Transformation: Randle McMurphy & Patients

855 Words2 Pages

Transformation: Randle McMurphy & Patients

He waltzed into the ward and introduced himself to every patient as a gambling man with a zest for women and cards. Randle P. McMurphy, a swaggering, gambling, boisterous redheaded con man, arrived at the ward from the Pendleton Work Farm. He was sentenced to six months at the prison work farm, but pretended to be insane in order to obtain a transfer to the hospital because he thought it would be more comfortable than the work farm. Bromden senses that there was something different about this new patient. After his first experience with the excruciating routine of the Group Meeting, McMurphy tells the patients that Nurse Ratchet is a genuine “ball-cutter.” The other patients tell him that there is no defying Nurse Ratched because, in their eyes, she is an all-powerful force. True to his nature as a gambling man, McMurphy makes a bet with the other patients that he can make Ratched lose her temper.

At first, the confrontation between Ratched and McMurphy provides some humorous entertainment for the other patients. However, McMurphy’s confrontation soon becomes their confrontation as he draws them into the conflict by encouraging their rebellion. The success of his bet hinges on a failed vote to change the television schedule so they can watch the World Series. The Series was on television during the time allotted for cleaning chores. McMurphy and the other patients staged a protest by sitting in front of the blank television in...

Show More
Related

  • Laughter as Therapy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chief Bromden states “The air is pressed in by the walls to tight to let loose and laugh.” Before Mcmurphy arrives it is true. After his presence is recognized by the patients Mrs. Ratcheds grip over the institution starts loosing its hold. The first thing the patients do to start breaking her hold is start the gambling. They gamble for money even though it’s against ward policy. Little by little the patients show improvement with themselves it is portrayed by the ability not just to laugh but laugh at their own qualities.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Individualism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1791 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey tells a story of Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of a mental institution, and the way her patients respond to her harsh treatment. The story is told from the perspective of a large, Native-American patient named Bromden; he immediately introduces Randle McMurphy, a recently admitted patient, who is disturbed by the controlling and abusive way Ratched runs her ward. Through these feelings, McMurphy makes it his goal to undermine Ratched’s authority, while convincing the other patients to do the same. McMurphy becomes a symbol of rebellion through talking behind Ratched’s back, illegally playing cards, calling for votes, and leaving the ward for a fishing trip. His shenanigans cause his identity to be completely stolen through a lobotomy that puts him in a vegetative state. Bromden sees McMurphy in this condition and decides that the patients need to remember him as a symbol of individuality, not as a husk of a man destroyed by the

    Read More

  • Nurse Ratched Power

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel is narrated by the main character, Chief Bromden, who reveals the two faces of Nurse Ratched, in the opening pages of the novel. He continues sweeping the floor while the nurse assaults three black aides for gossiping in the hallway. Chief chooses to describe the nurse abstractly: “her painted smile twists, stretches to an open snarl, and she blows up bigger and bigger...by the time the patients get there...all they see is the head nurse, smiling and calm and cold as usual” (5). Nurse Ratched runs the psychiatric ward with precision and harsh discipline. When Randle McMurphy arrives to escape time in jail, he immediately sizes the Big Nurse up as manipulative, controlling, and power-hungry. The portrayal that he expresses to the patient's leaves a lasting impact on them: “The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and all go to peckin’ at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers” (57). McMurphy finds it appalling that the patients are too blindsided to see Nurse Ratched’s conniving scheme, which is to take charge of the patients’ lives. The only person who understands Nurse Ratched’s game is McMurphy, and this motivates him to rebel against the

    Read More

  • Women as Authority Figures in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nurse Ratched is portrayed as the authority figure in the hospital. The patients see no choice but to follow her regulations that she had laid down for them. Nurse Ratched's appearance is strong and cold. She has womanly features, but hides them “Her Face is smooth, calculated, and precision-made, like an expensive… A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing putting those big, womanly breasts on what would have otherwise been a prefect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.” (11) She kept control over the ward without weakness, until McMurphy came. When McMurphy is introduced into the novel he is laughing a lot, and talking with the patients in the ward, he does not seem intimidated by Miss Ratched. McMurphy constantly challenges the control of Nurse Ratched, while she tries to show she remains in control, He succeeds in some ways and lo...

    Read More

  • How Does Power Abuse Power In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1615 Words  | 4 Pages

    If the patients saw that Ms. Ratched could get angry, and that she was hiding her personality, they would realize that they are not rabbits after all, and that she is not a “good strong wolf”, as they previously believed. When patient R.P McMurphy, the hospital patient that tries to remove all of Ms. Ratched’s power, arrives on the hospital ward, he makes no effort to hide his personality, and the patients begin to recognize how Ms. Ratched hides her personality, in the novel, Chief Bromden says, “He stands looking at us, back in his boots, and he laughs and laughs. In the novel, Ms. Ratched just removed the tub room, which was used as a game room, from the patients, this angered McMurphy, so he decided to do something subtle to get revenge on Ms. Ratched. In the novel, it says, “The Big Nurse’s eyes swelled out as he got close. . .

    Read More

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bromden’s ever present silence and attempt at invisibility leads to the postulation of him being deaf and dumb, highly contrasting protagonist McMurphy’s loud, confident, in-ignorable presence that upon arrival instantly challenges the standards and rules instilled by head nurse, Miss Ratched. Inferring that Kesey kept the above child's folk tale in mind when creating these extreme character contrasts, McMurphy and his disobeying actions could be said to represent the group of people whose direction opposes that of the oppressive Miss Ratched, leaving the final direction of over the cuckoo's nest to Bromden, who eventually escapes the confines of the mental ward. Miss Ratched's hold on the ward is a strong one, as she "wields a sure...

    Read More

  • Harmony of the Spheres

    1876 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Follow me, modern musicians, and attribute it to your arts, unknown to antiquity: in these last centuries, Nature, always prodigal of herself, has at last brought forth, after an incubation of twice a thousand years, you, the first true offprints of the Universal Whole. By your harmonizing of various voices, and through your ears, she has whispered of herself, as she i...

    Read More

  • The Scottish and International Film Industry's Contribution to the Development of Scottish Identity in the Last Part of the Twentieth Century

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Scottish and International Film Industry's Contribution to the Development of Scottish Identity in the Last Part of the Twentieth Century

    Read More

  • Food And Farmed Animals In Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

    1182 Words  | 3 Pages

    Between watering the crops for farmed animals, providing drinking water for these animals, and cleaning away their waste that is found in factory farms, transportation trucks, and slaughterhouses, the farm-raised animal places an enormous strain on the water supply. Nearly half of all the water used in the United States goes to raising animals for food (Meat Production). According to PETA, one would save more water by not eating a pound of meat than they would by not showering for six months. As seen Fig4. it takes many more thousands of gallons of water to produce meat, while growing the same amount of fruits and vegetables requires significantly less water. An article in the New York Times asserted that “by changing one’s diet to replace 50% of animal products with edible plants like legumes, nuts, and tubers results in a 30% reduction in an individual’s food-related water footprint. Going vegetarian reduces that water footprint by almost 60%” (McWilliams). Armed with this knowledge, one can clearly see that vegetarians save tremendous qu...

    Read More

  • Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    In an age when culture continues to lower standards of intellect, Marva Dawn makes compelling observations and suggestions for the Church to rethink its’ strategy on impacting society. How do we evangelize without weakening the message of what we are communicating? The majority of her text focuses on the worship environment generally, but later she focuses on music, preaching, and liturgy specifically. According to Dawn, a gathering of believers should emphasize God as the subject and object of worship, challenge each individual to grow in godly character, and accentuate the community of believers (not only in the room, but throughout history as well). Through this grid, she encourages leaders and participants to evaluate each worship element. If these primary goals are accomplished, then worship will not be empty and simpleminded. Instead the worship atmosphere would be held to a higher standard and, she believes, both pleasing to God and attractive to those who do not know God.

    Read More

  • Meat Eating Diet Essay

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the biggest environmental impacts of a meat-eating diet is the depletion of natural resources, particularly the consumption of vast amounts of water for livestock production. Today, there are more than 17 billion livestock in the world; that’s about triple the number of people. Raising these animals requires huge amounts of water, most of it used to irrigate the grains and hay fed to the animals. According to the Water Education Foundation, it takes 2,464 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef in California. This is the same amount of water you would use if you took a seven-minute shower every day for six entire months. In contrast, only 25 gallons of water are needed to produce one pound of wheat. Present human water consumption drains aquifers around the world. Water tables

    Read More

  • McMurphy as Hero of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    506 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay About Eating Meat

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    Meat has become a part of our culture in our country, where it is expected as part of each meal of the day. But the production of the meat raises questions on whether eating meat is ethical in people’s eyes. Studies in recent years have shown that the growing impact of our meat eating culture, has negatively affected different aspects around us. The problem is not about whether people should or should not eat meat, but that we should focus on how the production of meat can have negative affects and how we can limit those problems.

    Read More

  • Vegetarianism Vs Vegetarianism

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to “Meat the Truth”, a 2007 documentary directed by Karen Soeters, the film exposes the consequences of meat and dairy. It influences people about increasing the consumption of a plant-based diet and decreasing the intake of meat. Marianne Thieme, the narrator of the documentary and a Dutch politician who is a Member of the Party for the Animals in the Dutch Parliament, states, “Eating meat is the number one most environmentally destructive behavior, not cars, planes and power plants”. A consumer can make a great impact by changing their diet and restricting the consumption of meat. The transition to a plant-based diet is strongly informed by the film. Consumers have fallen into the advertising and marketing of meat to trigger minds the satisfaction of meat. Statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization prove that from 1950 to 2000, the population of the world went from 2.6 to 6 billion and from this meat production increased five times as great. It is possible it can keep doubling this amount every fifty years if there isn’t a change that occurs. From the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, they state, “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that roughly 80 percent of ammonia emissions in the U.S. come from animal waste.” Raising animals to

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Vegetarianism

    1311 Words  | 3 Pages

    All through elementary school I can remember being taught how to save water: take shorter showers, don’t leave the faucet running, don’t use the dishwasher unless it’s completely full. However, no one ever told me about the more insidious way we waste water --our food choices. According to the Water Education Foundation, it takes 1,581 gallons of water just to produce 1 pound of beef. To compare, it only takes 138 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of wheat. There has been debate about the specific number of water it takes to produce anything because different studies have used different methods of calculations. However, the general consensus among all of these studies is that it takes a significantly higher amount of water to produce meat products than it does to produce non-meat products. The reason being is obvious -plants don’t consume things that need to be watered, animals do. In fact, 40% of the fresh water used in the US is to irrigate livestock feed, and only 13% is used for our every day to day use, like showering, or washing dishes

    Read More

More about Transformation: Randle McMurphy & Patients

Open Document