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Examples of the hero's journey in movies
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The final stage of the Hero’s Journey is known as the return in which the hero returns in a triumphant manner after overcoming various trials and problems his way. The first step of the last stage is the resurrection in which the hero is purified by the last sacrifice which can result as the moment of death or rebirth. In the novel, this stage occurs when Nurse Ratched is yelling at McMurphy that he is responsible for Billy’s death in which McMurphy gets up and smashes the glass door. Also, McMurphy rips her uniform down, exposing her woman characteristics as her big breast is viewed by all the men on the ward. This action of McMurphy is done to humanize her, reminding everyone that she is just a normal woman and nothing more than that and …show more content…
McMurphy’s battles with Nurse Ratched described his desire to provide the patients with knowledge that they should live in the world the way they want to. McMurphy was not only an anti-hero but, a rebel, warrior, seeker, or even the jester who had one goal which was to enlighten the patients to live in the moment with full enjoyment. By applying, the Hero’s Journey to the novel, it clearly explains the heroic qualities of McMurphy, who goes out to achieve great deeds for himself and the patients on the ward. Being able to change, the lives of many helps reveal how he has left hope and his legacy for many on the ward. As Joseph Campbell once stated, “We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us,” reveals the importance that life cannot be planned ahead instead a person has to accept and create a life that they want as they move on. As you can see, McMurphy’s typical adventure as a hero proves that he was a hero of the ward that may not have lost Nurse Ratched’s control, but ended up in victory as he taught the patients on the ward how to be independent and manly enough to face the reality and society that is waiting for humans in the real
After the introduction by the Chief, the story proceeds to a normal morning at the ward. The patients are sitting in the Day Room after their morning pills. Then a new patient, Randall McMurphy, checks in. McMurphy was a big redheaded man who loved to gamble and got transferred to the ward from a work farm. From the beginning, McMurphy had been hard to control. He refused any of the traditional check in routines that any new patient needed to follow including taking his admission shower. The Black Boys, the orderlies of the ward, went to get Nurse Ratched in attempt to put McMurphy in line.
From the moment McMurphy enters the ward it is clear to all that he is different and hard to control. He’s seen as a figure the rest of the patients can look up to and he raises their hopes in taking back power from the big nurse. The other patients identify McMurphy as a leader when he first stands up to the nurse at her group therapy, saying that she has manipulated them all to become “a bunch of chickens at a pecking party”(Kesey 55). He tells the patients that they do not have to listen to Nurse Ratched and he confronts her tactics and motives. The patients see him as a leader at this point, but McMurphy does not see the need for him to be leading alone. McMurphy is a strong willed and opinionated man, so when he arrives at the ward he fails to comprehend why the men live in fear, until Harding explains it to him by
Initially the ward is run as if it was a prison ward, but from the moment the brawling, gambling McMurphy sets foot on the ward it is identified that he is going to cause havoc and provide change for the patients. McMurphy becomes a leader, a Christ like figure and the other patients are his disciples. The person who is objective to listen to his teachings at first is Chief Bromden (often called Bromden), but then he realizes that he is there to save them and joins McMurphy and the Acutes (meaning that they have possibility for rehabilitation and release) in the protest against Nurse Ratched, a bureaucratic woman who is the protagonist of the story, and the `Combine' (or society).
The dominant discourse of conformity in the novel is characterised predominantly by obeying the rules described by Kesey. At the start of the novel, all the acute and the silenced chronic patients conform to the rules of Nurse Ratched, the main antagonist, before the arrival of McMurphy. This is demonstrated by the following quote: “…she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor...” (p.5). McMurphy is portrayed as a Jesus figure in the novel. After he arrives, he begins to take control of the patients. He begins to take the role of leader. Kesey has foregrounded the character of McMurphy to be different thus creating a binary opposite that is represented in the novel. Kesey shows the binary opposites as being good versus evil. The former is represented by the con-man, McMurphy, and the latter is represented by the Head Nurs...
McMurphy and proctor eventually become heroes. In the end the men choose to do what is right, defending others, giving their lives in the process. In Kesey’s novel, McMurphy defends George, a patient afraid of dirt and the hospital soap that an orderly tries to force George to use. He tries to defend George by reasoning with the orderlies but this does not work so he fights them (Kesey 272-275). He later tries, partially succeeding, to choke Nurse Ratched and destroy her and her power. He is lobotomized for his actions so, to end his suffering, Chief smothers him (Kesey 319, 321, 323). Proctor chooses to die instead of confessing to a crime he didn’t commit (Miller 149-150). Both men’s deaths cause them to become martyrs, saving both the ward and Salem from complete and total destruction. Proctor and McMurphy’s martyrdom shows them to have grown to become heroes rather than selfish.
McMurphy saw that in the men how they didn’t believe in themselves and they trusted that Nurse Ratched cared for their best intentions. Seeing how insecure the men on the ward were, he started to boost their confidence, “ ‘By God Chief,’ he said, ‘it appears to me you grown ten inches since that fishing trip. And load almighty, look at the size of that foot of yours; big as a flatcar!’ ” (Kesey 267). Chief after getting away from the ward for a day and having his freedom he ‘grew’. Furthermore the Chief grew in confidence because he didn’t have the Nurse controlling him, thus showing how McMurphy helped bring back the men’s confidence. Not only did McMurphy give the men self-confidence he gave them courage to stand up Nurse Ratched, “Harding read the paper, then tore it up and threw the pieces at her. She flinched and raised her hand to protect the bruised side of her face from the paper. ‘Lady, I think you're full of so much bullshit,’ Harding told her,” (Kesey 320). The Nurse used to have complete tyrannical authority over the men of the ward, but after McMurphy came she is weak and impotent. McMurphy showed the men how don’t just have to idly sit there and take the blows from Nurse Ratched. They are humans and they can stand up for
They both realize that in order to get their own way, they must gain control over their rival and the ward. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched have different methods of attaining and using what control they have. They have different motives for seeking control over others. They also have different perceptions of the amount of control they possess. Throughout the novel, these two characters engulf themselves in an epic struggle for the most control.
Unable to see McMurphy imprisoned in a body that will go on living (under Nurse Ratched’s control) even though his spirit is gone, Chief smothers him to death that night. Then he escapes the hospital and leaves for Canada and a new life. We begin to see the different situations in which the patients struggle to overcome. Whether insane or not, the hospital is undeniably in control of the fates of its
From the moment he was introduced, McMurphy effected every patient in the asylum. Instead of bowing to society’s rules and ideas, he went against the norm and was unashamed to be himself. Due to this, he was the ideal hero to rescue the patients from declining self-respect. He encouraged those around him to defy rules and reason by opening their eyes to the world, saying for example, “People [will] try to make you weak so they can get you to toe the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to. And the best way to do this, to get you to knuckle under, is to weaken you by getting’ you where it hurts most.” Through these means, he succeeded in conquering Nurse Ratched and her attempts to alter her patients to the beliefs of society.
McMurphy is an individual who is challenging and rebelling against the system's rules and practices. He eventually teaches this practice of rebellion to the other patients who begin to realize that their lives are being controlled unfairly by the mental institution. When McMurphy first arrives at the institution, all of the other patients are afraid to express their thoughts to the Big Nurse. They are afraid to exercise their thoughts freely, and they believe that the Big Nurse will punish them if they question her authority. One patient, Harding, says, "All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees...We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place" (Kesey 62).
Throughout the novel both McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are continually trying to pull each other down. Nurse Ratched using her dominant speaking skills tries to prove to the patients that McMurphy is conning them with his vocalizations, “Look at some of these gifts, as devoted fans of his might call them. First, there was the gift of the tub room. Was that actually his to give?
Randall Patrick McMurphy is the protagonist of this novel. He is also a manipulator but unlike Ratched, McMurphy has good intentions. He decides to step up and help the patients because he sees no one is going anywhere. His method to helping the patients was to change everyone’s opinion and help them realize Ratched’s strictness and useless methods. He does this by explaining the pecking party, “And you want to know somethin’ else, buddy? You want to know who pecks that first peck? ..Harding waits for him to go on.. It’s that old nurse. that’s who.” (Kensey,58)
The biggest theme of the story is oppression. Throughout the course of the story, patients are suppressed and fight to find who they really are. One particular symbol that represents the struggle is the control panel. McMurphy makes a valiant effort to lift the control panel, but it ends with “Then his breath
As he tries to conform to the ways of the hospital, he actually becomes more like the patients that he detests. In one last attempt to escape from the hospital, McMurphy uses his cunning wit and skills as a con man to persuade the orderly into opening a window to allow two women into the ward. As the nigh progresses and he has the perfect opportunity to flee he realizes the hospital is the only safe place to stay. Due to Randal McMurphy rebellious ways and non-conformist ideas, the hospital performs a lobotomy, which during the time of this movie, w...
The Hero’s Journey Two narratives that clearly represent and show the typical storyline of The Hero’s Journey are The Hobbit and Shrek, both stories, conduct of the archetypal character “The Hero” starting as a mediocre person and getting a challenge set for them, they set off to overcome the challenge and, on this journey, they learn valuable skills and return with a new way of looking at life. These three sections are significant to ‘The Hero’s Journey’ because they help ‘The Hero’ develop into a stronger and smarter character. These three sections include The Refusal, The Approach, and The Mentor Helper. The Refusal is near at the beginning of the story and generally happens after ‘The Hero’ has been confronted with a challenge that they