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.
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