Does Mcmurphy Transfer His Individualistic Spirit Into free essay sample

That Of The Other Patients In One Flew Over The Cuckoo # 8217 ; s Nest? Essay, Research Paper One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest, with its meaningful message of individuality, was an highly influential novel during the 1960 s. In add-on, its writer, Ken Kesey, played a important function in the development of the counterculture of the 60 s ; this included all people who did non conform to society s criterions, experimented in drugs, and merely lived their lives in an unconventional mode. Ken Kesey had many important experiences that enabled him to make One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest. As a consequence of his entryway into the originative authorship plan at Stanford University in 1959 ( Ken 1 ) , Kesey moved to Perry Lane in Menlo Park. It was at that place that he and other authors foremost experimented with psychedelic drugs. After populating at Perry Lane for a piece, Kesey s friend, Vik Lovell, informed him about experiments at a local V. A. infirmary in which voluntaries were paid to take mind-altering drugs ( Wolfe 321 ) . Kesey s experiences at the infirmary were his first measure towards composing Cuckoo s Nest. Upon proving the effects of the so little-known drug, LSD, # 8221 ; he was in a kingdom of consciousness he had neer dreamed of earlier and it was non a dream or craze but portion of his consciousness ( 322 ) . # 8221 ; This consciousness caused him to believe that these psychedelic drugs could enable him to see things the manner they were genuinely meant to be seen. After working as a trial topic for the infirmary, Kesey was able to acquire a occupation working as a psychiatric adjutant. This was the following important factor in composing the book. # 8220 ; Sometimes he would travel to work high on acid ( LSD ) ( 323 ) . # 8221 ; By making so, he was able to understand the hurting felt by the patients on the ward. In add-on, the occupation allowed him to analyze everything that went on within the confines of the infirmary. From these things, Kesey obtained exceeding penetration for composing One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest. To do the novel seem every bit realistic as possible, he slackly based the characters on the personalities of people in the ward ; besides, his usage of drugs while composing allowed him to do scenes such as Chief Bromden s ( The Chief is the storyteller of the narrative. He is a Native American who happens to be a paranoid schizophrenic. ) dreams much more graphic ( Ken 2 ) . As mentioned in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tes t, # 8221 ; certain transitions + like Chief Broom [ Chief Bromden ] in his schizophrenic fogs + [ it ] was true vision, a small of what you could see if you opened the doors of perceptual experience, friends ( Wolfe 328 ) . Ken Kesey s altered mental province while he wrote Cuckoo s Nest is what genuinely makes it alone. The fresh s message of arising against authorization was really influential to the counterculture coevals of the 1960 s. Kesey and his authorship became a cardinal factor in a decennary filled with drugs and anti-establishment feelings. One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest takes topographic point in a mental infirmary in which the patients individualism is suppressed by the caput nurse, Nurse Ratched. When a sane con-man ( Randle P. McMurphy ) has himself committed to avoid a prison sentence, the machine-like order that had antecedently existed on the ward is instantly challenged. Initially, McMurphy is a really selfish adult male whose lone desire is to do jobs for authorization figures, Nurse Ratched in peculiar, and to do life for himself every bit easily as possible. Finally, this all alterations as the conflict between himself and Nurse Ratched becomes their conflict for the psyche of the inmates. McMurphy s battle to # 8220 ; free # 8221 ; the other inmates is a hard one, finally ensuing in his ain devastation ; nevertheless, through his decease, the other patients are able to recognize their ain sense of ego and they escape the ward. Although McMurphy works to salvage all the inmates, the schizophrenic, Chief Br omden, is the chief mark of his attendings. The Chief is the largest, most powerful adult male on the ward, but is made to experience weak and inferior by remaining at that place. Upon recognizing his ain value at the terminal of the novel, Chief Bromden participates in the clemency violent death of McMurphy which allows for his ain complete release, every bit good as that of the other patients. Entering the mental infirmary a sane adult male, R.P. McMurphy merely looks out for himself ; nevertheless, this all alterations when he realizes the permanency of his residence on the ward if he does non conform. This motivates him to get down working to salvage the other inmates on the ward and reassign some of his high spirit into them. His battle to assist them recognize their individualism consequences in his ain mental decay and he is finally destroyed. In order to do himself every bit comfy as possible, McMurphy ab initio tries to withstand authorization and derive the inmates trust for his ain personal addition. He is instantly a menace to the order that Nurse Ratched has created and maintains. While there is non supposed to be chancing on the ward, one of McMurphy s first ends is to acquire the other patients to play cards with him for money. This is expressed when McMurphy says # 8221 ; I came to this constitution to convey you birds fun an amusement around the street arab tabular array ( Ken 12 ) . # 8221 ; Another manner that he is able to interrupt the infirmary s order is through his bold laughter. This is really distressing because no one of all time laughs in the mental infirmary. The inmates are controlled and mechanized ; the laughter suggests personality, which would interrupt down this order. Harmonizing to Chief Bromden, he had non hear a laugh in old ages ( 11 ) . McMurphy makes it obvious right off that he has no purpose of allowing the infirmary s machine-like order devour his individuality. As a consequence off his boisterous behaviour, the inevitable conflict between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched begins. During group therapy meetings, McMurphy does non allow Nurse Ratched have complete control as she has had in the past and as she would wish to go on. He disrupts the meetings by arousing the other patients to excit ement when they make remarks about their several jobs. It besides infuriates Nurse Ratched when McMurphy diverts the attending directed at other patients towards himself. Besides, one peculiar scene exposing the beginning of the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy occurs when McMurphy wants to watch the World Series. He convinces the inmates to defy Nurse Ratched by watching a clean Television screen, even when she turns off the World Series ( 140 ) . The things that McMurphy does early in the novel to conflict Nurse Ratched are selfish and have the purpose of being helter-skelter. Finally, this all begins to alter as McMurphy begins his battle to assist salvage the other inmates. He begins to conform somewhat when he recognizes the power that Nurse Ratched wields ; he learns that he can non be dismissed from the infirmary without Nurse Ratched stating he has been cured. However, the other inmates are non satisfied ; they want him to take a rebellion. McMurphy s rebellious nature goes from that of opportunism to that of devotedness to assisting the other inmates find their freedom and individualism. By making so, he besides sees a agency of flight for himself. The first show of his new scheme for withstanding authorization occurs on the fishing trip that the inmates take. This trip, which is organized by McMurphy, helps the inmates realize that they can move for themselves and returns to them some sense of dignity. Another illustration of McMurphy s alteration from a nuisance to a Jesus is how he and the Chief resist Nurse Ratched in the disturbed ward ( a subd ivision of the infirmary for those patients who are considered the most insane or unsafe ) . Trying to arouse an apology from McMurphy and Chief Bromden for maintaining another patient from holding an clyster, Nurse Ratched fails and angrily sends the two work forces to hold electro-shock therapy. Although McMurphy is weakened by this, the Chief takes his first measure towards being cured by stating the other patients of McMurphy s heroics ( 277 ) . This is the first clip that he has of all time talked to anyone other than McMurphy. In an obvious response to McMurphy s devotedness to him, the Chief starts to recognize his true ego. In the terminal, McMurphy s struggle leads to his devastation ; nevertheless, he still becomes the inmates savior. By happening McMurphy s failing, which is his unmanageable impulse to ever flim-flam the other inmates out of their money, Nurse Ratched is able to get the better of him. This is apparent when McMurphy tricks the other work forces into non believing that the Chief could raise the control panel. As a consequence of this unjust stake, McMurphy wins money from the other work forces, but loses much of their religion in him ( 256-257 ) . However, McMurphy finally regains their trust and the inmates join him in the large party on the ward. Because the party involves interrupting infirmary regulations, the inmates are forced into a state of affairs in which they will hold to support themselves. This is McMurphy s concluding effort at taking the inmates to their freedom. As a consequence of all his attempts to assist them, he has become worn-out, both physically and emotionally. Taking on the duty for the other patients has drained McMurphy of all his plangency and individualism ; nevertheless, it is about as if his animation has been transferred into the psyche of the inmates. Merely as in the jurisprudence of the preservation of energy ( energy can neither be created nor destroyed ) , McMurphy s verve must be sapped in order to give the other patients life. In consequence, McMurphy has sacrificed his ain saneness to do the others sane. The concluding struggle between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy occurs when McMurphy attacks her and reveals her gender by bring outing her big chests ( 305 ) . McMurphy is taken off to be given a lobotomy + a surgical operation in which a lobe of the encephalon, normally the frontal lobe, is cut out for the intervention of psychoses + but Nurse Ratched no longer has control over the other patients. By hiding her feminine nature, she has been able to hold power over the inmates. To them, Nurse Ratched antecedently symbolized the cold, unfeeling, and mechanised nature of the infirmary ; by uncovering her muliebrity, this frontage is destroyed and the work forces realize her failing. Now, although she defeats McMurphy physically, he has really won the conflict because the other patients are able to get away. In order to guarantee the Nurse s overall licking, Chief Bromden returns in the clemency violent death of McMurphy. His decease finalizes the transference of his spirit into the other p atients ; accordingly, this allows for the complete release of all the inmates. Using the Chief as the storyteller of the novel, as opposed to McMurphy, allows the reader to analyze McMurphy s actions as being heroic, non mere bluster. Chief Bromden, through his sub-rosa analysis of everything that occurs in the ward, is able to portray McMurphy s saga much more subtly than if McMurphy had been the storyteller. By utilizing the Chief s point of position, Kesey enables the reader to see a patient ( badly weakened by the infirmary s control over his individualism ) finally cured through the continuity of another forbearance to do him recognize his true ego. Because Kesey does such an effectual occupation in making the Chief s schizophrenic province early in the narrative, the reader is able to see him easy recover his sense of individuality and therefore one can truly understand the significance of McMurphy s aid in altering him. One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest should decidedly be included in a list of plants of high literary virtue. It s message of contending for individualism and self-expression is portrayed with immense accomplishment. Kesey s willingness to experiment with the radical manner of composing in an altered province of consciousness should be extremely regarded. This novel is a symbol of the 1960 s counterculture and should be considered a authoritative of its clip. Not merely were its issues of import during its ain decennary, but many are still relevant today.