Sean O’Casey once said that, “Laughter is wine for the soul - laughter soft, or loud and deep,

McMurphy is at constant odds with Nurse Ratched, the antagonist of the story; she represents the anally fixated dictator. She has established system believed to find sanity by adjusting the patients to the outside world standards. Nurse Ratched tries to shape the patients not in their own image but an image that she sees all people should act. It is believed that what the Nurse is doing is helpful to the acute’s actually suppressing their individually. In the novel they are multiple power struggles between the Big Nurse and Randle Patrick McMurphy on Nurse Ratched side, she is trying to hold order among the ward to conform McMurphy. However, McMurphy acknowledges the way she runs the ward is not right and it is actually suppressing the acute’s masculinity and self-confidence. In one section Chief Bromden acknowledges why he believes McMurphy is so strong is because he is what he is. “I’d think he was strong enough being his own self that he would never back down the way she was hoping he would.” Nurse Ratched may have a hard time trying to make McMurphy conform but she has ease making the rest conform to her standards. These are the supposed standards that the patients believe they need in order to be accepted in society. However, they are the supposed beliefs that the majority of people believe in order to strive socially. It is not only the Combine’s Ward that there a sense of missing identity there is also. Compared to the society that humankind occupies, people

Norman Cousins said, “Laughter is a powerful way to tap positive emotions" (Moss 1). Humor is studied by many researchers in sociology, psychology, art, literature, and medicine. When people wonder whether humor aids in areas other than health, a treasure trove of possible benefits to the learning or educational community is opened up. Humor can be used as a tool to promote learning.Research speaks to the many benefits of humor in healing, to its benefits in the classroom or boardroom, from reducing stress of students or employees, to boosting self-esteem and feelings of camaraderie. Additionally, studies show that those who use humor to convey a message are often more favorably perceived. Humor helps deliver the presenter's message to

Laughter makes the patients feel good, and, specifically, Bromden feels good and begins to remember other things that made him feel good (Tanner 4). McMurphy’s power in laughter is intensified by Nurse Ratched’s lack of laughter. McMurphy’s laughter and humor are genuine while Nurse Ratched’s humor is forced and smiles are chiseled like in plastic (Wallace 3, 5). Power enables McMurphy to make changes on the ward and to survive in the institution. His sanity compared to the other patients, his manipulations, and his ability to laugh give him the power. He, in turn, gives patients a sense of power by teaching them to laugh at themselves, Nurse Ratched, and the world (Magill 1533).

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

McMurphy undermines Big Nurse's power over the other male patients by characterizing her as a "bitch" a "buzzard" and a "ball-cutter" (pages 51-52). He wins some major battles with her by asserting the right for the men to "watch" the ball game on TV (pages 111-114) and by organizing the deep sea fishing trip (Part3)

Laughter is a therapeutic form. In the novel One flew over the cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey laughter represents freedom and an escape from nurse Ratched’s restrictions.

faculty in order to gain power and take away all of their freedoms, even their freedom

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.

Laughter is a therapeutic form. In the novel One flew over the cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey laughter represents freedom and an escape from nurse Ratched's restrictions.

As the nurse says of him, his motive is the “feeling of power and respect [...] monetary gain [...] actual disruption of ward for sake of disruption” (29). As soon as the war erupts between McMurphy and the nurse, we know that breaking first counts as being vulnerable because it is a weak defense mechanism. The nurse at times chooses to instill fear through anger, but it is still a cheap front because it exposes herself to vulnerable outbursts. She obsesses over her sexuality and tries to compensate it by holding an iron fist—it seems as though having a chaotic personal life is the price of being organized at

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

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.

A man named Randal McMurphy, who defies the rules of everything that resembles the concept of the Combine, enters the hospital and immediately questions the corrupt system. He uses his rebellious spirit to influence the patients? beliefs about the policies, in hopes of gaining enough support to change them. When McMurphy comes and shakes every patient?s hand on the ward, Chief feels a sense of power transferring from

Personified as Nurse Ratched, the Combine’s tyranny causes a major conflict with McMurphy throughout the novel and much of the persecution that he endures. McMurphy rejects compromise and constantly fights the Big Nurse as she tries to emasculate him and the other patients. McMurphy, as the representative of the individual, fights against the grip of the mechanized civilization that has forced him into the ward. He tries to enrage Ratched to cause disorder and thus destroy the foundation of regularity and consistency; he succeeds in this when he and the other patients pretend to watch the World Series and Ratched explodes in anger.

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.