In Kesey’s novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest the character R. P. McMurphy is an anti-hero. Kesey portrays him as an anti-hero by his behaviour and motives. When McMurphy first enters the ward its all a gamble, he fakes his way in trying to escape working. When he first arrives its all for himself and he doesn’t have much care for the other patients. McMurphy immediately decides he wants to be the bull goose loony in charge. In the start of novel he is vary mild when it comes to his violence but it increases over the time he is in the ward. Everything he does seems to be gamble, he gambles his way in he gambles his luck in the ward by making comments to Nurse Ratchet, the three black boys and the other nurses. After the first meeting he tells the other patients that they were a pecking a party and doing exactly what the nurse wanted, the patients try to convince McMurphy that she can convince anyone to do what she wants, McMurphy takes this as a challenge and then starts to oppose her. …show more content…
He convinces the some of the patients to start playing basketball, and elbows one of the black boys in the face, breaking his nose. He later breaks the glass for the nurse’s station at least twice, another patient breaks it with a basketball and then chief also breaks it once. He then gets in a fight with all three of the black boys, chief also joins in the fight to back him up, this results in him undergoing shock treatment, but that doesn’t change him. In the end of the novel when Billy Bibbit kills himself Nurse ratchet subtly blames McMurphy, which pushes him to the limit of attempting to kill her, he is then taken and undergoes a lobotomy. In the end McMurphy’s influence on the patients outweighs Nurse Ratchet and most of them leave the
McMurphy has a gambling problem and the authorities at the ward insist he stop gambling. With McMurphy’s child-like behavior, he must get what he wants before he will listen. He continues to complain about the noise around him, “That damned radio. Boy. It’s been going ever since I come in this morning.
McMurphy is a man who comes to the ward, destined to change it forever, and to restore the power taken from the patients by Nurse Ratchet. [1] His actions and motives during the text to follow what he has set out to do, follow a liking to another anti-hero who plans to change the course of someone else’s life, through his own actions. Ferris Bueller – the main character in the popular 1986 film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” – like most anti-heroes, has a bad side, [2] which in his case is easily forgiven as his enemies are considered ageist and worse than him. The same can be said for McMurphy when he acts out against Nurse Ratchet and the staff on the ward, because although McMurphy is flawed and has continuous bad behaviour, these people are seen as worse than him so his actions are forgiven easier than theirs.
When the men find Billy in the doctor’s office, McMurphy gets so angry he strangles Nurse Ratched, attempting to kill her. This act of aggression leads to McMurphy’s
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the patients are the powerless, forced to undergo the same routine daily, dictated by Nurse Ratched. Kesey shows the patients’ lack of power by often contrasting them against people with power like McMurphy, or Nurse Ratched. When McMurphy first enters the ward “he’s got iron on his heels and he rings it on the floor like horseshoes” (p. 10). He is presented as a cowboy-like character bursting with confidence, a direct juxtaposition against the meek and submissive patients on the ward.
McMurphy uses sexual acts of his fellow patients to try and create an opportunity to obtain power. Billy Bibbit, a young patient who has yet to lose his virginity, is used when McMurphy throws a party and invites a prostitutes into the ward. Afterwards, Billy Bibbit initiates his manhood through having intercourse with one of the prostitutes. The next morning Nurse Ratched returns to the ward and humiliates Billy by saying, "It is all right Billy... No one else is going to hurt you.
He challenges her ways by changing the rules and ways the ward runs and pushes nurse Ratchet to try and break her. He starts of mild but as the novel goes on he gets increasingly violent. Further
His goal is to turn the patients against Nurse Ratched and remove her from control. McMurphy’s disruptions cease shortly after his arrival because he realizes Miss Ratched can destroy anyone, but her manipulative and demeaning methods cause him to turn against her once and for all. It starts off as a power battle with the patients; who has control. Contrary to his diagnosis, McMurphy actually bonds with the patients and forms friendships. He starts to care about how they
Ken Kesey the author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Wrote McMurphy as a confident, positive and stronger person to make a positive impact to the patients in the Mental Institution, by challenging the Nurse Ratched and her authority. The author wants to show the impact that McMurphy has on the patients, the conflict between McMurphy and the Nurse Ratched to expose the corruption of power, and also it shows the theme of Manipulation. McMurphy’s positive attitude had a huge impact on the patients of the mental Institution. First of all thanks to McMurphy, in the ward they were going to do a carnival; When McMurphy had the interview with the doctor, they realize that they studied in the same school and they started to talk
When she walked out into the real world she had no control over men, so this was her opportunity. McMurphy was not going to let this happen, so he fought back against it. McMurphy is slowly bringing down the reign of Nurse Ratched because he understands that she is similar to a totalitarian leader, and she had an enormous amount of power in her ward. Because McMurphy is a hard headed man, he cannot live with being controlled by anyone, which drives his actions of rallying the men against the Nurse. This is also seen when McMurphy breaks the glass window that protected Nurse Ratched from the patients on the ward.
In Sanity and Responsibility, Fred Madden explores themes of self identity from Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The story is told by Chief Bromden, a half Native American and patient of a mental institution. Randle McMurphy, a charismatic man gets transferred into the hospital and creates chaos. Many consider McMurphy as the central character of the novel.
McMurphy is larger than life, a man destined to change the asylum forever. Whether he’s a psychopath or not, we’ll never know. Regardless, he sure is smart, likable, and gives the patients the ability to seize back the power that Nurse Ratched
One normal day everything was going how it was supposed to, the ward was following the schedule, just like Nurse Ratched liked it. The patients were following her rules and did everything she said. But that day R.P. McMurphy was introduced into the ward. He was in there because he committed a crime and said that he was insane, so he got put in there for evaluation. In the movie "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" two characters, Randall McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, had this sort of competition going on to gain the allegiance of the patients.
McMurphy arrives to the ward thinking he is different from the other patients on the ward, but throughout the novel his hidden subconscious thoughts of his true mental state are revealed. While introducing himself to the patients, McMurphy tells the background story of how he ended up where he was. He says that the “court ruled that [he’s] a psychopath” (13), and he didn’t argue with that ruling. Although he doesn’t deny that he belongs on a mental ward, he claims that he only acted the way he did to leave “those damned pea fields” (13) and quit working. Because he is a true gambler at heart, he bets the patients that he can get under Nurse Ratched’s skin and shake up things on the ward.
It can’t be caused by anyone else, an accident, or a twist of fate. McMurphy’s downfall was brought about by his own actions. If he just sat back and did nothing none of this would have ever happened. The final action taken by McMurphy that really sent Nurse Ratched over the edge was when he ripped open her shirt and tried to choke her after the party. He acted completely by his own free will and let all his built up emotions take over.
The movie was mostly focused on the feud between the warden/nurse Ms. Ratched and McMurphy. McMurphy tried to go against the hard-set plan set by the institution. More he tried to establish dominance and leadership within the group. This threatened the nurse’s ways of subduing patients, and they felt of less importance in their own institution. This led to a bitter rivalry and because of it the nurse tried to subdue, with same techniques as with other patients, McMurphy even after realizing that he was not a mentally unstable person.