One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Discussion Questions

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.

     Mcmurphy was the one who started making people laughing in the ward. When he first came into the ward he was cracking jokes and shaking everybody’s hand. (p.16)

“Only at the last—after he'd smashed through that glass door, her face swinging around, with terror forever ruining any other look she might ever try to use again, screaming when he grabbed for her…doctors and supervisors and nurses prying those heavy red fingers out of the white flesh of her throat as if they were her neck bones.” This was McMurphy’s final outburst of anger at the nurse and at oppression, but just as in the bible oppression won at first, “And one morning, after McMurphy'd been gone three weeks, she made her last play. The ward door opened, and the black boys wheeled in this Gurney with a chart at the bottom that said in heavy black letters, MCMURPHY, RANDLE P. POST-OPERATIVE. And below this was written in ink, LOBOTOMY.” McMurphy was lobotomized, just as Jesus was

Another direct relation between Jesus and McMurphy is the first time Chief Bromden, a large indian man who has pretended to be deaf and dumb for over 15 years, speaks. When Chief speaks, he is alone with McMurphy. McMurphy gives Chief a piece of gum, and this simple act is what gave Chief the courage to speak. McMurphy demonstrated his ability to listen to people, and this is what truly made Chief willing to speak to him. At the end of their conversation, Chief found himself wanting to “touch him because he’s who he is.”(Kesey 222) By this, we can see that Chief feels McMurphy has healed him and listened because that is “who he is.” We also see the relation of healing powers through believing that a touch can heal you from here

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Cheswick’s suicide signals to McMurphy that he has unwittingly taken on the responsibility of rehabilitating the other patients. However, after protecting Big George from the cruelty of Ratched’s aides, McMurphy is sent to Disturbed for electro-shock therapy. The weight of his obligations to the other begins to wear away his strength and his sanity. Nevertheless, McMurphy arranges a fishing trip for himself and nine other patients. He guides them through the process of dealing with the hostility of the outside world and sets the stage for Billy Bibbit to lose his virginity by arranging a data between him and Candy Starr, a prostitute from Portland.

“A success, they say, but I say he’s just another robot for the Combine and might be better off as a failure…”(17).

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

Similar to who Jesus was for his disciples, McMurphy acts as a leader and role-model for the other characters in the book. Due to his sexual, violent, and seemingly immoral behavior, McMurphy sometimes may seem unlike Christ. However, Jesus too was human, and therefore did have “normal” human emotions, such as anger. McMurphy’s Christ-like parallels are illustrated throughout the novel in order to communicate the idea that he represents the same attitude of reforming leadership, just as Jesus did in the

At the arrival of McMurphy in the mental asylum, he is charming and confident, happy to be in an unfamiliar place, meeting a slew of new people. He doesn't discriminate and even with the 'Vegetables' he doesn't flinch, making sure he greets each one of them "He sees he’s meant for the Acute side and goes straight for it, grinning and shaking hands with everybody.” After and up until the fishing trip that he organised, he makes many bets on various things which won him a large amount of money and cigarettes

Randall McMurphy is the loud, rebellious, and arrogant protagonist in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. McMurphy is sent to a mental institution from a prison work farm in hopes of having a more relaxed sentence. When he is there, the doctors try to determine if he is mentally ill, and he rebels against their controversial methods. While McMurphy shows most of the signs for Antisocial Personality Disorder, he does not show callousness, so he cannot be diagnosed with having Antisocial Personality Disorder.