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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

435 Words2 Pages

The incorporation of religious themes into Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest depicts McMurphy as a Christ figure, serving to protect the patients from Nurse Ratched. Just as Jesus stands up for all people against the devil, McMurphy altruistically defends the patients of the ward against Nurse Ratched. Kesey includes the theme of selflessness to illustrate that McMurphy acts as a “martyr or saint”, defending the patients regardless of consequences that he may endure (222). McMurphy “risk[s] doubling his stay in the nuthouse” to defend the patients against Nurse Ratched. McMurphy does not care about how much time he must spend in the ward, but instead about helping the patients. If McMurphy complies with the Nurse’s demands he can be released …show more content…

The patients believe that McMurphy can do anything, which translates into their own confidence. As set by McMurphy’s example, the patients start to defend themselves against Nurse Ratched. To further his devotion to the patients, McMurphy endures immense physical pain. Nurce Ratched forces McMurphy into electroshock “treatments” (243). Instead of succumbing to the Nurse’s temptations to give up and “admit that he [is] wrong”, McMurphy remains strong and undergoes the painful therapy (236). Here, Kesey’s theme of sacrifice shows that McMurphy will do anything for the patients. McMurphy can have an easy way out and tell the Nurse that he does not want to fight anymore. He can forgo the electroshock and go back to the ward safely. But McMurphy goes through with the electroshock and does not let the Nurse win. He “shrugs [the treatment] off like water” (243). Even though McMurhy is not physical with the patients, “legend[s]” of his strength inspire the patients to stand up for themselves and not give up in their cause to overthrow Nurse Ratched (244). Jesus also endured physical pain for his

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258 Words | 2 Pages

It’s common for some works of literature to improve upon their writing by sustained allusions to myths, the bible, or other literature references. In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Ken Kesey makes use of frequent allusions from the bible. Because of this, McMurphy, the main character, is painted as a Christ-like figure.

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523 Words | 3 Pages

This sense of justice causes McMurphy to put his own self-preservation at the bottom of his list of importance, as Kesey writes, “—light arcs across, stiffens him, bridges him up off the table till nothing is down but his wrists and ankles and out around that crimped black rubber hose a sound like hooeee! And he’s frosted over completely with sparks” (Pg. 245). McMurphy stood up for the wellbeing of George and his fellow patients, and ultimately paid the price of numerous electro-shock therapy sessions. McMurphy put his well-being behind that of those in the facility because he knew that without him, the patients would not have stood up for themselves. McMurphy’s influence through his search for justice prompted an overall positive change for the

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1066 Words | 5 Pages

To begin, similar to how Aquinas asserts that spiritual truths in the Scriptures are related through the use of figurative language, Kesey’s work utilizes figurative language to enrich and more effectively express its thematic content. For instance, consider when McMurphy, who provides much wisdom to both his fellow patients and the reader, dramatically imparts to the men the virtues of selflessness and sacrifice. Late in the novel, McMurphy is provided with a difficult ultimatum—he may apologize to Nurse Ratched, but lose the esteem of the men and, consequently, all of the progress he has made in building up their self-esteem, or he may suffer electroconvulsive therapy until he is willing to come to heel. McMurphy, of course, chooses martyrdom for the sake of the men. The importance of selflessness and sacrifice is effectively communicated to the reader by McMurphy’s decision, but this lesson gains more import as a result of McMurphy being developed as a symbol for Christ.

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438 Words | 2 Pages

Because of the Combine’s damaging process— in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest— the patients of the mental ward are not fully whole in sanity or spirit. But, with McMurphy to ignite the risky spark to be free of the machine’s control, the men begin to reclaim their lives and fight against Nurse Ratched and her machine. Notably, McMurphy’s reoccurring window shattering demonstrates his attempt to free himself— and the others— from Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched typically watches the men from behind a sheer pane of glass.

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529 Words | 3 Pages

In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, is a perfect example of a tragic hero. Throughout the novel McMurphy sets himself up to be the tragic hero by resenting Nurse Ratched’s power and defending the other patients. He can be classified as a contemporary tragic hero, but he also includes elements of Aristotle’s tragic hero. McMurphy’s rebellious nature and ultimate demise are what truly makes him as a tragic hero.

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602 Words | 3 Pages

In the start of novel he is vary mild when it comes to his violence but it increases over the time he is in the ward. Everything he does seems to be gamble, he gambles his way in he gambles his luck in the ward by making comments to Nurse Ratchet, the three black boys and the other nurses. After the first meeting he tells the other patients that they were a pecking a party and doing exactly what the nurse wanted, the patients try to convince McMurphy that she can convince anyone to do what she wants, McMurphy takes this as a challenge and then starts to oppose her.

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1311 Words | 6 Pages

It is often said that in order to gain something of value, something of equal or more value must be sacrificed. Throughout Ken Kesey’s book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, many things are gained, such as relationships, power, self-confidence, and independence while many things are lost to compensate for that gain, such as power, identity, control and people. The last chapter of the book brings the issue/conflict of gain and loss to a resolution. In chapter 29, the patients complete their transformation into independent and self-confident men with the help of McMurphy and the loss of the Big Nurse’s power, while McMurphy completes his transformation into an immortal ideal, rather than an individual. The independence and self-confidence gained

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913 Words | 4 Pages

(Kesey, 140). Fortunately, for McMurphy a surprise voter brings the number of votes to a total of twenty one which wins the majority to change ward policy. The significance the vote holds is that it allows McMurphy and the others patients to obtain dominance over Nurse Ratched. By McMurphy winning the vote, it shows the political power that he has won over Nurse Ratched and this makes McMurphy feel that he is able to make decisions within the ward just as Nurse Ratched does. McMurphy also views this win as a major victory in his efforts to rehabilitate the patients and give them the confidence they need to reach the goal of controlling the

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688 Words | 3 Pages

The patients dont question his violence with Nurse Ratched because no one has ever standed up to her. Nurse ratched is the reason they dont have confidence in themselves. As McMurphy stays longer, the other patients become more aware as to what is happening. Before McMurphy came in the ward the men believed everything that was done to them was for their own good Nurse Ratched was able to manipulate the men and had full power to boss them around. After McMurphy came he was able to show them that Nurse Ratched uses their weakness against them and was just a manipulator.

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1669 Words | 7 Pages

In the novel, McMurphy attacks the nurse brutally and attempts to kill her, “doctors and supervisors and nurses prying those heavy red fingers out of the white flesh of her throat as if they were her neck bones, jerking him backward” (Kesey 319). Also, the narrator shows mercy towards McMurphy by smothering him in his sleep, “and scissor the kicking legs with mine while I mashed the pillow into the face. I lay there on top of the body for what seemed days. Until the thrashing stopped” (323).

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1459 Words | 6 Pages

By weakening McMurphy’s power in the ward, she creates an environment where can continue to thrive in her power through the systems she has set in place. However, Nurse Ratched’s plan does not succeed and McMurphy is allowed to proceed with his fishing trip. He continues to undermine the nurse’s authority to the point where he physically assults her after she blames Billy’s death on him. His actions give Nurse Ratched an opportunity to give him the ultimate punishment, a

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1380 Words | 6 Pages

In the struggle between freedom and power, McMurphy’s sacrifice allows freedom to prevail. His leadership in a rising rebellion parallels many of the countercultures that arose during the 1960s. His rebellion fights against Nurse Ratched in the way that the countercultures fought against the government and society in the past to the present. The men in the asylum are unknowingly unhappy before the arrival of McMurphy. Through his antics, the men are saved from society in the form of Nurse Ratched’s regime.

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918 Words | 4 Pages

McMurphy, on the other hand, lobotomized after attacking Nurse Ratched, is a ghost, a shell of his former self. The remaining patients refuse to acknowledge the waxen figure wheeled back into the ward as their former indomitable leader, as Scanlon states “that ain’t him”(321) and Martini remarks “it looks nothing like him”(321). Neither McMurphy nor Nurse Ratched are the towering, larger than life figures that once inspired and terrified the patients of the ward. Nurse Ratched’s psychological state has regressed to that of Bromden’s, now only capable of written communication, whereas McMurphy’s physical

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1050 Words | 5 Pages

In addition, Ken Kesey uses the electroshock therapy table to serve as an example of the consequences that would occur if an individual were to rebel against the power of Nurse Ratched. It is associated with crucifixions similar to that of Jesus Christ in the Roman time period with “clasps on his wrists, ankles, clamping him into the shadow [and a] crown of silver thorns over the graphite at his temples” (283). Kesey references the crucifixion of Christ to characterize McMurphy as a Christ figure. He is being sacrificed in exchange for the patient’s freedom. In the hospital, Ellis, an acute, is an example of the consequences of not abiding by the hospital’s regulations that serve as a reminder for the rest of the ward members to conform to the rules inflicted by Ratched.

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1010 Words | 5 Pages

At the end, the protagonist is surgically operated to make him mentally deranged. The nurse and the department were certain that McMurphy was faking insanity, but they agreed that he was dangerous. The nurse, in spite of discharging him, kept him on the premises to undo the wave of excitement he brought to the asylum

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