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

The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is about a man named Randle McMurphy, who gets transferred to a psychiatric ward in Oregon that is run by Nurse Ratched, a former army nurse who runs the ward with harsh precision. The story is told in first person point of view by Chief Bromden, a Native American man who pretends to be deaf and dumb. McMurphy tries to break Nurse Ratched in order to win a bet he made with the patients on the ward and to teach the patients there that they can survive themselves. Randle McMurphy is shown as a Christ figure in the novel.

“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey tells the story of a psychiatric ward in Oregon through a schizophrenic patient named Chief Bromden, and how his world as well as the lives of those like him take a dramatic turn after Randle McMurphy, a conman, is introduced into the ward. The novel makes heavy use of symbolism in order to continue the biblical allusions that are introduced early on in the novel. The biblical allusions used in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” are the crucifixion of Jesus in the form of the Shock Shop, and a savior of the sinned in Randle McMurphy.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is essentially novel about how the patients' of a mental hospital lives are affected by a new admission named Randle Patrick McMurphy or "Mac" and his actions. Randle McMurphy is a Christ figure in this novel. As Thomas C. Foster states in. How To Read Literature Like A Professor, “No literary Christ figure can ever be as pure, as perfect, as divine as Jesus Christ.” (Foster 129); but it is hard to believe that a man with a history of getting into brawls and arrests for assault, battery, rape, and gambling has the potential to be a Christ figure. However, Jesus and McMurphy have a lot more in common than one may believe. Jesus is commonly associated

In the Bible the character was disciple Judas, Kesey creates this parallel to Billy Bibbit. In this section of the book proceeding to McMurphy’s actions, Billy is the one responsible for the blaming McMurphy for all that had happened the night of the party, "M-M-McMurphy! He did!"(Kesey, 1962). Promptly after McMurphy and the Chief are seized to the disturbed ward, they meet a patient who says, "I wash my hands of the whole deal", (Kesey, 1962). In the Bible, Pontius Pilate washed his hands of Christ's crucifixion. In fact when McMurphy is taken to get electroshock treatment, he lies down voluntarily on the cross-shaped table, and suddenly has snaps that clasp on his wrists. During this he asks, “Will I get my ‘crown of thorns?’” (Kesey, 1962). They further gave him a rubber hose to bite on, just as Christ was given a sponge soaked in vinegar to suck on. Eventually McMurphy makes the ultimate sacrifice to make sure that Ratched cannot use Billy’s death to unravel all they have gained from him. He sacrifices his own hopes and dreams when he violently attacks Mrs. Ratched. McMurphy rips her uniform to reveal her womanhood, to tell her that she is not an all-powerful machine (combine) but a normal human being. His violent attack succeeds in destroying Ratched’s power. Christ saved us from sin by dying on the cross, whereas McMurphy died to save the patients from Nurse

The definition of a hero is “a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities”. That is how McMurphy is portrayed In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. McMurphy first comes into the ward as a bad individual who “fights and fucks too much”, but ends up becoming a hero to the patients. His courage gives the patients a reason to have confidence and hope to someday get out of the asylum. His courage and teachings were portrayed to be Christ like to the patients. There are a lot of similar comparisons between McMurphy empowering and enriching the patients hope, and Jesus with his disciples. In One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey develops McMurphy into a Christ-like figure using

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.

In Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor he outlines the importance of a christ figure in a novel and eighteen important traits that can be used to identify a christ figure in a novel. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest many of these traits are seen in the character Ronald Patrick McMurphy, a man who pretended to be insane to escape his sentence at a work farm, because he believed the hospital would be easier. Although he is at first sight a physically intimidating man, he is often looked at as a role model by the other patients in the hospital. The three conditions in the novel that make McMurphy an undeniable christ figure are he was crucified, He was followed by twelve disciples, and his rare normalcy allowed him to be a savior in a dysfunctional setting.

In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey portrays Randle Patrick McMurphy as a hero and a Christ figure throughout the story. As the story ensues, McMurphy becomes the patients’ voice, performs “miracles”, and gives them hope and courage, eventually sacrificing himself for the others in the end.

In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey really emphasizes the cookie cutter and unoriginal attitude of the world outside of the ward. He does this through the character Chief who also is the narrator of the story. McMurphy posed as an inspiration for Chief and helped him escape his schizophrenia. Although McMurphy was not a hero outside of the ward, inside was a different story, he was an inspiration for the patients and in the end gave his life for the patients.

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

Flying Into the Cuckoo’s Nest When a book is written or a movie is made, the end product will reveal more than just the plot. The medium and the time it was made has a significant effect on the themes found throughout. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the original themes of the book are warped by the thirteen years between the novel and the movie. The counter-feminism of the novel becomes less prominent in the movie as feminism gains popularity in the 1970s. The purpose of the movie may also differ from the purpose of the book.

McMurphy takes the nonconforming role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, because he perceives people and the world differently than the others in the mental institute. “‘Mr. Mcmurphy… my friend... I’m not a chicken. I’m a rabbit. The doctor is a rabbit. Cheswick there is a rabbit. Billy Bibbit is a rabbit. All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees, hippity-hopping through our Walt Disney world.’” (Kesey 57). Dale, an average patient in the psychiatric ward, believes that they are all “rabbits” which means they are alike. McMurphy, though, is not a rabbit, and is different from all the other patients. "But the new guy is different, and the Acutes can see it, different from anybody been coming on this ward for the past ten years, different from anybody they ever met outside. He's just a vulnerable, maybe, but the Combine didn't get him" (Kesey 82). This quote supports the idea that McMurphy is different than the rest at the ward. This nonconformity is the reason for the isolation of these characters.

He decided that the health and respect for the other patients was a just enough cause to surrender himself. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey uses the point, sacrifice is the best way to spark change, as the main theme through the character of Randle McMurphy. From his struggle with the Big Nurse, to his resemblance to Jesus, and to his effort to help others, McMurphy carries out the point of sacrifice.

The strike of fear that comes with the words ‘mental illness’ is quick to rip through America in the 1960s. Similar to the McCarthy’s Red Scare and the internment of Japanese, government send citizens to institutions for hollow reasons and force unnecessary treatments. Inexperience in treatment and corruption in systems causes more harm to the victims than the initial ailment. Within the hippie, or counterculture era to which Ken Kesey belonged, Kesey was inspired to exploit his philosophy about psychedelic drugs that he experienced through his career choices in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The sins that McMurphy died for would be to over come their own personal sins. Each patients deals with their own problems, which results them staying in the institution. McMurphy in the movie, acts as a Christ figure, by installing them with the confidence that they need or “curing them.” His death gives the men the final push they need to become whoever they are and to not let their “sins” dictate what they can and cannot do. He thought that the men were much greater than they could ever think of themselves, and until his death they came to realize that. Even though Bromden was the man to break the window, the men thought it was McMurphy and that he finally escaped. They thought that if he can break out when before he couldn’t, then they