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Mcmurphy Symbolism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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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. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him” (NIV Matthew 3:16.) The fishing trip was organized by McMurphy in order to test and strengthen the faith the patients had in him. This a reflection of when Jesus advised his disciples to let down their nets. “4…he said to Simon, …show more content…

However, he resists the temptations of sin and completes his forty days of mediation. “1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (NIV Matthew 4:1). This is referenced when McMurphy holds back his true thoughts and appeases towards Nurse Ratched. Nevertheless, when McMurphy returns to his old self, he punches through the glass window of the nurses’ station. This is a metaphor of Jesus ragging and clearing the merchants of the temple or Christ’s last glorification as a human on Palm Sunday when he returns to Jerusalem to die. The party in the ward before McMurphy’s lobotomy is parallel to Christ’s last supper before he was crucified. The narcotic cough syrup mixed with vodka resembles the wine and the two prostitutes, Candy and Sandy, are analogous to Mary Magdalene. Judas’s betrayal of Jesus is referenced with Billy Bibbit’s “betrayal” of McMurphy. Bibbit's betrayal is not in his attempts to push the blame of his time with Candy on McMurphy; it is with his suicide that follows. Judas committed suicide after trading Jesus to the Roman soldiers for thirty pieces of

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