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Three incidents that made mcmurphy a hero in the one who flew over the cuckoo's nest
One flew over the cuckoo's nest mcmurphy essay
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The meaning of an insane asylum is? An insane asylum is calm nevertheless welcoming to the mentally ill. Conversely, the story of, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, proves that statement wrong because of the ordinary attitude of the head nurse, insane ways of maintaining control. McMurphy is one of the ones who stayed in the asylum and does not think the other patients are insane. He comes from a work farm where they gave him reduced amounts of meals per day accordingly thinks that the asylum is further improved in the sense of enhanced food and enhanced beds to sleep on. Showing that he would carry on as a great leader moreover conduct everything he could, so he can gain the others confidence, which plenty countless factors have …show more content…
The Chief Bromden has become really close friends with McMurphy and has helped the Chief escape by helping him get into shape almost the way his father was. Since nobody could stand up to the Big nurse, McMurphy was the only one who could stand up to her and thus becoming the hero of the story. Everyone enjoys playing with Mcmurphy which is gambling and talk about things or go out even when the nurse does not let them. For instance, when Kesey mentions that, they all go on that fish boat without even knowing how to fish and a drive down memory lane for …show more content…
Works Cited Baurecht, William C. “Separation, Initiation, and Return: Schizophrenic Episode in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'.” The Midwest Quarterly, edited by Roger Matuz and Cathy Falk, vol. 23, no. 3, 1982, pp. 279–293. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=j240903001&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE|H1100001395&asid=1d301eee68cd3f306c0b2d83a57440ee. Accessed Oct. 2017.1998. Print. Kesey, Ken,One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Macmillan Company of Australia. 1976 Porter, M. Gilbert. “Characterization.” One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest': Rising to Heroism, edited by Jeffrey W. Hunter, Twayne Publishers, Boston, 1989, pp. 47–76. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=j240903001&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE|H1100115024&asid=80c4b6e9ad6ab90669e5a294a4012236. Accessed Oct.
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
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...
McMurphy relaxes slightly; however, he eventually continues to harass the nurse, despite his knowledge that she dictates the length of his confinement (Waldmeir 425). He crosses the line and throws a party on the ward in the middle of the night, bringing in two prostitutes and intoxicating the patients with a mixture of cherry flavored alcohol and codeine cough syrup. He does so knowing that he will face consequences for this event. However, he feels he must continue this self-destruction in order for the other patients to find themselves and their sense of freedom ( 427).
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.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The Viking Press. New York. 1973. Page 188.
McMurphy transfers his confidence over to the other patients during his time at the mental institute. After McMurphy had been gone for weeks, he finally came back. When Chief goes to tell McMurphy that he is ready to escape he sees that McMurphy is not the same person he was before. Chief tries to think like McMurphy to see what McMurphy would have done in this situation. “I watched and tried to figure out what he would have done. I was only sure of one thing: he wouldn’t have left something like that sit there in the day room with his name tacked on it for twenty or thirty years so the Big Nurse could use it as an example of what can happen if you buck the system” (322). McMurphy gets help from Chief to suicide after he was given lobotomy/brain surgery. Chief knew that McMurphy would not have liked it to live the rest of his life laying there. “The big, hard body had a tough grip on life. It fought a long time against having it taken away, flailing and thrashing around so much I finally had to lie full length on top of it and scissor the kicking legs with mine while I mashed the pillow into the face. I lay there on top of the body for what seemed days. Until the thrashing stopped” (322). Chief assists McMurphy in his suicide because McMurphy became a vegetable after the surgery. Chief knew that McMurphy would not have liked to live a life of a vegetable. McMurphy transfers/gives confidence to Chief. “I
An exceptionally tall, Native American, Chief Bromden, trapped in the Oregon psychiatric ward, suffers from the psychological condition of paranoid schizophrenia. This fictional character in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest struggles with extreme mental illness, but he also falls victim to the choking grasp of society, which worsens Bromden’s condition. Paranoid schizophrenia is a rare mental illness that leads to heavy delusions and hallucinations among other, less serious, symptoms. Through the love and compassion that Bromden’s inmate, Randle Patrick McMurphy, gives Chief Bromden, he is able to briefly overcome paranoid schizophrenia and escape the dehumanizing psychiatric ward that he is held prisoner in.
The definition of insane in today’s world is embedded with controversy by our society. As an active member of society, Ken Kesey writes his own opinion of insanity in his successful novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by subtly incorporating his his thoughts towards the topic through dialogue between characters, the narrators comments, and much more. Kesey begins his novel by introducing an outspoken man named Randle Patrick McMurphy who enters the mental hospital where the narrator, Chief Bromden , resides and creates a lasting effect on his fellow patients by allowing them to think beyond societies’ strict ideology and how to gradually immerse themselves with their individuality. Much like Kesey’s opinion, today’s world is comprised of
Kappel, Lawrence. Readings on One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print.
People want power for a lot of different reasons, everyone has their own motive, whether it be money,strength,etc. Many people want power and have various motives for wanting it in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. McMurphy’s motive as a willing Martyr is to grow the men’s confidence in order for them to see the flaws of the ward. He does this by fixing their flaws, acting selflessly in his last days and he’s shown as a Martyr throughout the novel with biblical allusions.
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
In my opinion the premise of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is make the best of every situation you are given. In the beginning of the movie, McMurphy didn’t want to be at the mental institution, however over a series of time he started to warm up to the other guys there. McMurphy created special bonds with each of the guys, but the one that stuck out the most was Chief. Chief not being able to talk, or hear made all the guys make fun of him and call him dumb
Patients diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder, according to Toshimasa Maruto (2012), are unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked. Chief Bromden definitely likes McMurphy, as Chief decided to disclose himself and started talking only in front of him. This movie scene shows how important McMurphy was to Bromden, and that he was accepted and
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.
Sharing the ward with people such as Billy Bibbit, Harding, and Chief, McMurphy soon finds himself atop the patient hierarchy due to the influence he has over the other men. McMurphy quickly finds out though that his influence does not extend over the ward’s head, Nurse Ratched, and therefore makes it his personal mission to push as many of her buttons as possible. However, Nurse Ratched maintains her authoritative demeanor and takes what were viewed as necessary measures, such as electro shock therapy, to deal with McMurphy’s behavior outbursts. McMurphy’s final outburst, which took shape as a party during which almost all the patients became intoxicated, leads Nurse Ratched to play her final and most deadly card of sending McMurphy to undergo a frontal lobotomy. Returning from the procedure bearing no resemblance of his former self, Chief puts McMurphy out of his misery by suffocating him with a