One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest Essay 2

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo? s Nest Essay, Research Paper

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Ken Kesey? s usage of symbolism in One Flew Over the Cuckoo? s Nest transforms the novel and the infirmary within the novel a microcosm of society, a conflict between the sane and insane, the conformist and the non-conformist. Randle McMurphy? s reaching influenced the lives of about every individual, whether patient or employee. Whether or non his motivations and actions were moral or charitable is hard to reason, nevertheless. On one manus, he doubtless saved the patients from losing their psyches, so to talk, to Nurse Ratched and her ward. Without him, they would non hold been able to stand up for themselves or turn a sense of self-appreciation and competency. On the other manus, there was a monetary value to pay for these freedoms. McMurphy? s and Billy Bibbit? s deceases showed merely how much control The Big Nurse had on her patients. The function each character plays in this confrontation symbolizes the realistic confrontations between the mentally unstable and the remainder of society that has been traveling on for centuries.

Randle Patrick McMurphy is a powerful, intelligent adult male, a true non-conformist. He comes to the mental establishment to avoid the boring work forced upon him at the prison he was assigned to. His playful, reasonably attitude towards the patients surprises them since they have non seen such contention since they came to the ward. It is obvious from the beginning of the novel as to McMurphy? s most superficial motivations. He is a con adult male, invariably doing stakes with na & # 239 ; ve, mentally sick work forces. The fact that he ne’er tries to outwit or rip off them, nevertheless, makes him well-thought-of and admired by the patients. McMurphy? s tattoo, a fire hook manus with one? s and eight? s, the? dead adult male? s manus? , symbolizes both his compulsion with gaming and his eventual decease. Despite his consistent efforts to do a net income, McMurphy? s chief concern is the public assistance of his new friends in the infirmary. He sees how they can no longer believe for themselves or demand their civil rights. Even beyond that, he can non penetrate the fact that many of the patients voluntarily checked themselves into the ward, and may go forth at any clip. McMurphy starts out as slightly egotistic and self-involved. As the novel progresses, he becomes a function theoretical account for the other patients, demoing them how to take control of their ain fates and arising against the overpowering power of the? Combine? . The fishing trip is a cardinal illustration of his influence on his equals. Nurse Ratched? s repeated warnings about the dangers of the sea and the accidents that had occurred late scared most of the patients into declining to travel on the trip. As more and more newspaper cuttings went up depicting wrecked boats, McMurphy started to mock these warnings, wheedling more and more patients into traveling on the trip. Before McMurphy came to the ward, such rebellious trips would ne’er hold happened, even if they wanted to travel. McMurphy? s enterprise and leading paved the manner for so many others.

McMurphy? s decease shows the ultimate forfeit that he is willing in order to do his friends aware of the suffocating environment that they choose to populate in. When he fights Washington, the worker that sprayed soap on Sefelt despite cognizing that he ever refused to bathe with soap, he showed how much he has evolved during his stay in the infirmary. No net income awaits him by protecting Sefelt.

He besides knows that if he does assail him, Nurse Ratched would about surely destroy him. He does it merely because he knows that no 1 else was about to step in and assist. McMurphy? s penalty, electroconvulsive therapy intervention, killed the one thing that he was so proud of? the control he had over himself.

One could reason that McMurphy was a Christ figure, a sufferer that died for his followings. There are many mentions to Christ and the Bible in the novel. He takes 12 people on the trip, reminiscent of the 12 adherents. The tabular array used for the electroconvulsive therapy intervention is built in the form of the cross, with McMurphy tied to it as if he was nailed to a rood.

They put the black lead ointment on his temples. ? What is it? ? he says. ? Conductant, ? the technician says. ? Anointest my caput with conductant. Make I acquire a Crown of irritants? ? ( Kesey 237 ) .

While it is decidedly obvious that McMurphy could be considered a Christ figure, this cliche does non precisely fit in this state of affairs. First of all, Christ had much more wholesome and pure purposes than the muscle Irishman. McMurphy risked and paid his life to protect the patients from society? s restlessness with abnormalcy and rebellion. Harding describes it as this: ? ? In this state, when something is out of order, so the quickest manner to acquire it fixed is the best manner? ( Kesey 164 ) . He did non make what he did for his ain interest, but for all the patients in the ward. He realized that these people that are being caged in by society are likely merely every bit normal as those who despise them are.

As in most novels, every supporter has a rival, one who strives to convey down the hero. Nurse Ratched spends all of McMurphy? s stay seeking to destruct him. She sees him as a riotous figure, seeking to convey pandemonium to the compulsively organized construction of the Combine. She is non even considered a normal, aging adult female, yet as an omnipotent animal, endangering to strike a patient down if he opposes her orders. Chief Bromden does non even refer to her by name. Alternatively, he calls her the? Large Nurse? ( Kesey 10 ) . The patients are more frightened of her than the agonizing? remedies? used at the infirmary. McMurphy is the lone 1 who decides to stand up to her. Every clip he offers a challenge, nevertheless, Ratched seems to accept it and sets out to crush him. In the terminal, Ratched does win by giving McMurphy a leukotomy. This possibly symbolizes the 1000s of deceases of work forces and adult females arising against the system, making whatever it takes to win their freedom.

Nurse Ratched symbolizes several different things. First and foremost, she portrays the control of society over what is normal and acceptable. Any opposition to this order will be? fixed? , utilizing any agencies necessary to coerce him to profess. She besides represents the positions of the writer on adult females. A consistent subject of misogynism exists throughout the novel. Womans are seen as either submissive cocottes or commanding monsters. Whether it be Chief Bromden? s cutthroat female parent, the Big Nurse, or Candy, adult females are ne’er seen as peers to work forces or even remotely amiable.

McMurphy and Nurse Ratched go through a finely crafted and strategic conflict of good against evil, adult male against adult female, the person against society. Although it seems that the person will ne’er crush society, the forfeits made by courageous people like McMurphy are ne’er forgotten.

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