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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

596 Words3 Pages

R.P. McMurphy exemplifies a modern day tragic hero in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. McMurphy follows the traditional outline of a tragic hero in that he has a fatal flaw, a reversal of fortune due to this flaw, and experiences his own downfall due to his fatal flaw. R.P. McMurphy’s biggest flaw was his insubordination. McMurphy’s insubordination was exemplified when he first arrived on the ward, and demanded to see the “bull goose loony.” He surely became the bull goose loony, as he made a bet that he could bother Nurse Ratched without getting into any real trouble. McMurphy’s antics gave the patients not only a good laugh, but some hope. McMurphy began to really care about the patients, and began to question Ratched in larger …show more content…

This point intensified the conflict between Ratched and McMurphy. He began to hate her absolute …show more content…

McMurphy’s insubordination would lead him to throw a party, which would solidify his fate. McMurphy decided to throw a party on the ward, while the nurses and aids were out, with help from a janitor. McMurphy was able to sneak in Candy and Sandy, with some alcohol. McMurphy orchestrated this event so that Billy could be set up with Candy, which McMurphy thinks would be better for him than any of Nurse Ratched’s “pecking parties.” The Janitor was suppose to wake up McMurphy before the staff came in, so that McMurphy and the girls could escape. The Janitor does not wake-up, and the staff comes in the next morning to the huge mess. They see the girls McMurphy has brought in, and that Billy had slept with one of them. Ratched threatens to tell Billy’s mom. Billy begs for her not to do so, but Ratched refuses. Billy then kills himself. When the men find Billy in the doctor’s office, McMurphy gets so angry he strangles Nurse Ratched, attempting to kill her. This act of aggression leads to McMurphy’s

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At the end of the book, after McMurphy has been lobotomized, the acutes in the ward decide that they will no longer be subdued to the cruelty of Nurse Ratched. As Chief says, “Sefelt and Fredrickson signed out together Against Medical Advice, and two days later another three Acutes left, and six more transferred to another ward” (246). Although McMurphy is no longer able to fight the Big Nurse, he has left a lasting impact that motivates the other patients to escape the system. McMurphy inspires change in the ward by showing the acutes that Nurse Ratched is less powerful than they believe, and that they have

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1474 Words | 6 Pages

Nurse Ratched was very controlling and wanted complete power. This caused many of the patients to rebel and break loose from her control. McMurphy lead the ward in this uprising. From brushing his teeth too early to sneaking prostitutes into the ward, he shows Nurse Ratched that she cannot rule him. This story reminded me of Malala Yousafzai and her retaliation against the Taliban.

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1274 Words | 6 Pages

Shortly after this act, McMurphy then brings the patients of the ward on an unauthorized fishing trip. Not only is McMurphy rebelling against Nurse Ratched, he is rebelling against the ward and the associated doctors like Dr. Spivey. For the men of the ward, this acted as an unconventional therapy and appeared to be effective. This method is not accepted by Nurse Ratched or the ward. “McMurphy 's twelve followers grow physically and spiritually as they appreciate the humour and pain of the human predicament” (Safer. n.d).

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504 Words | 3 Pages

Between the film and novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the roles of the characters as well as plotlines were manipulated to supposedly better fit a film adaptation. Charles Cheswick, played by Sydney Lassick, is an Acute patient of the mental ward admitted for his short temperament. Described as a “rabbit” by another patient, Cheswick is one of the first to be charmed by McMurphy’s rhetoric and actions and strongly supports all of McMurphy’s doings and suggestions. Cheswick, with so much belief in McMurphy even tries to emulate him by bringing up his own opinion and demand during a meeting after years of stagnated expression. Unfortunately for the novel version of Cheswick, no support was to be had and he suicides.

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1123 Words | 5 Pages

Rebellion and Manipulation in Catcher in the Rye and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest In J.D Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye and Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, both authors present similar lead characters who struggle to accept society’s standards. Both Holden Caulfield and McMurphy respectively attempt to change society through manipulation and rebellion in order to have society reflect their personal opinions and values. They try to counteract these struggles through their rebellion against and manipulation of objects, authority figures and friendships. Both characters use chosen objects to demonstrate their individuality from society. In Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Holden expresses his individuality and highlights his rebellious

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529 Words | 3 Pages

It can’t be caused by anyone else, an accident, or a twist of fate. McMurphy’s downfall was brought about by his own actions. If he just sat back and did nothing none of this would have ever happened. The final action taken by McMurphy that really sent Nurse Ratched over the edge was when he ripped open her shirt and tried to choke her after the party. He acted completely by his own free will and let all his built up emotions take over.

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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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994 Words | 4 Pages

One of the most heavily battled disputes in literature is whether Randle Patrick McMurphy, protagonist of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, is a valiant man who displays heroic traits, or if his personality predominantly reflects anti-heroism. Kesey shows indications of both aspects throughout the novel, although essentially denotes that R.P McMurphy is an anti-hero, with an amalgamation of key reasons. A traditional anti-hero, or anti-heroine, is somebody who lacks foreseeable heroic qualities like principle, bravery, and integrity, but much rather makes, and goes through with, decisions constructed on self-protection instead of doing it for the right reasons. They are noticeably contradictory to an archetypical hero, and a genuine

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1216 Words | 5 Pages

(Kesey, 216). In this quote, it shows that McMurphy shows no sign of fear when he is confronting Sam. Additionally, Sam is clearly caught off guard when McMurphy confronts him, therefore suggesting to the readers that he is more scared of McMurphy than he is of other patients. Furthermore, due to the fact that McMurphy was brave enough to confront the aide, it shows that he has enough power to be able to stand up against him without getting punished for doing so. In short, McMurphy demonstrates his power clearly by confronting the aide of Nurse Ratched, someone that is

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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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1003 Words | 5 Pages

An example of this would be when it says “Only at the last—after he’d smashed through that glass door, her face swinging around, with terror forever ruining any other look she might ever try to use again, screaming when he grabbed for her and ripped her uniform all the way down the front, screaming again when the two nippled circles started from her chest and swelled out and out, bigger than anybody had ever even imagined, warm and pink in the light—” (318) McMurphy does this because of the previous conflict of letting the two girls on the ward, once Billy kills himself he just cannot handle it anymore so he loses his mind and acts drastically. The reason this conflict arose was because of building tension that has kept building throughout this entire novel and finally, he just exploded and could not hold in his hatred for her any longer, so he attacked her with the intent to kill. Also, this conflict could be considered resolved but it was not resolved very well, considering she essentially killed him, by giving him a lobotomy. That is how Nurse Ratched tries to resolve all the problems that arise in the ward which is why no one leaves because she is power hungry and makes their conditions worse if they even had one when they came in the first

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1288 Words | 6 Pages

His rebellious and free mind makes the patients open their eyes and see how the have been suppressed. His appearance is a breath of fresh air and a look into the outside world for the patients. This clearly weakens Nurse Ratched’s powers, and she sees him as a large threat. One way or another, McMurphy tends to instigate changes of scenery. He manages to move everyone away from her music and watchful eye into the old tube room.

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1010 Words | 5 Pages

The movie was mostly focused on the feud between the warden/nurse Ms. Ratched and McMurphy. McMurphy tried to go against the hard-set plan set by the institution. More he tried to establish dominance and leadership within the group. This threatened the nurse’s ways of subduing patients, and they felt of less importance in their own institution. This led to a bitter rivalry and because of it the nurse tried to subdue, with same techniques as with other patients, McMurphy even after realizing that he was not a mentally unstable person.

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520 Words | 3 Pages

Determining what defines an abnormal behavior is not simply black and white. To evaluate and diagnose someone it takes clinical assessment and observation of their character and behavior. This paper will review the character of Randle McMurphy from the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. By utilizing the DSM-5 criteria for Personality Disorders Randle could be diagnosed as Antisocial Personality Disorder because of the behaviors he exhibited throughout the movie.

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