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Symbolism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, he presents a character named R.P. McMurphy. Kesey parodies the biblical figure Christ with McMurphy with subtle references throughout the novel.However, even though he is compared to a Christ symbol that doesn’t mean he behaves like one. McMurphy is seen as a Christ symbol, not only because of references, but because of his gradual self-growth throughout the novel that allows him to embrace his “divinity” and help others. McMurphy is a mockery of the figure Christ because Christ was a humble, charitable, giving, honorable man who was pure and Mcmurphy is the opposite of that. He is a wild card, a con-man, and an insubordinate, who is foul mouthed.He defies authority and gets into fights.He’s been in and out of jail for numerous reasons until he lands into the hospital ward due to “diagnosis and possible treatment”, even though he is just getting out of jail time. McMurphy enters the ward and completely changes the patients’ ways of life. He brings gambling, booze, sex, defiance, and hustling into the ward. He makes bets with the men and hustles them out of money on several occasions such as the bet of getting under Ms. Ratched’s skin and making her show her inferiority, …show more content…

This is another one of the ways how Kesey parodies McMurphy to Christ. McMurphy’s gospels are reflections of things he believes in himself. There is so much he teaches to the men, for example, he teaches them to laugh as soon as he comes into the ward. He teaches them to take risks and gamble in life through all the card games, etc. One of his lessons is to make sacrifices for others instead of being selfish, like on the fishing trip, he doesn’t give up his life jacket, but instead, he waits for someone else to offer theirs up. He teaches them to stand up together when they stood in front of the black screen tv to “watch” the world series against Nurse Ratched’s

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In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the prolific Christian imagery serves not only to align the protagonist, Randle McMurphy, with Jesus Christ, but to provide an overarching allegory: only God can rescue mankind from the inexorable, bleak future it will spawn. The novel suggests that the bleak, oppressive future is caused by the presence of societal constraints, since government is inherently flawed as are the humans that created and maintain it. The depraved future is fully realized through the careful, populist affectations of the Combine which bely its emasculating ways. Functioning as a modern-day version of Christ, McMurphy, persists in his contrarian, self-immolating efforts to deliver his peers--his disciples--from the evils

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Although McMurphy may seem driven at times by his greed for money through his constant gambling, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the author’s biblical allusions to the Easter story demonstrate the true altruistic nature of McMurphy. Specifically, the ongoing allusion begins when McMurphy is taken in to have electroshock therapy and he “climbs on the table without any help and spreads his arms out” (237). Here, Kesey’s biblical allusion to the crucifixion of Jesus reveals McMurphy’s selflessness. In the Easter story, Jesus willingly gave his life and was tortured and mocked all to free his people from their sins. McMurphy serves as a Jesus figure who is willing to put himself through the pain and suffering of electroshock therapy in order to save the other

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