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

Hospitals are meant to help some people heal physically and others mentally. In the novel One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey published in 1962, readers are introduced to a mental hospital that has goals that do not align with helping people. Within the hospital, characters with varied personalities and opinions are intermixed with three main characters playing specific roles with supporting characters close by. With the characters’ motivations, themes develop such as the emasculation of the men in the hospital by an oppressive nurse. Symbols, such as laughter and the “combine”, are also pertinent to themes as the readers watch the men transitioning from being oppressed to being able to stand up for themselves causing change in hospital policy.

After McMurphy convinces nine of his fellow patients to join him on a fishing trip, the group ends up stopping for gas and runs into trouble. A few men that are working at the gas station attempt to rile up the patients; resulting in McMurphy stepping in. He reminds the workers “‘We are lunatics from the hospital up the highway, psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of mankind”’ (Kesey 239). McMurphy showed the patients "what a little bravado and courage could accomplish" and they realized "he'd taught us how to use it." (239). McMurphy was a strong leader and role model that the men needed. He showed them a path to power and strength. Even in the darkest of times, McMurphy stays by the patient's side. Always proving to them how committed and dedicated he would

Jesus when he came didn't come to completely destroy the evil of the world. He came to show people how to recognize evil and how to fight it so they could help themselves. This is just like McMurphy who didn't come to the ward to cause an uprising and overthrow Nurse Ratchet. He came to show people that they didn't have to be manipulated and emasculated by Nurse Ratched. He showed them that each one of them has the ability to resist the hold that the Big Nurse had on them. When something went wrong the patients looked to McMurphy for a solution “The guys were already looking down the line to McMurphy stood, a couple of men down the line” (Kesey 228). This clearly shows that people looked to McMurphy for help just like people looked to

This would foreshadow what would have happened to McMurphy when he received his electroshock therapy. Another reference would be when Harding explained to McMurphy how the electroshock therapy worked. He explains to him “you are strapped to a table, shaped, ironically, like a cross, with a crown of electric sparks in place of thorns.” This also relates to how Jesus was on the cross. Before the electroshock therapy for McMurphy, one of the patients says to him that “[he] wash [his] hand of the whole deal] just as what Pontius Pilate said to Jesus before sentencing him to be crucified. One other minor reference is that McMurphy was friends with prostitutes Candy and Sandy just like

This illustration of McMurphy on the tables, self-scaring himself to protect the patient and to be brave for Bromden proves his willingness to save them. By him on the table laying the way Christ died, simulates the ward lack of humanity. Similarly to Jesus, one of McMurphy’s

When McMurphy shows his provocative and sexual playing cards to the men of the ward, he begins to unmask the importance of sexual expression, allegorical to the word of God or new religion proposed by Jesus. McMurphy also attempts to reveal the damaging effects of Nurse Ratched's mental ward, parallel to Jesus' attempts to bring humanity, "out of the darkness," and, "into the light of the Lord," where one can be eternally saved from original sin. In the first scene, we also meet Ellis, a man who has received numerous treatments at the facility and has become completely docile and, "Now he's nailed against the wall" (20). This image can be associated with the Book of Matthew because it foreshadows the inevitable Christ-like sacrifice that McMurphy makes at the end of the novel. Ellis also acts as the crucified criminals that share in Christ's pain beside him on the cross (Matthew 27). The image of Ellis communicates to the reader the impact and importance of McMurphy as a character of the salvation that he brings to the patients on the ward as the novel continues.

Interestingly, McMurphy loosely follows the path of Jesus Christ, where he begins a journey of unselfishness to help free his fellow ward members from the strong grips of the combine. With his fusion of an almost thuggish hero and a liberator, McMurphy cements himself as an archetype that was common in the psychological field from that time. In conjunction with the thoughts of many theorists, like Freud, McMurphy becomes a character that serves almost as role model for many young people. In the case of the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy’s fellow ward-mates are the figurative representation of the children McMurphy would appeal to. In the end, it is McMurphy’s rebelliousness and inevitable sacrifice that help portray him as a classical hero, while also allowing him to free society from the constraints of oppression.

Often people deceive others into thinking that they are acting as a hero, but in reality they are truly working to only benefit themselves. These so-called "heroes" are viewed as saviors but in actuality they manipulate others without considering the consequences so they can get what they want. It seems as though they are they are trying to help and save others while they are just doing the deeds for their own personal gain and power. In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Randle P. McMurphy, the boisterous and rebellious new patient on the ward, does exactly this. By controlling his fellow patients it is a win-win situation; McMurphy gains influential status and recognition, while

Thus, Kesey’s imagery, McMurphy’s charisma, and his attitude to help the patients at all costs strengthen McMurphy’s role as a savior. Just as Christ before him, he sacrifices himself for the betterment of mankind. The story of McMurphy shows how much of an impact an

McMurphy arrives to the hospital and immediately changes the vibe of the hospital. He is the first man to have the courage to stand up to the nurse and the first man to even notice the Nurse’s subtle but dangerous tactics. Harding has just been ripped to shreds by his peers in the meeting after the nurse started the “pecking party”. McMurphy is trying to get harding to see the nurse’s twisted ways by saying, “I’m just talking about that crummy meeting and what that nurse and those other bastards did to you. Did in spades”(58). McMurphy arrives on the ward and it does not take long for him to start preaching the message against the nurse’s evil practices. McMurphy is trying to help lead Harding into the light and show him the truth about what the nurse did to him in that meeting by starting a pecking party to attack him and lower his self-esteem. Jesus Christ once said, “I am the way, the truth, the light.” Jesus came to this earth to deliver a message of goodness and steer people clear of the evil happenings of the time. McMurphy has the same goal for his time at the ward, to help his fellow inmates resist the evil of the nurse and stand up for their well being. Along the journey of Christ’s time on this earth, each person he touched was changed and began to see the truth; similarly, McMurphy creates bonds and friendships that help each character grow into being

Unfortunately, McMurphy becomes a paralyzed human because of a treatment, because of this Chief mercy kills McMurphy. “I lifted up the pillow, and in the moonlight I saw the expression hadn’t changed from the blank, dead end look the least bit…” (Kesey, 323). Chief has dignified McMurphy by killing him. Chief wanted to show everyone the symbol of resistance by euthanizing McMurphy.

He becomes a father-like figure to the inmates, and the inmates begin to rely on him for their needs. As McMurphy continues to defy Nurse Ratched and her rules by creating a basketball team, gambling even more, and annoying Nurse Ratched, the inmates begin to see his actions as divine. This proves he resembles Jesus Christ. He brings goodness into the ward to confront the evil set by the hospital. George Boyd describes McMurphy’s purpose when he says, “he brings the promise of spiritual renewal to his disciples” (126). McMurphy clearly shows this when he repairs Chief Bromden and convinces him to speak again. The Chief stops talking and acts deaf because he fears the society and its rules. McMurphy gives him a new life and strength to overcome his fear and to challenge the rules of the ward and Nurse Ratched. Another noteworthy example of spiritual renewal occurs when McMurphy takes twelve inmates on a fishing trip. He creates a sense of freedom and strength within the inmates by the trip. The resemblance to the twelve disciples of Christ is no coincidence. Just as Christ, McMurphy gives his disciples a new life to live and a bright outlook for the future. The inmates grow stronger and lose their weaknesses they are still afraid to take the initiative and challenge Nurse Ratched and look to McMurphy to solve their problems. The achievement of McMurphy’s rise to

At the end of the novel, McMurphy ends up a “Vegetable” in the mental ward. Many of the voluntary patients, left. Chief, before escaping, suffocates him McMurphy. McMurphy was their hero, their rebel who was torn down by the society, after he tore it down.

She believes him to be an ordinary man and that he will eventually settle down. Nonetheless, McMurphy continues to do all he can to annoy her. Throughtout the story, the two battle against each other, seeing who will give in to who first. Everything is rather harmless until and inmates party rolls around. McMurphy smuggles in prostitutes to help out the inmate, Billy. When the nurse found out what had been going on she was furious. Billy ended up slitting his throat and bleeding to death. McMurphy was in real trouble with the nurse this time. To retaliate he tore open Nurse Ratched uniform. As a result, McMurphy is taken away and give a lobotomy. When he returns, he has been changed into a vegetable. His Indian friend known as Chief Bromdencannot bear to see his friend in such a state, and ends up smothering him to death to save him from such a miserable existence. However, he escapes to freedom after that. Ironically, dead Mcmurphy had given this man a new life.

The author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Keasey, received his inspiration for the book while volunteering at a veteran's hospital. This is where he was first introduced to LSD. The moment he tried it, he became addicted, and began experimenting on himself with the drugs, observing the effects. The novel deals with the tyrannical rule of head Nurse Ratched in a mental hospital somewhere in Oregon. She runs all business and daily life in the asylum to her every whim and rules the ward by fear and manipulation. This has gone on for as long as the narrator, Chief Bromden, can remember. However a new patient, Randle McMurphy, enters the hospital and begins to wreak havoc upon the system