Blog 5: McMurphy's Heroic Role

In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest critics believe Kesey intends McMurphy to be a heroic, Christ-like figure. I firmly agree with this assumption because in many instances in the story McMurphy swoops in to save the other patients and helps them to realize that they are not trapped in the ward and if they work together they could enjoy their stay at the hospital. The Big Nurse has acted as the protagonist and in the book there are instances where it is McMurphy vs. Nurse Ratched. McMurphy constantly challenges the Ward staff, and more specifically the Big Nurse from day one to hold a long term bet he has with some of the patients.

Since the beginning of the book, McMurphy has been singled out and described as obviously different. This foreshadows his heroic role in the novel because all of the other patients are described as weak, shy, and quiet, while McMurphy is described as loud, brassy, and stubborn.  After McMurphy’s first group meeting, or as he calls it the ‘pecking party’, he discusses the Big Nurse and her motives. Harding takes this almost offensively; “’I’m not a chicken, I’m a rabbit. The doctor is a rabbit. Cheswick is a rabbit. All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees’” (64) Harding describes the patients on the ward as being rabbits and claims that the Big Nurse is only out to help them back into society. He later tells McMurphy:  “‘Friend . . . you . . . maybe a wolf’” (67) the symbolic difference between these two animals is very significant to the development of McMurphy’s role.  Rabbits symbolize the weaker people in the novel while the wolves represent people with power, such as the Nurse. The fact that Harding connects McMurphy to the Big Nurse foreshadows the conflicts in the later chapters. Harding does not insinuate that McMurphy is out-numbered in this fight, showing that McMurphy has been delegated to take on the Big Nurse.

Once McMurphy gets word that he is one of the only patients on the Ward that is committed. Meaning he is among the only patients that has an indefinite term that is dictated by the Big Nurse. This provides a setback for McMurphy; this means he has been risking the rest of his free life by engaging in these little disruptions in order to ‘get the Nurse’s goat’.  He has a brief moment in which he wonders ‘why me?’ because he realizes that any of the other patients could be his heroic role without as much risk. This down period does not last long though; as soon as the second World Series vote is held he is right back to his heroic game. Bromden is just about to succumb to the fog, “’That’s that McMurphy. He’s far away. He’s still trying to pull people out of the fog’” (138) by the end of this group meeting, McMurphy manages to pull the seemingly deaf Bromden far enough out of the fog to raise his hand and make the majority.

The biggest selling point on the ‘Christ-like’ figure of the argument happens on the fishing trip that McMurphy organized for the men on the Ward. The fishing crew gets all the way to the sea, they spend the day fishing and enjoying the outside world. Once a storm hits, they realize the boat is short a few life jackets. Everyone is shocked when McMurphy does not offer his up to the other men. Jesus had a similar moment of doubt in the garden of Gethsemane.

McMurphy has continued to sacrifice his life to help the patients gain control in the Ward. He has been striving to show them that the Big Nurse should not own them; they are not as crazy as they think they are. He also shows them that being insane is not always a cripple; they used their mental illness to feel power over the servicemen at the gas station. Ultimately his fight for these men will end in his death, which makes his heroic acts that much more powerful. 

Blog 4: Favorite Character

Throughput the book my favorite character has fluctuated; at first I loved McMurphy, and he is still one of my favorites but ultimately I appreciate Harding the most. When Harding was first introduced into the story I hated him because I didn’t understand why he was so snooty to McMurphy and his formal dialogue irritated me to no end. “’So,’ he says, ‘it’s as simple as that, as stupidly simple as that. You’re on our ward six hours and have already simplified all the work Freud, Jung, and Maxwell Jones and summed it all up in one analogy: it’s a ‘peckin’ party’” (58) the way he mocked McMurphy with his responses really bugged me due to how seemingly rude he was being to him. “’Oh, yes; I forgot to add that I noticed your primitive brutality also this morning. Psychopath with definite sadistic tendencies, probably motivated by an unreasoning egomania. Yes. As you see, all these natural talents certainly qualify you as a competent therapist and render you quite capable of criticizing Miss Ratched’s meeting procedure, in spite of the fact she is a highly regarded psychiatric nurse with twenty years in the field. Yes, with your talent, my friend, you could work sub conscious miracles, soothe the aching id and heal the wounded superego. You could probably bring about a cure for the whole ward, Vegetables and all, in six short months, ladies, and gentlemen, or your money back” (59). This was when I started to hate Harding because his diction screamed arrogant. We had just been introduced to these characters and he was hell bent on backing the Nurse. His long sentences, excellent word choice, and very formal diction through me off; I didn’t realize that the two men were actually having a conversation. It didn’t occur to me that this friendly bicker was necessary, because I didn’t understand that this was part of his role as mentor.  Later on, I realized that Harding serves as a mentor for McMurphy; he is essentially a coach to our hero figure. Harding introduces McMurphy to his wife; “'Hell’s bells, Harding!’ McMurphy yells suddenly. ‘I don’t know what to think! What do you want out of me?’” (185) during this scene, McMurphy is in the denial phase of his hero acceptance. He just found out that he is one of the only patients that is committed, meaning his time is indefinite, and he is wondering ‘why me’. Harding sees something in McMurphy and he is not going to let it go.  “Harding’s hand touches McMurphy’s knee. ‘Put your troubled mind at ease, my friend. In all likelihood you needn’t concern yourself with EST. It’s almost out of vogue and only used in extreme cases nothing else seems to reach like lobotomy’” (191) When we had the class discussion over this section Harding finally made sense to me; I had thought he was just a smart jerk, but now I can understand why he was saying the things he was. Harding’s role in this novel is to act as a mentor for McMurphy.  Knowing this, he has made his way up to the top of my favorites, I just misunderstood his role at first glance.

Blog 3: Is McMurphy actually insane?

In the beginning of the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy is described by the judge as a psychopath. As the story progresses McMurphy’s mental state does not follow a truly insane path; he functions as an actual person and is an obvious stand out in the ward. His actions lead the reader to question if he is truly insane or just a con man trying to escape the work farm. McMurphy’s heroic role, his constant goal to break the Big Nurse, and the votes he brings up lead the reader to believe he is, more than likely, just a lazy con man.

Ever since McMurphy was transferred from the work farm and admitted into the ward, everybody notices he is different than the other patients; he’s loud, brassy, and always laughing. McMurphy is not intimidated by the black boys, or even the Big Nurse, he is seemingly comfortable and confident in himself. “Still, even though I can’t see him, I know he’s no ordinary Admission. I don’t hear him slide scared along the wall, and when they tell him about the shower he don’t just submit with a weak little yes…”(11) from the start, McMurphy  has stood out among the patients. His loud, confident attitude does not reflect him being truly insane; the patients that are insane are quiet, shy, and weak but McMurphy is nearly the polar opposite.

McMurphy is described as a little bit of a gambler, and since he has been transferred he has been constantly taking bets and wages. One of the bigger bets was about McMurphy being able to beat Nurse Ratched at her own game; “’…any of you sharpies here willing to take my five bucks that says that I can get the best of that woman…’” (73). Since that day on the ward, McMurphy has been doing everything he can to test the Big Nurse; he’s singing, being obnoxious, asking to change things, all with a polite little smile on his face. The first morning he is at the ward, he pretends to just be wearing a towel, this really gets to the Nurse; “I think of a fact that she’d rather he’d been stark naked under that towel than had on those shorts” (99). This particularly got to the Nurse because she had realized she had been played. This shows McMurphy is wittier than the other patients; pointing toward him being a con man. His goals throughout his stay have all been about betting, gambling, and conning the patients. There is no way anyone other than an experienced con man would know how to break the Nurse this quickly.

Throughout the story, McMurphy has brought up votes in the group meetings such as: using the tub room as a second day room, or taking a fishing trip.  One of the bigger votes he placed was over the World Series; he wanted to change the tv time so that the patients could watch the World Series instead of the news. No one backs him up in that meeting and it really gets to him, he is genuinely upset that he would not get to watch the games. “”Jesus, I haven’t missed a World Series in years” (121) this makes McMurphy stand out as a normal human being; mentally insane people are rarely ever recognized with such ‘normal’ things. The World Series is something the normal population watches and enjoys; you don’t expect a mentally insane person to get so worked up over missing it.

During McMurphy’s first group meeting the Doctor is going over McMurphy’s paper work. The doctor reads that McMurphy has been filed as having psychopathic tendencies; which McMurphy describes as, “’…’psychopath’ means I fight and fuh—pardon me ladies—means I am he put it overzealous in my sexual relations” (47). This description does not sound like a truly insane diagnostic; this describes many criminals, and leads the reader to believe that McMurphy belongs in a prison or work camp not on the ward.