Who Is The Protagonist In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

An Analysis of the True Winner in Dale Wasserman’s work: One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Famous abolitionist Harriet Tubman led more than three hundred enslaved men and women to freedom through the Underground Railroad, while pretending to be a slave herself. However, Tubman endured many struggles along her way to help free Black Americans from their miseries during the late 1840’s. For instance, the bounty of her capture was incremental as she kept leading slaves into Northern parts of Canada, the highest being 40,000, which placed her life in even more danger. Similarly in Dale Wasserman play, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, protagonist R.P McMurphy takes a stand and clashes against the cruel dictator of the

mental hospital named Nurse Ratched. Throughout the play, protagonist R.P McMurphy demonstrates heroism by enduring, and sacrificing all within himself in order to help patients achieve freedom and justice.
Much like how Nurse Ratched tries her best to exploit McMurphy, she tries to manipulate all the patients under her control, while McMurphy comes to expose her controlling game she plays with them.

McMurphy does so by exposing the hidden truth kept away by Nurse Ratched and reminding patients to stand up and rebel against the cruelty she imposes on them. First of all, McMurphy comes to the rescue when Nurse Ratched, whose main purpose is to help patients feel safe and reach their full potential; regardless she openly exploits patients to the point of humiliation making them feel unwelcome, and terrified from sharing their own opinions. For instance, when mental patients Dale Harding expresses his feelings of insecurity with his spouse, McMurphy reminds him that if “The flock geta sight of a speck of blood on some chicken they all go to peckin it…Till there is nothing left but blood and bones and feathers.”(24) Despite the fact that McMurphy is still an outsider at this point in the plot and his no relations or friendship with Harding, yet he still decides to advise Harding to stand up for himself or else it might come back to hurt him in the coming future. Secondly, when Nurse Ratched victimizes her patients out of their privileges, McMurphy is quick to help the patients realize they need to stand up to the Nurse in order to not get deceived. For example, when Billy solemnly agrees to Nurse Ratched’s orders, however McMurphy tells Billy to “Don’t move” and just “sit down”

(49). This displays McMurphy sets himself as a role model for the cheated patients, who have probably never seen anyone question Nurse Ratched’s authority. McMurphy also teaches the patients that no one will be able to hand them their rights and privileges and that they need to retaliate in order to gain what they deserve.
Furthermore, with the cruelty the patients face McMurphy makes many sacrifices for those wrongly served achieve justice for the injustice they have suffered with, while placing his own life at a risk of severe punishment.

First, when the patients are bullied by the intimidating hospital employees into following whatever they command. For instance, when Nurse Ratched orders her employees to condemn Chief Bromden for his crimes and almost immediately “McMurphy’s foot comes out- operating independently of his will-and Warren trips over it.” (60) Despite being aware of the fact that only Nurse Ratched can give permission for his future departure from the hospital, McMurphy still devotes himself into helping Chief Bromden. McMurphy also chooses to help Chief Bromden, despite knowing Nurse Ratched could place him under serious consequences like shock-therapy. Finally, McMurphy destroys his own chances at gaining freedom in the near future by helping others achieve justice. For example, when in fury McMurphy “reaches out and rips her uniform open down the front…the scream cuts off his hands lock around her throat” until he is pulled off her (78). Although McMurphy had been advised by many including Dr. Spivey that recurring violence will lead to him reconsidering to conduct lobotomy, yet through his gentle and caring heart McMurphy sacrifices everything to achieve justice for his friend

Billy.