Nurse Ratched introduces the new admission to the mental hospital as, “McMurry, Randle Patrick. Committed by the state from the Pendleton Farm for Correction. For diagnosis and possible treatment. Distinguished service cross in Korea for leading an escape from a Communist prison camp” joining the Combine’s “therapeutic community” (Kesey 37). McMurphy is not only an acclaimed individual in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but he has the capability of changing the mental hospital forever. As the novel progresses, Chief Bromden, a chronic patient and McMurphy’s friend, takes account of all the events at the hospital since McMurphy arrived. McMurphy comes to be known as the “savior” of the rest of the patients at the hospital, though at times it seems he is …show more content…
McMurphy is waiting to see him and that this hospital ain’t big enough for the two of us” (17). By saying this, McMurphy instantly projects to the other patients that he wants to be the “top dog” in the Combine. As soon as he meets Harding, he booms over the group of acutes in the room, installing himself as their new leader. He instantly takes over the patients in Nurse Ratched’s ward with a single sentence. This is important because even though he can bend the patients to do his will for his own advantage, they still come to look up to him because he embodies a certain boldness that the patients need to regain their individual freedom from the dictatorial Nurse Ratched. Also, McMurphy makes it clear that he wants the ward run his way, just as Nurse Ratched wants it run her way. McMurphy expresses his aggression at certain things he does not approve of when he is playing poker with the acutes and says, “That damned radio. Boy. It’s been going ever since I come in this morning. The hell with that. I’ll tell that coon over there to turn it off or get his fat little ass kicked” (68). Though this may