During a group therapy session, a quarrel between Harding and Taber provided foreshadowing on the discussed theme. It was stated “Harding, why don 't you knock off the bullshit and get to the point?” “This is the point. This is the point, Taber. It 's not bullshit. I 'm not just talking about my wife, I 'm talking about my life! I can 't seem to get that through to you... I 'm not just talking about one person, I 'm talking about everybody!I 'm talking about form! I 'm talking about content! I 'm talking about interrelationships! I 'm talking about God, the Devil, Hell, Heaven! Do you understand?”(Foreman. 1975) When Harding states that he is talking about everyone, it can be inferred that he is referring to society as a whole. It proves that he …show more content…
Focusing on the characters, rather than what they symbolize, the audience can clearly recognize the protagonist and the antagonist within the plot. Nurse Ratched and R. P McMurphy are constantly fighting for power and control over another. “McMurphy [is] the bane of the order-enforcing Nurse Ratched [...] (sometimes merely stern but occasionally chilling) who rules the ward with the cruel psychological manipulation of her meek, medicated charges” (Staton. 2015). Nurse Ratched, when speaking to McMurphy, states “your hand is staining my window”. This statement can symbolize of how she feels about McMurphy 's presence within the ward. The window would represent Nurse Ratched 's “perfect” ward and the stain that McMurphy is leaving is McMurphy himself, ruining …show more content…
Shortly after this act, McMurphy then brings the patients of the ward on an unauthorized fishing trip. Not only is McMurphy rebelling against Nurse Ratched, he is rebelling against the ward and the associated doctors like Dr. Spivey. For the men of the ward, this acted as an unconventional therapy and appeared to be effective. This method is not accepted by Nurse Ratched or the ward. “McMurphy 's twelve followers grow physically and spiritually as they appreciate the humour and pain of the human predicament” (Safer. n.d). The human predicament –in summary, refers to: “population growth disproportionately [increasing] degradation of life-support systems, [...] economic growth among the already rich, [...and] the cultural gap and extreme compartmentalization of education and knowledge” (Ehrlich, P., Ehrlich, A. 2012). In stating this, it is proven that McMurphy shows the patients how to see positivity among the negative; “they are gradually enabled to laugh at their predicament” (Safer. n.d). If it was not for McMurphy, the men would not have experienced, “from Bromden 's perspective, [...] psychological growth” (Safer. n.d) This fishing trip was not only against Nurse Ratched 's controlling therapy but was also contrasting the traditional therapies of the time. In fact, according to VanWert, McMurphy “proposes a kind of bioenergetics play theory[...which involves] a rejection of responsibilities in favour of the male fantasies of sport, booze, and easy women. His
In both novels, the situation that the characters are placed in is fertile ground for any unscrupulous anti-hero’s perfect rebellion. In McMurphy’s case, Nurse Ratched has a chokehold on all the patients and almost all the staff, even though she isn’t the formal leader. She is a master manipulator, and through this, creates a sense of total powerlessness. “All twenty of them, raising not just for watching TV, but against the Big Nurse, against her trying to send McMurphy to Disturbed, against the way she’s talked and acted and beat them down for years” (Kesey 81). McMurphy constantly disobeys her wishes and plots events, ranging from minor to major, that rebel against the Nurse.
All of the patients on the ward presume that Mcmurphy
The patients are frequently told that they will be lost and alone when let out. However, when McMurphy plans a way to get a touch of freedom, the patients begin to realize the restrictions Ratched puts against them. The narrator of the story, Chief Bromden, reflects, “Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy” (Kesey 211). This shows that the men maintaining their sanity in such an oppressive world cannot allow external forces to exert too much power. When a person succumbs to the bad experiences of humanity, they have no way of growth.
“Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.” (214). Henceforth, McMurphy, in an attempt to bring the genuine laugh back to all the patients, continuously breaks the rules. Remarkable that by the end of the fishing trip, Harding, Scanlon, Doctor Spivey, and Sefelt are all finally able to participate in real laughter, which can be regarded as a sign of their physical and psychological recovery. McMurphy is a prominent example of a
This shows how little significance they show the ward members. Instead of focusing on their recovery to become apart of society; there is a deeper concern for gaining power and exploiting the ill to become untouchable. The process of manipulating the mentally ill will cause inhibition towards recuperation instead of rehabilitation. McMurphy causes change within men on the ward because of his goal to allow the inmates to pursue happiness. The men don’t change under nurse Ratched’s control because her primary goal is to use manipulation to exert dominance for
All of McMurphy violent behavior was for the men to better themselves. He prepared them for real world outside of the ward. He helped them not to get pushed around and to not be afraid to do what they want. Mcmurphy’s madness is made reasonable as it provided the patients with hope and helped them return to a sane lifestyle. By the end, McMurphy managed to release many of the patients to their normal senses, Even though it caused him to lose his freedom.
McMurphy’s interaction with his peers is used as an approach to turning them into his allies. McMurphy lets his mind open to them and shares his old daily activities to move their hearts. When McMurphy and his peers deal blackjack for cigarettes, “ the cigarettes on each side of [McMurphy] grew in bigger and bigger pyramid stacks … then he started letting them win, lets them win it all back so fast they don’t hardly remember losing” (Kesey 81). McMurphy is a manipulative man who utilizes others’ gullibility to control their mind. McMurphy entices his peers to open their mind to a new lifestyle rather than clinging to their fixed schedule.
However, to Nurse Ratched, this window illustrates her dominance over the ward. “The Big Nurse watches all [that the patients do] through her window” (42). Kesey’s glass division between the sane and the insane demonstrates Nurse Ratched’s overall want of authority. Correspondingly, the Big Nurse is a wolf amongst the hospital full of rabbits. As Harding explains to McMurphy that the patients are essentially small rabbits in the forest that is the mental institution, he also notes that Nurse Ratched is the “strong wolf” that teaches the rabbits their place, much like the hierarchy of nature (61).
In the struggle between freedom and power, McMurphy’s sacrifice allows freedom to prevail. His leadership in a rising rebellion parallels many of the countercultures that arose during the 1960s. His rebellion fights against Nurse Ratched in the way that the countercultures fought against the government and society in the past to the present. The men in the asylum are unknowingly unhappy before the arrival of McMurphy. Through his antics, the men are saved from society in the form of Nurse Ratched’s regime.
In the novel, McMurphy attacks the nurse brutally and attempts to kill her, “doctors and supervisors and nurses prying those heavy red fingers out of the white flesh of her throat as if they were her neck bones, jerking him backward” (Kesey 319). Also, the narrator shows mercy towards McMurphy by smothering him in his sleep, “and scissor the kicking legs with mine while I mashed the pillow into the face. I lay there on top of the body for what seemed days. Until the thrashing stopped” (323).
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.
In the ward, the only individual capable of undermining Nurse Ratched’s power is Randle McMurphy. By blatantly disregarding the nurse’s strict rules, standing up for himself, and encouraging other patients to do so, he creates a situation that jeopardizes the order Nurse Ratched has created. When McMurphy manages to get a fishing trip approved, granted he gets ten other patients to sign up, Nurse Ratched uses malicious methods to thwart his plans: “The nurse started steadily bringing in clippings from the newspapers that told about wrecked boats and sudden storms on coast” (Kesey 178). In order to dismantle the immense progress McMurphy has made towards changing the attitudes of the patients, Nurse Ratched discourages them from attending his trip. Her motive in doing this is to have the patients lose faith in McMurphy, ultimately destroying the influence he has over them.
His rebellious and free mind makes the patients open their eyes and see how the have been suppressed. His appearance is a breath of fresh air and a look into the outside world for the patients. This clearly weakens Nurse Ratched’s powers, and she sees him as a large threat. One way or another, McMurphy tends to instigate changes of scenery. He manages to move everyone away from her music and watchful eye into the old tube room.
The concept of social alienation and various methods of subduing patients like electric shocks and lobotomy were prevalent which further alienated the patients rather than curing them. The movie highlights the strong bond between the patients. The human condition of friendship and bonding is highlighted. During the last quarter of the movie, the protagonist McMurphy had a chance to escape the institution, but he hesitated and stayed to support his friend ‘Billy’. The strong bond that he created with the patients led him to risk his escape plan to stay behind for his friend (Kesey).
The Everlasting Symbols of Irony “When the Doctors came they said she had died of heart disease - - of the joy that kills.” (Chopin 4). The Story of an Hour is a short story published by Kate Chopin that consists of a woman who was diagnosed with a heart disease and appears to present a rather complex relationship with her husband who was presumed to be killed in a work-based accident.