Through a compelling plot, Ken Kesey challenges the reader to ask himself where the boundaries of sanity really are. While it is controversial to say whether Randall Mcmurphy is clinically insane or not, I believe that he was sane despite having some symptoms of being insane. This paper will bring out reasons to support my stand on Mcmurphy’s sanity and also negate the rationale behind him being mentally ill. The entry of the protagonist to the hospital grabs everyone’s attention. At once the narrator Chief Bromden comes to know that the new admission here is not an ordinary one. [Pg 11] Mcmurphy is thrilled and relieved simultaneously to know that he has successfully deceived the authorities. He made them believe that he needs mental help …show more content…
and should therefore be transferred from the work-farm to a relaxed environment. While all the patients are unable to understand the reason behind Mcmurphy’s laughter, Mcmurphy greets all of them personally with a smile on his face. Shortly afterwards, Mcmurphy starts to understand how things work inside the hospital and who is in total control of the institution. Mcmurphy is stunned by the fact that nobody in the hospital realizes that the nurse’s model of building a therapeutic community is actually a mere pecking game, where the big nurse was always to peck first. [Pg 58] Mcmurphy is a shrewd man and is sane enough to fathom out Nurse Ratched’s dirty little ways of keeping all the men against each other. He is not content with Nurse Ratched acting as a wolf and others, as rabbits. Therefore, he decides to stand up against it. It doesn’t take long for Mcmurphy to pick-up a silent fight with the big nurse, where both of them are seen to keep scores neck to neck. Mcmurphy proves to be a fighter in the novel. He does not accept defeat even when Nurse Ratched blatantly turns down his request to lower down the volume so that the boys could play cards in peace. He goes around Nurse Ratched’s back and discusses the issue with the doctor which results in a win for Mcmurphy. [Pg 110] The doctor comes up with a solution of allocating the orderlies between the Chronics and the Acutes in such a way that Nurse Ratched is left with no counter. I think it is safe to say that only a man with such comprehensive thinking would be able to challenge the nurse’s authority and then successfully have his way around. The new admission soon starts to gain the respect of the men whose lives are controlled by the big nurse. He tries to instill confidence in them and give them the ability to seize back the power that Nurse Ratched had caged. Even though Mcmurphy’s attempt to lift the control panel in the tub room did not turn out to be in his favor, he still succeeds in making a point. He tried, which is more than what anyone else ever did. [Pg 125] The control panel is symbolic of a subdued life of the patients by the mental institution. After a series of events, Mcmurphy becomes aware of the fact that all this while, Nurse Ratched had the better of him since she exercised control over his release from the hospital. He feels it was not fair of the authorities and all the other men to keep him in dark considering he had so much at stake. While Mcmurphy accuses other patients of fooling him, he decides to step back. His withdrawal from standing up for others is quite evident from his silence when Cheswick complains to Nurse Ratched about his cigarettes being rationed and expects Mcmurphy to back him up. [Pg 172] This leads the reader to conclude that Mcmurphy had been feigning mental illness all this while since he had decided to quit his act after realizing how detrimental it was for his release. Despite the similarities in Mcmurphy’s behavior and the symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder stated by DSM V, I believe it would be incorrect to attribute Mcmurphy with mental illness due to numerous reasons.
While some may argue that Mcmurphy displayed a considerate level of aggression and had several outbursts, I’d say all those instances were caused by his surroundings rather than his internal psyche. I believe that given an environment like this, most of the people would react the similar to Mcmurphy. For instance, Mcmurphy was put through a lobotomy because of his outburst and violence subjected at Nurse Ratched. However, the reason behind his behavior was the false accusation of being responsible for Billy Bibbit’s suicide. The accusation was made by Nurse Ratched who herself was responsible for the loss. [Pg 318] Deceitfulness is another symptom of Antisocial Personality Disorder, which maybe attributed to Mcmurphy’s character. While some would say Mcmurphy is all about his own pleasure and profit, I believe that his character is larger-than-life. Contrary to Nurse Ratched, he makes everybody in the ward feel lively and encourages them to hold the grip of their lives. He organizes a fishing trip which turns out to be utmost pleasurable for the
patients. [Pg 209] He speaks up against the unjust petty little rules and helps everybody realize that their lives are worth more than what Nurse Ratched makes them believe. Mcmurphy plays a heroic role in the lives of the patients. Whether clinically insane or not, he does bring about a positive change in the environment of the hospital. A change that helps chief Bromden to lift the control panel and break through the windows of the hospital. A scene that symbolizes the escape of one to the world of freedom, contrary to how the movie had started. It had all been a result of Mcmurphy’s rebellion to conform to the unjust social norms. Unfortunately, Mcmurphy takes the rebellion too far and is permanently broken with lobotomy by Nurse Ratched.
Randle McMurphy is in a constant battle within himself, he is portrayed as a sociopath. He does not base his actions off of whether they will affect those around him, instead does as he pleases. His actions are based off of what is best for himself. McMurphy was first introduced as a savior to the ward, He soon uses the patients for his own benefit, the patients look up to him as one of their new proclaimed leader. McMurphy inspires hope into them and make them want to stand up for themselves. This give
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’s initial view of the mental hospital, is that he sees it as a new opportunity to take control and become the leader of the place. This desire of his is seen almost immediately when he enters the
In the book as McMurphy progresses, he goes through many stages where he is rebellious, then docile, then rebellious again. This is due to the fact that he learns exactly what it means to be committed and what it takes to be released. Then he begins to see that all his ward mates (I don't know what you want to call them) are counting on him. becomes rebellious again. These reactions to his environments encourage McMurphy is not crazy but intelligent and quick. This is exactly the case. way a character such as McMurphy should act. In the movie, McMurphy is not only wild but rude. He tried to never be outright rude in the book. aggravating for the nurse) yet in the movie he was. He never stopped being. wild in the movie, leading you to believe that maybe in fact he is crazy.
R.P. McMurphy is a lively, rebellious, and rational patient that has recently been escorted into the insane asylum. Once in the bin, Randle becomes the self-proclaimed champion of the rights of the other ward patients, his adversary being Nurse Ratched (New York Times). He scrutinizes the asylum and the patients deciding that he needs to lighten the atmosphere. According to Filmsite, Movie Review McMurphy encourages the patients to participate in activities that will heighten their spirits and change their monotonous routines. McMurphy decides to challenge Nurse Ratched when he notices that the patients of the ward are overly organized and controlled through a rigid set of authoritarian rules and regulations that McMurphy questions: “God Almighty, she’s got you guys comin’ or goin’. What do you think she is, some kind of champ or somethin’?”--- “I bet in one week, I can put a bug so far up her ass, she don’t know whether to s—t or wind her wrist watch” (OFOTCN). Entertainment Weekly implies that McMurphy is unwilling to surrender to Nurse Ratched’s belittling power and rebels against corr...
Rules rule. Without things like stoplights and driving etiquette, we’d be one disaster-prone society. When we are in kindergarten, we learn how to color inside the lines and paint by the numbers, because we might be told that pretty pictures are those that are neat and tidy. We have terms like “good” and “sane” and “insane” because these words help us keep our lives organized and mess-free. No need to debate it or get into messy arguments. But One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest challenges all of that. It makes us look at who makes the rules. Now we want to know: who defines what behavior is "sane" or "insane"? McMurphy helps us realize just how arbitrary "sanity" can be, especially when the poster child of sanity happens to be the one and only Nurse Ratched. So just what does it mean to be "sane" or
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) The character McMurphy as played by Jack Nicholson, McMurphy’s is a criminal who is troubled and keeps being defiant. Instead of pleading guilty, McMurphy pleads insanity and then lands inside a mental hospital. Murphy reasons that being imprisoned within the hospital will be just as bad as being locked up in prison until he starts enjoying being within by messing around with other staff and patients. In the staff, McMurphy continuously irritates Nurse Ratched. You can see how it builds up to a control problem between the inmates and staff. Nurse Ratched is seen as the “institution” and it is McMurphy’s whole goal to rebel against that institution that she makes herself out to be.The other inmates view McMurphy like he is god. He gives the inmates reason to
In Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Kesey makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: the effects of sexual repression, woman as castrators, and the pressures we face from society to conform. Through these points, Kesey encourages the reader to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the reader realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as "crazy."
McMurphy is an individual who is challenging and rebelling against the system's rules and practices. He eventually teaches this practice of rebellion to the other patients who begin to realize that their lives are being controlled unfairly by the mental institution. When McMurphy first arrives at the institution, all of the other patients are afraid to express their thoughts to the Big Nurse. They are afraid to exercise their thoughts freely, and they believe that the Big Nurse will punish them if they question her authority. One patient, Harding, says, "All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees...We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place" (Kesey 62).
Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is a novel containing the theme of emotions being played with in order to confine and change people. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about a mental institution where a Nurse named Miss Ratched has total control over its patients. She uses her knowledge of the patients to strike fear in their minds. Chief Bromden a chronic who suffers from schizophrenia and pretends to be deaf and mute narrates the novel. From his perspective we see the rise and fall of a newly admitted patient, RP McMurphy. McMurphy used his knowledge and courage to bring changes in the ward. During his time period in the ward he sought to end the reign of the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched, also to bring the patients back on their feet. McMurphy issue with the ward and the patients on the ward can be better understood when you look at this novel through a psychoanalytic lens. By applying Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence to McMurphy’s views, it is can be seen that his ideas can bring change in the patients and they can use their
Gibson and Mika Haritos-Fatouros, they inform readers about psychologist Stanley Milgram’s studies. “Milgram proposed that the reasons people obey or disobey authority fall into three categories. The first is personal history family or school backgrounds that encourage obedience or defiance. The second, which he called “binding,” is made up of ongoing experiences that make people feel comfortable when they obey authority. Strain, the third category, consists of bad feelings from unpleasant experiences connected with obedience,” ( Milgram 247). Although the nurse isn’t harmful the patients still feel obligated to respect and obey her. The complication begins when McMurphy joins the group. First of all, Randle McMurphy is not disturbed, he’s not crazy. He’s just a rebellious man who doesn’t follow any orders. He had the group steal a bus and steal a boat to go fishing and so he could spend time with his old friend Candy. He doesn’t respect Nurse Ratched and always seems to have a problem with her. He causes everyone to speak up, which isn’t a bad thing but causes disorder and the patients act up. For example, the scene where Cheswick starts yelling at the nurse and disobeys her orders doesn’t sit down and pouts about not getting his cigarettes back. From the start of the movie to the middle it seems that they were gaining a new authority figure, McMurphy himself. “The Greek example illustrates how the ability to torture can be taught. Training that increases binding and reduces strain can cause decent people to commit acts, often over long periods of time, that otherwise would be unthinkable for them” (Gibson, Haritos-Fatouros 249). The rebellious Mac has an influence on the rest of the ward to think it is okay to be against the rules. The quote “You bargained your freedom for the comfort of discipline,” (Jones Gibson, Haritos-Fatouros 247) has a similar meaning to McMurphy's actions. Mac gets a bit out of
McMurphy uses his power of speech to rally his fellow patients against Nurse Ratched who is constantly revoking their privileges. He also uses it furtively to acquire all that he desires, by conning the other patients. Throughout the novel he is very loud and is known for his unwavering ability to speak his mind and confront those that oppose him.
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.
Firstly, McMurphy relieves the contingency of being odd and outcasted in society for the patients. Being different in society and having faults are all frowned upon