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

In his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey takes readers “to the heart” of both Randle Patrick McMurphy and Nurse Ratched to a great degree of success. He does this primarily through the perceptive description of these characters by Chief Bromden, and particularly his impressions of both characters and their actions as a patient of the ward, as well as the contrast and power struggle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched and their opposing ideas. This characterisation in turn helps to develop ideas about the nature of power, society, and masculinity.
Randle Patrick McMurphy is a rowdy, “good looking” (p27) and “friendly” (p27) man who makes certain to disobey the rules as soon as he enters the ward. He enters the ward where “no one dares

Bromden’s unique narrative perspective positions him, and by extension the readers, to effectively observe McMurphy and get “to the heart” of his character. Due to Bromden being one of the patients, his narration allows Kesey to more deeply explore McMurphy’s impact on the patients through the inclusion of Bromden’s thoughts and hallucinations, most notably his perceptions of his increasing size throughout the novel and his hallucinations of “fog” (p7). Through Bromden’s development, readers can see the liberating effect McMurphy has on Bromden, and the similar effect on the other patients. McMurphy could be considered a symbol of unbridled masculinity, “barrel chested” (p19) and “crazy enough to be like he talks” (p19). McMurphy’s resistance towards Nurse

McMurphy could be considered a symbol of rebellion, freedom, masculinity and hedonism, whereas the Nurse is a counterpoint to all of these ideas, symbolising the oppression and control of the Combine, self-repression and is a castrating force on the male patients in the ward. From McMurphy’s disruptive entrance to the ward to his bitter end, him and the Nurse, and the ideas they symbolise, are in constant conflict. McMurphy and the Nurse “sizing each other up” (p26) occurs constantly, with McMurphy opposing her at every action she takes, “making an enemy out of the woman (p262). This conflict escalates, with Nurse Ratched “losing patients one after the other” (p321) until McMurphy’s lobotomy, which destroys him and what he stands for, to the point that the patients consider “it” (p321) “nothing like him” (p321). While the ending of the novel is left somewhat ambiguous and can be interpreted in a number of ways, the general impression is that overall, McMurphy is victorious over Nurse Ratched, which is supported by Bromden’s impression that there is “no doubt in my mind that McMurphy’s won”