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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

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The novel, “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” by Ken Kesey features many references to Christ and the Christian religion. McMurphy the protagonist acts a leader, savior, and role model to the other characters. Kesey makes constant visual and symbolic referrals to Christ throughout the novel. Moreover, he utilizes McMurphy as a symbol of Christ when he leads and inspires the patients to embrace their masculinity and humanity against Nurse Ratchet’s cruelty. Kesey uses the symbolism to depict McMurphy as Christ and savior of the patients When McMurphy comes to the ward, he is baptized through a shower, symbolizing the baptism of Christ before commencing his mission on earth. The author introduces the readers to Ellis who foreshadows the future events. Chief Bromden who describes the state of patients in the mental institutions by saying that Ellis is a chronic “nailed against the wall in the same condition they lifted him off the table for the last time in the same shape, arms out, palms cupped” (Kesey 16). The author evokes the imagery of Christ where just like other patients going to therapy; McMurphy approaches the nurse and says, “I wash my hands of the whole deal” (Kesey 279). The phrase is similar to the words said to Pontius Pilate before sentencing Jesus. …show more content…

When Murphy is sent for the electroshock treatment in the shock room, he is laid on a table that resembles a cross. He says “Anointest my head with conductant. Do I get a crown of thorns?” (Kesey 283). The strapped table symbolizes the cross while the electric sparks on the head signify the thorns placed on the head of Christ during the crucifixion. Murphy gains authority and power when he refuses to apologize to Nurse Ratchet and is forced to receive the electroshock treatment, which symbolizes the death and resurrection of

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The overarching allegory proposes that McMurphy--who is God--is lifeblood to the patients in the Combine (representative of Jesus’ disciples), and the only way they can be rescued is by investing in Him. Only the Messiah, the allegory claims, can save humanity from the bleak future it has created. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest suggests that the oppressive reality of the Combine is brought on by the presence of social constraints--in this case, the Therapeutic Community, which the Doctor says is a “democratic ward, run completely by the patients and their votes,” and the intention of which is to be “a little world Inside that is a made-to-scale prototype of the big world Outside” (Kesey 49-50). Such statements underscore the sheer hypocrisy the Combine operates and thrives on, as shown by the blatantly unjust World Series vote, where Nurse Ratched declared there were “forty patients...and only twenty voted” and “[they] must have a majority to change ward policy” (Kesey 140).

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In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey uses the motif, Christ and Savior to find faults within society demonstrating that one should sacrifices oneself in order to save others from tyranny imposed by authority. In the beginning of the novel, the motif, Christ and Savior is not prevalent within the ward. However, as McMurphy appears, the figure of Christ and Savior starts to reveal by McMurphy’s actions. While the men think McMurphy is going to stand up for them against Big Nurse, he says, “I couldn’t figure it at first, why you guys were coming to me like I was some kind of savior.

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A Christ Figure is a literary character whose actions are homogeneous with that of Jesus Christ. A Separate Peace, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Cool Hand Luke are all works that incorporate a Christ Figure as one of their characters. Some of the actions exhibited by these characters include the performing of miracles, a last supper, a death and resurrection, and the betterment of their fellow peers. Christ Figures in literature commonly perform a number of miracles, which their acolytes once viewed as infeasible. McMurphy, the Christ Figure in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. is placed on a hospital ward brimming with hopeless patients under the control of an authoritarian nurse.

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When the staff attempt to wash George and touch him, he throws a fit because of his discomfort. McMurphy exhibits his thoughtfulness for the others by first warning and threatening, and eventually fighting the staff members washing George: “McMurphy shoved the black boy away and went into a crouch, rolling the big shoulders up to guard his chin, his fists on each side of his head, circling the man in front of him” (211). McMurphy defending George proved to the other patients that he truly cared for them. When no one else would stand up for George, McMurphy did so and asked for nothing in return. He received a the punishment of being transferred to the Disturbed Ward and receiving electroshock therapy for standing up for his fellow patient.

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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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After Jesus was crucified, he lay in his tomb for three days and then was resurrected. When he came across his disciples, they failed to recognize him. Once again, McMurphy symbolizes Jesus and the resurrection and McMurphy’s most dedicated followers, or Jesus’s disciples, cannot recognize the face of their savior. But, like Jesus on Easter Day, McMurphy must go to heaven as Chief Bromden lies on his body and suffocates McMurphy “until the thrashing stopped” (270). The ending of McMurphy’s life and his ascent to heaven demonstrates the conclusion of the Easter story allusion and the completion of the sacrifice to save the patients and allow them to feel as though they can leave the psychiatric ward and free themselves from the Combine and Nurse Ratched.

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One man, George, was a germaphobe and was scared of being hosed off. McMurphy stands up for George and ends up getting into a fight with one of the aids. Bromden backs McMurphy up in the fight, so they both had to get EST treatment. As previously described, the table is shaped like a cross which helps prove that he is a Christ figure because Jesus was hung on a cross. Another instance where McMurphy is presented as a Christ figure is when Ratched found Billy Bibbit with Candy in the Seclusion room.

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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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My goal in this paper is to thoroughly describe how McMurphy has changed the beliefs for the other men in the ward, and how he has helped them overcome their fears. To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into three sections. In the first section, I provide information

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Semi-Conscious patient, Dale Harding, expresses his fear of a matriarchal takeover as he tells McMurphy that it is impossible for Nurse Ratched to get fired. The supervisor, who is in charge of the ward’s employees, is anonymous, but it is known that she is a close friend of Nurse Ratched (Martin). Additionally, Harding does not have a good relationship with his wife, Vera, who alludes to infidelity with his friends. Although Nurse Ratched is a dangerous woman who mistreats Harding, he is hesitant to leave because he does not want to face his wife, who holds an intense power over him (Martin). Furthermore, Billy Bibbit is a shy and insecure patient whose peculiar nature stems from the overbearing treatment of his mother.

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The nature of man, beyond the black-and-white differences, are clearly portrayed between the characters in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as Ken Kesey continuously alludes to the bible. McMurphy is portrayed as a Christ-like figure throughout the novel. The ward symbolizes the broken world filled with sin and death. In the beginning, when McMurphy enters the ward, he is baptized with a shower. “16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.

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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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A main theme in Ken Keesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is rebellion. In the book, rebellious actions by the main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, representing the carnival side of society, goes against the Big Nurse who represent the strict chains of society. However, what I find ironic is the fact that a woman, in fact the most feminine character in the book, is the enemy or the oppressor. During the 1950’s this was the complete opposite. The feminist movement hadn’t taken a prominent standing yet and men were in power.

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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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