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

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"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a trip to the interior of a human mind that cannot fit into society. The book introduces us to several characters, and the author deepens each one of them, showing us how they came to the state they are in and how the patients can quickly lose their sanity. Of course, it also criticizes the way the psychiatric hospitals cared for its patients during that time, where the “doctors” could not understand that their treatments were harmful to the patients. Both the psychological side as the clinical side of a psychiatric hospital is very well portrayed in the book. The author shows us the daily routine of the patients, transporting the reader into a real sanatorium, showing the patient’s fears, anxieties, and …show more content…

Finding his sentence somewhat hard, being condemned to work in the Pendleton Farm for Correction, McMurphy plays smart and pretends to be mad, seeking escape from prison and leading a good and easy life in a psychiatric hospital while waiting for freedom. However, his attitudes don’t show any problems with his mental health, which instigates several discussions between him, Nurse Ratched, and the doctors at the clinic. McMurphy is a captivating character. He is a player, a born rebel, a lover of life's pleasures, and as he says, he is accustomed to “being top man” (19). McMurphy’s stormy ways of being completely changes the hospital’s climate, entering a fierce and never-ending fight with the head nurse Ratched. From the moment he arrives he goes against any employee system, which makes him a hero and a leader for the other patients, who could not challenge the rules of the institution. “I thought I might take advantage of this and maybe make both our lives a little more richer” (71), McMurphy tells the patients. What makes him such a special character is that he never treats the people as patients, as someone different from all that surrounded them, he treats them like “normal” people, shaking their hand, encouraging them to question the life they lead, and enjoy simple pleasures. “He has the superhero’s efficacious physical power but, like …show more content…

They are subjected to punishments such as electric shocks, and in more extreme cases, to lobotomy. These punishments seem to function not only to punish those who do not respect the rules, but also to horrify the patients, keeping them on absolute control. Most of the patients are confused about reality. And as Pratt mentions, “What one person accepts as reality may well be regarded as delusional and schizophrenic by another.” (Pratt’s Introduction xii). We also observe that although many patients are there voluntarily, they don’t really feel free. They are manipulated to think that they will never be ready to leave the hospital and face reality, making them lose their hope of freedom. One of the biggest examples of this is in Part 4, where Billy is repressed by the nurse Ratched in a way that he ends up committing suicide. “Oh, Billy Billy Billy – I’m so ashamed for you” (300), Ratched says. Whether the person that enters the hospital is completely crazy or completely sane, they will certainly get worse in

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