Heroes are typically perceived as high-flying people with unique super powers, but are there everyday heroes who do not make the front page? In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Randle McMurphy proves to be the hero in the novel through his righteous acts, namely convincing the patients of their own dignity, rescuing Chief from the Combine, and sacrificing himself for the well-being of others. For example, as McMurphy inquires about the patients’ views on Nurse Ratched’s rule, Harding and McMurphy debate:
“The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about. And he endures, he goes
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Now, would that be wise? Would it?”… “You’re no damned rabbit!... As near as I can tell you’re not any crazier than the average asshole on the street-.” (64-65)
The rabbits and wolves symbolize the various factions on the ward, where the patients are divided by their willingness to conform to the ward’s conventions. The rabbits are expected to succumb to Nurse Ratched’s or the wolf’s harsh rule; however, McMurphy proves to be a wolf when he becomes a leader of the patients. The usage of “endure” demonstrates how the rabbits were merely surviving rather than thriving. Similarly, the use of the term “ritual” illustrates how the patients have been subject to Nurse Ratched’s cruel rule for their entire existence at the Combine, and a change seemed unlikely until McMurphy’s arrival. The word “combat” connotes the struggle for power as well as the extent to which the two wolves, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, compete to gain control over the patients. Once McMurphy listens to Harding’s views, he questions their preconceived notions about the Nurse and
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McMurphy’s ability to answer the call to lead the oppressed patients and organize an uprising solidifies his place as the hero in the novel. In addition, when Chief wakes up from his treatment and remembers playing games with his grandma, he recalls, “…she’s a good fisherman, catches hens, puts ’em inna pens…wire, blier, lock, three geese inna flock…one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest…O-U-T spells out…goose swoops down and plucks you out” (285). This childhood folk rhyme that is repeated often is symbolic for the management of the patients at the Combine under Nurse Ratched’s matriarchy. The “fisherman” is the Nurse, and she strives to be a fisher of men. Nurse Ratched, as a catcher of hens, is a metaphor pertaining to her insatiable thirst for power and control over the patients. The opposite directions of east and west bring forth the contrasting perspectives between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy on what life should be like at the ward. “O-U-T” is capitalized to stress the desperation of the patients in their attempt to escape the ward. The goose that swoops down symbolizes McMurphy’s role as the hero in the ward. He saves or “plucks out”
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.
In Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest there are many recurring motifs and images. One very prominent motif is laughter. Following the motif of laughter throughout the novel, it is mostly associated with McMurphy and power/control. McMurphy teaches the patients how to laugh again and with the laughter the combine loses control and the patients gain their power back.
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...
Nurse Ratched is a former army nurse who works in the ward, she has manipulates the men in many ways. One way is having the patients “spy on each other” making them write things down, they think she would want to hear, or know. Bromden described Nurse Ratched as having the ability to “set the wall clock to whatever speed she wants”, a metaphor for her control, showing how the patients lose track of time. Nurse Ratched acts authority on the ward shows controls how superior over the person who would normally be her Superior, such as, Dr. Spivey.
The word "hero" is so often used to describe people who overcome great difficulties and rise to the challenge that is set before them without even considering the overwhelming odds they are up against. In our culture, heroes are glorified in literature and in the media in various shapes and forms. However, I believe that many of the greatest heroes in our society never receive the credit that they deserve, much less fame or publicity. I believe that a hero is simply someone who stands up for what he/she believes in. A person does not have to rush into a burning building and save someone's life to be a hero. Someone who is a true friend can be a hero. A hero is someone who makes a difference in the lives of others simply by his/her presence. In Tim O'Brien's novel, The Things They Carried, the true heroes stand out in my mind as those who were true friends and fought for what they believed in. These men and women faced the atrocities of war on a daily basis, as explained by critic David R. Jarraway's essay, "'Excremental Assault' in Tim O'Brien: Trauma and Recovery in Vietnam War Literature" and by Vietnam Veteran Jim Carter. Yet these characters became heroes not by going to drastic measures to do something that would draw attention to themselves, but by being true to their own beliefs and by making a difference to the people around them.
Ken Kesey presents his masterpiece, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, with popular culture symbolism of the 1960s. This strategy helps paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind. Music and cartoons of the times are often referred to in the novel. These help to exaggerate the characters and the state of the mental institution.
rabbit’s gains him a lot of sympathy from the reader as it is the kind
The story comes from Kesey’s own experiences working on the Graveyard shift as an orderly at a Mental Institution, where he witnessed the Bureaucratic workings of the Institution and looks at the struggle for Power and Control between the two main characters Randal McMurphy who has been admitted for tests after being transferred from Pendleton work farm where he was sentenced to six months hard labour for Statutory Rape, but is faking his Mental illness to try to avoid having to carry out any more hard work and thinks that he can finish off the rest of his sentence in the comfort of the Mental Institution, and Nurse Ratched, the Head Nurse of the ward which is a Mini Society with strict rules, regulations and punishments. Throughout the novel Kesey deploys a range of literary techniques such as characterisation and Biblical imagery in order to explore the themes of Power and Control.
Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is a work of literature that explores the concept of falsely diagnosing an individual who is sane. Randle Patrick McMurphy clearly falls into this concepts exhibited throughout the novel. McMurphy, a rebellious and rowdy man, enters a mental hospital. His singing and laughing could be heard throughout the ward. This fiery redhead challenges Nurse Ratched policies on the ward, and makes numerous attempts to get the patients on the ward to rebel against her. He disobeys Ratched’s rules by gambling inside the ward, helping Billy Bibbit lose his virginity, and allowing prostitutes to roam the hallways freely at night. McMurphy’s attempts to break free from Ratched’s dictatorship slowly starts to wane. McMurphy, later, gets into a violent fight with one of Ratched’s
The novel, which takes place in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, centers around the conflict between manipulative Nurse Ratched and her patients. Randle McMurphy, a transfer from Pendleton Work Farm, becomes a champion for the men’s cause as he sets out to overthrow the dictator-like nurse. Initially, the reader may doubt the economic implications of the novel. Yet, if one looks closer at the numerous textual references to power, production, and profit, he or she will begin to interpret Cuckoo’s Nest in a
Through McMurphy’s attempt to lift the control panel in the tub room, Kesey is demonstrating one’s need to do the . During his attempt, McMurphy reliazes that the control panel would be impossible to lift; however, he tried despite the impending failure. Even though he might not have achieved his goal, he had the courgae to try. Currently, the entire ward is too afraid to try to fight for their rights. They live under the control of Nurse Ratched. Her “sure power that extends in all directions on hairlike wires” reassures her that she has absolute control over the entire ward (Kesey 29). The patients are too afraid of her control to fight for their rights. This mental hospital is depicted to run more like a prison. “The flock
One of my favorite examples of a hero is from the Marvel comic book series. In this series, there's a variety of heroes being displayed. What I like about the heroes in this comic book series is the majority of them are just ordinary individuals that choose or are destined to do extraordinary things. So it
There were no heroes on the psychiatric ward until McMurphy's arrival. McMurphy gave the patients courage to stand against a truncated concept of masculinity, such as Nurse Ratched. For example, Harding states, "No ones ever dared to come out and say it before, but there is not a man among us that does not think it. That doesn't feel just as you do about her, and the whole business feels it somewhere down deep in his sacred little soul." McMurphy did not only understand his friends/patients, but understood the enemy who portrayed evil, spite, and hatred. McMurphy is the only one who can stand against the Big Nurse's oppressive supreme power. Chief explains this by stating, "To beat her you don't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as sson as you loose once, she's won for good. And eventually we all got to lose. Nobody can help that." McMuprhy's struggle for hte patient's free will is a disruption to Nurse Ratched's social order. Though she holds down her guard she yet is incapable of controlling what McMurphy is incontrollable of , such as his friends well being, to the order of Nurse Ratched and the Combine.
Gibbon tries consistently to relate the lack of heroes to the current journalist. He claims that the journalist of today wants to be a celebrity and look for fame instead of leaving that to the politicians and lawyers. He seems not to get the real issue behind the quote by Walter Winchell when he said that those who do write the right things or moral stories have no huge fan base of readers. Journalism is like any other career and most journalists are out there to make a living. This means they only look for their strongest selling points. One would only edge out peers by doing that which is out of the ordinary, just like any other hero would do. If members of in the media fraternity ,or as a journalist, thinks that telling the public what you have for them is the way to go, then it takes something creative to give you an edge above them. Modern heroes include contemporary African politicians (Scott-Childress
Whether we know it, or not, heros surround us in our everyday lives. We see them in our community, in our workplace, and many other places. In our community, they're obvious. They're the ones who put their lives on the line everyday and still may not get the gratitude that they deserve. They're the policemen and Firfighters that you see everyday. They're the soldiers that you don't hear about often enough. However, in the work place, they're the ones that people often look past. They do important things without getting noticed. They pull out the supplies needed for the upcoming activity before anyone arrives. They stay behind to clean up the mess. They're encouraging when no one else is. There are heroes all around us, whether we know it or not.