Archetypes In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1852 Words8 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a psychoanalytical work of literature composed by Ken Kesey which scrutinizes the taxonomy of cell patients in a psychological ward who seek to enact an inner peace through the alleviation of their minds and compliance to their innate, yet inconstruable, paradigms . The narrator, Chief Bromden, is a patient of the ward who tells the story through his pair of cogent, capricious oculi. Randall McMurphy is the protagonist of the novel; he is a newcomer to the ward but is quick to assert his role as a leader. Long term denizens of the ward are inspired and influenced due to his nonchalant behavior towards the staff, most particularly, Billy Bibbit; a young lad who attempted suicide due to rejection. As McMurphy …show more content…

He utilizes hilarious yet kind remarks at patients from the beginning to garner attention. For instance, he mentions, “Damn, what a sorry-looking outfit. You boys don’t look so crazy to me.” upon meeting the Acutes, a socially construed group within the ward. Furthermore, he solicits the Acutes on various occasions, asking them about their lives and routines at the ward. One particular example is when he demonstrates his desire for power whilst speaking in a humorous manner by inquiring, “This busy man Mr. Harding, is he the bull goose loony?”. Shortly after, he contradicts the statement of Mr. Harding by explicitly saying that he’d be willing “to vote for Eisenhower again this November,” in order to prove himself as the more insane yet controlling individual. Later on, he attempts to successfully persuade them to follow his lead in getting Nurse Ratched to allow them to watch the World Series. He encourages his mates by arguing, “there’s at least twelve of you guys I know of myself got a leetle personal interest who wins these games. Don’t you guys care to watch them?”. Alongside this, McMurphy represents his inner unconscious later in the novel as he attempts to kill Nurse Ratched in one last act of bravery, “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”,

Open Document