights until the end to free these men of their emasculation even if it