Analysis Of Mcmurphy In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Antisocial Personality Disorder: Then and Now
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest focuses on protagonist Randle McMurphy, a man who purposely gets himself transferred from a prison farm to a psych ward for evaluation, assuming his sentence could be completed labor and stress-free. As McMurphy spends time in the ward, he befriends fellow patients, Billy Bibbit, an adolescent-like man with a stutter and Chief, a towering Native American who is believed to be deaf and mute. McMurphy manipulates and triggers other patients, ultimately to get a rise out of Nurse Ratched, who bullies many of the patients, rather than helping them. As he realizes her constant tyranny with the patients, who are now his friends, it triggers him to aggravate her more. Many

After his evaluation period, Nurse Ratched is the one to say McMurphy should stay on the ward, instead of returning to the prison farm. Due to her known mannerisms, this move seems to be more of a power-play rather than a decision based on wanting to help patients. One night when McMurphy mentions his day count to one of the orderlies, he finds that his release date is not a guarantee anymore and that Nurse Ratched and the doctors could keep him at the ward indefinitely. When he brings the issue to group therapy, the situation escalates to a physical altercation with the orderlies, ending in McMurphy, Chief and another patient get taken out of the ward. As Chief and McMurphy are waiting in a hallway together, it’s found out that Chief isn’t deaf or mute; he only pretends to be to avoid attention. McMurphy is then taken into a room where they use electroshock therapy to subdue him. Knowing his release is not guaranteed, McMurphy returns to the ward to plan his escape. He invites his girlfriend, Candy and her friend to the ward to have one last “hoorah”. With some manipulation, McMurphy gets the night orderly to let the girls in

McMurphy and the other patients persuade Billy to go have sex with Candy before they leave. As Billy and Candy are off in a room, everyone dozes off to be found by Nurse Ratched with the ward in disarray. She orders a headcount and for the window to be closed. When Billy is discovered with Candy, the patients cheer for him and he starts to speak to Ratched without his stutter. As she threatens to tell his mother, Billy’s demeanor falls into panic as he begins to stutter and have a panic attack. As he’s brought to wait in one of the doctor’s office, McMurphy is fiddling with the night orderlies keys to try and complete his escape. One of the nurses screams as she finds Billy has killed himself and McMurphy begins to strangle Nurse Ratched, infuriated that she triggered his friend to take his own life. The orderlies overpower him, saving Ratched’s life and take him away. While McMurphy is gone, there is discussion on the ward of his dramatic escape. As Chief begins to believe McMurphy left without him, he sees an orderly returning him to the ward late at night. Chief rushes to McMurphy’s bed to tell him he’s ready to