“Rise of a Savior” Throughout the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest, there are many symbols relating McMurphy, a patient in an insane asylum, to Christ. When receiving electro shock therapy, McMurphy asks Nurse Ratched, a retired Military Nurse who creates a repressing society over men in a ward, “Do I get a crown of thorns?” (241). The symbol of thorns is related to Christ. One may conceptualize that McMurphy is portrayed as a selfish being who becomes an accidental savior due to the wants of the patients on the ward, however we come to understand that McMurphy sacrifices himself for the betterment of the patients in the ward and for the future of the ward. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s, Ken Kesey uses McMurphy’s sacrifice to illustrate …show more content…
him as a savior for the repressed. The repressing rule of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest motivates McMurphy to redeem the patients on the ward just as Christ saves us from sin. McMurphy giving the patients a newly found confidence at the gas station exemplifies him redeeming them. When making the service men do additional jobs, Harding says, “Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power” (200). Similarly, McMurphy not fulfilling requirements from Ratched initiates the dethroning of Ratched from power and the salvation of the patients. McMurphy wearing the white whale underwear and revealing the underwear to Nurse Ratched symbolizes his rebellion against the controlled society. Furthermore, McMurphy creating the fishing trip opposes the repressed society. In regard to the fishing trip, Chief Bromden thinks “Bad as I wanted to go, it still made me smile a little to think about it” (175). Chief’s smiling represents the campaign of dethroning Ratched’s rule. Finally, McMurphy providing alternate means of escape from the depraving reality of the ward such as the basketball team represents him overturning the rule of Ratched who previously would not let the patients engage in enjoyable exertions. While McMurphy is alive, he promotes the deposing of Nurse Ratched, but he endeavors this task for the prosperity of the patients on the ward, not for personal distinction. McMurphy’s death for the patients is a selfless act of benevolence rather than a selfish act of personal achievement.
McMurphy’s recognizes that his goal of salvation for the residents of the ward will not be achievable without removing all personal profit. McMurphy can not just “get the best of” the Ratched and win a bet he made with Harding, but rather extract her from the ward. When wondering what earnings McMurphy was gaining from rebelling against Ratched, Bromden thinks, “the guys were beginning to ask, what’s in it for ol’ Mack” (223). The realization that McMurphy is not gaining any personal value illustrates his selflessness. Furthermore, McMurphy recognizes that if he tries to wholly extract Ratched, he could receive a lobotomy. “McMurphy even had a petition in the mail to someone back in Washington, asking that they look into the lobotomies and electroshock that were still going on in government hospitals” (222). Finally, when the patients discover that Billy Bibbit has killed himself, Chief Bromden understands that McMurphy was defying the Nurse for him and the other patients the whole time. Bromden sees McMurphy rise up and walk into the nurse’s office and thinks “We couldn’t stop him because we were the ones making him do it. It wasn’t the nurse that was forcing him, it was our need that was making him push himself slowly up from sitting” (271). McMurphy filling the need of the patients displays that his sacrifice was not for himself. Hence, analyzing why McMurphy sacrificed himself is crucial to perceive him as a Christ
figure. Asking why McMurphy sacrificed himself is a necessary question in comprehending him as a Christ figure. When McMurphy first discovers that Billy Bibbit has killed himself, he becomes enraged, but he becomes even more outraged when the Nurse accuses him of “gambling with human lives - as if you thought yourself to be a God!” (271). This accusation validates the nurse as a castrator to men. Billy’s suicide, because of the nurse, would have been futile if someone did not attempt to overthrow her from her power which grants her the ability to sterilize other mature men. Also, through McMurphy’s sacrifice, Chief Bromden gains the confidence and physical capability to escape the ward. Bromden applies what McMurphy taught him to escape their hell. Furthermore, McMurphy understands that with the Nurse at the ward, she will continue to be a tyrannical ruler over the men. Thus, McMurphy tries to eliminate Ratched. The elimination of the nurse symbolizes an overthrow of a satanic figure out of the lives of the patients. It is through McMurphy’s sacrifice that he can be regarded as a Christ figure for the men on the ward. Upon arriving on the ward and witnessing the state of despair, McMurphy commits to expelling the oppression that the patients endure. Thus, having to sacrifice himself becomes a necessary operation. Finally, questioning if McMurphy’s sacrifice was worthwhile and if it worked becomes necessary. Although we learn that Nurse Ratched leaves for a week, we do not know if she leaves the ward completely. Also, even if Nurse Ratched changes her tyrannical rulings, a new nurse could replace her and oppress the men in a new form. Hence, McMurphy sacrificed his body and soul for a false hope of salvation.
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950’s Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50’s, 60’s where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting’ & its significance towards Ken Kesey’s “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
This also demonstrates how much power McMurphy has gained so far over Ms. Ratched. In the novel, Ms. Ratched tries to take away all of the power that McMurphy has gained over her by blaming McMurphy for making the lives of the hospital patients worse, and that McMurphy was the cause for the deaths of patients William Bibbit and Charles Cheswick. This angers McMurphy, and causes him to choke her with the intent to kill her, in the novel, Chief Bromden describes, “Only at the last---after he’d smashed through that glass door, her face swung around, with terror forever ruining any other look she might ever try to use again, screaming when he grabbed her and ripped her uniform all the way down the front.
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.
As all movies are created based on a book, there always seems to be changes and conflicting ideas. However, they still have the same main idea to the story line. The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey and the movie directed by Miloš Forman deal with the main idea of society's control of natural impulses. The author/director want to prove that this control can be overcome. Although the movie and the book are very different from each other, they still have their similarities.
One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a movie that portrays a life story of a criminal named McMurphy who is sent to a mental institution because he believes that he himself is insane. While McMurphy is in the mental ward, he encounters other patients and changes their perception of the “real” world. Before McMurphy came to the mental ward, it was a place filled with strict rules and orders that patients had to follow; these rules were created by the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. However, once McMurphy was in the ward, everything, including the atmosphere, changed. He was the first patient to disobey Nurse Ratched. Unlike other patients who continuously obeyed Nurse Ratched, McMurphy and another patient named Charlie Cheswick decided to rebel
...r on the ward, Nurse Ratched’s only move left is to lobotomize McMurphy. However, despite McMurphy’s lobotomy, it was impossible for Nurse Ratched to return the ward to its previous order; “it was difficult with McMurphy’s presence still tromping up and down the halls and laughing out loud in the meeting and singing in the latrines. She couldn’t rule with her old power anymore” (269). McMurphy had served his purpose by helping the patients gain confidence and break free from Nurse Ratched’s evil power. He helped Chief grow big again and overcome his silence and Billy Bibbit gain confidence. He showed the patients that they deserved better and had another life available outside the ward, and, although McMurphy accepted he would never get to be free again, he sacrificed himself to allow the other patients to experience freedom. His legend lives on in the ward.
Based in an asylum and told through the eyes of one of the insane patients, the reader builds a connection with the characters as they try to fight the cruelty and control of the hospital staff. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a book of high literary value, teacheing of man’s interminable struggle against society’s control over law and what it deems normal human behavior. It contains many literary devices that require readers to analyze the text in order to fully comprehend what is occurring in the story. Parents have made this book a very controversial subject, because of some of the inappropriate words and scenes in the book.The controversy over the banning of this book from school curriculum is a difficult situation because of what parents
Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is a novel containing the theme of emotions being played with in order to confine and change people. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about a mental institution where a Nurse named Miss Ratched has total control over its patients. She uses her knowledge of the patients to strike fear in their minds. Chief Bromden a chronic who suffers from schizophrenia and pretends to be deaf and mute narrates the novel. From his perspective we see the rise and fall of a newly admitted patient, RP McMurphy. McMurphy used his knowledge and courage to bring changes in the ward. During his time period in the ward he sought to end the reign of the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched, also to bring the patients back on their feet. McMurphy issue with the ward and the patients on the ward can be better understood when you look at this novel through a psychoanalytic lens. By applying Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence to McMurphy’s views, it is can be seen that his ideas can bring change in the patients and they can use their
The main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, is brought to a state mental institution from a state prison to be studied to see if he has a mental illness. McMurphy has a history of serving time in prison for assault, and seems to take no responsibility for his actions. McMurphy is very outgoing, loud, rugged, a leader, and a rebel. McMurphy also seems to get pleasure out of fighting the system. McMurphy relishes in challenging the authority of Nurse Ratchett who seems to have a strong hold over the other patients in the ward. He enters into a power struggle with Nurse Ratchett when he finds out that he cannot leave the hospital until the staff, which primarily means her, considers him cured.
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
Throughout the sixties , America- involved in the Cold War at this time- suffered from extreme fear of communism. This caused numerous severe changes in society ranging from corrupt political oppression, to the twisted treatment of the minority. Published in 1962, Ken Kesey ’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , manages to capture these changes in the variety of ways. Kesey’s novel incorporates some of the main issues that affected the United States during the early and mid 60s. The government had no limits and was cruel to those who did not fit into society, including the mentally ill. The wrongful treatment of the people caused an eruption of rebellion and protest- thus the Beatnik era was born. The novel, written during this movement, sheds light on Kesey’s personal opinion on this chaotic period in US history . The treatment of mentally ill patients, the oppressive government, and uprising in the 1960s inspired Kesey while writing his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Fred Wright, Lauren's instructor for EN 132 (Life, Language, Literature), comments, "English 132 is an introduction to English studies, in which students learn about various areas in the discipline from linguistics to the study of popular culture. For the literature and literary criticism section of the course, students read a canonical work of literature and what scholars have said about the work over the years. This year, students read One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, a classic of American literature which dates from the 1960s counterculture. Popularized in a film version starring Jack Nicholson, which the class also watched in order to discuss film studies and adaptation, the novel became notable for its sympathetic portrayal of the mentally ill. For an essay about the novel, students were asked to choose a critical approach (such as feminist, formalist, psychological, and so forth) and interpret the novel using that approach, while also considering how their interpretation fit into the ongoing scholarly dialogue about the work. Lauren chose the challenge of applying a Marxist approach to One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not only did she learn about critical approaches and how to apply one to a text, she wrote an excellent essay, which will help other readers understand the text better. In fact, if John Clark Pratt or another editor ever want to update the 1996 Viking Critical Library edition of the novel, then he or she might want to include Lauren's essay in the next edition!"
Even though McMurphy's own sacrifice of life is the price of his victory, he still attempts to push the ward patients to hold thier own personal opinions and fight for what is ethically right. For instinace, McMurphy states, "But I tried though,' he says. 'Goddammit, I sure as hell id that much, now didn't I?" McMurphy strains to bring the 'fellas' courage and determination in a place full of inadequacy and "perfection." McMurphy obtains a lot of courage in maintaining his own sort of personal integrity, and trying to keep the guys' intergrity and optimistic hope up.
In the end chapter McMurphy attacks Miss Ratched because she drove Billy Bibbit to suicide. This could be seen as murder and should not be forgiven easily. In my text I will show how McMurphy empowered the patients and how they subsequently revolt against Miss Ratched after his death.