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Character development in Harry Potter books
Morality in literature
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Recommended: Character development in Harry Potter books
Christ Like Characters
Two very different pieces of literature, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are actually quite similar in some respects. Although one story takes place in a mental hospital and the other deals with wizards in an often invisible world, each is a story of heroism and strength. However, the strongest area of similarity rests within the protagonist of each book. Throughout the novels one can see each one of these characters exemplifying qualities and actions which resemble a moral code or standard of ethics that feels vaguely familiar. When these attributes are linked together with clues and actions from the text one can see how Kesey and Rowling both chose to have their protagonists resemble a Christ figure in many more ways than you might have imagined. Both McMurphy and Harry must deal with a number of things which highlight this idea. Just like Christ, each will act selflessly at some point throughout their story. This will be followed or come along with suffering of some kind. Finally, a sacrifice will be made by each character which is sufficient to “settle the score.”
Some would argue that McMurphy is the farthest thing away from a selfless character. He first enters the mental ward to get himself out of work on the work farm. Immediately he wants to talk to the “Bull goose loony” so he can stake is territory and make sure everyone understands he is now in charge. Slowly but surely, McMurphy learns the habits of the patients and plays on their weaknesses often through the game of cards. There is, however, a turning point in McMurphy’s life among the hospital and its inhabitants. When McMurphy learns that he is stuck in the ward until Nurse Ratched will let him leave he tries to calm down a bit resulting in the death of the patient Cheswick (Kesey 166). McMurphy realizes at this moment that he is the patients hope and main source of normalcy. He begins to understand that the patients see him as a role model and, in a sense, their savior. Immediately he begins doing what he can for the patients. He fights for their rights concerning free time, he stands up to Nurse Ratched, and even takes them on a fishing trip (Kesey Part 3). McMurphy decides that helping these people is more important than his own life at the moment and focuses his time and energy into giving them a life.
Thomas C. Foster in his work How to Read Literature Like a Professor argues that even though characters may display evil characteristics, their religious values overpower and express “themselves in connection with the [character’s] role within society” (Foster 125). Literary characters may display some of the same characteristics as Christ while accomplishing actions with “redemption, hope, or miracle” (132). Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby symbolically resembles a Christ figure—sacrificing himself to save Daisy from the law, outstretching his arms towards hope, and coming to West Egg to retrieve Daisy’s unworthy world.
Literary fiction is littered with references to Christianity. It is very obviously a large and influential force in the western world so it is hardly surprising that a novel such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is so questioning of our society and moral values, should be so full of references to what is arguably the basis of these values. What the question asks, however, is if the character of McMurphy is portrayed as a Christ figure. A Christ figure being a reflection of the New Testament messiah within the characters actions, beliefs and effect on those around him. The figure will then redeem his followers, lead them to salvation, be martyred and resurrected.
People often find themselves as part of a collective, following society's norms and may find oneself in places where feeling constrained by the rules and will act out to be unconstrained, as a result people are branded as nuisances or troublemakers. In the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, the author Ken Kesey conveys the attempt McMurphy makes to live unconstrained by the authority of Nurse Ratched. The story is very one sided and helps create an understanding for those troublemakers who are look down on in hopes of shifting ingrained ideals. The Significance of McMurphy's struggles lies in the importance placed on individuality and liberty. If McMurphy had not opposed fear and autocratic authority of Nurse Ratched nothing would have gotten better on the ward the men would still feel fear. and unnerved by a possibility of freedom. “...Then, just as she's rolling along at her biggest and meanest, McMurphy steps out of the latrine ... holding that towel around his hips-stops her dead! ” In the novel McMurphy shows little signs like this to combat thee Nurse. His defiance of her system included
In the book as McMurphy progresses, he goes through many stages where he is rebellious, then docile, then rebellious again. This is due to the fact that he learns exactly what it means to be committed and what it takes to be released. Then he begins to see that all his ward mates (I don't know what you want to call them) are counting on him. becomes rebellious again. These reactions to his environments encourage McMurphy is not crazy but intelligent and quick. This is exactly the case. way a character such as McMurphy should act. In the movie, McMurphy is not only wild but rude. He tried to never be outright rude in the book. aggravating for the nurse) yet in the movie he was. He never stopped being. wild in the movie, leading you to believe that maybe in fact he is crazy.
Throughout the novel, McMurphy cheers up the other inmates by telling jokes and getting their minds off of the mental institution, yet the serious issues and problems of the institution often still prevail. During a fishing trip with everyone from the institution, the patients begin to feel awkward and out of place as they are not used to living in the real world and in a normal society. McMurphy soon realizes everyone around him is struggling to act normal and he attempts to cheer everyone up as the comedic hero. Kesey writes, “McMurphy saw how uneasy we were and tried to work us into a better mood by joking and teasing the girl, but this made us feel worse somehow. Everybody was thinking how easy it would be to return to the ward, go back and say they decided the nurse had been right; with a wind like this the sea would’ve been just too rough”(201). McMurphy initially tries to make everyone feel normal in this outside society by picking on a little girl but the inmates feel worse afterward. In some ways, McMurphy’s humor is shown as he knows it’s his job to cheer everyone up and he takes this role with pride acting as a comedic hero. Yet, the satirical aspect of the novel is more prevalent. All the patients know they will never be like anyone outside of society they see on the fishing trip because the institution has ruined their lives. Kesey writes how everyone understands it is so much easier to go back to the mental institution because they are not used anything else and they cannot act or function like normal people. In the institution, the inmates are treated inhumanely and abused by the guards so there is no possible way any of them could operate in a normal society. This idea that the institution has ruined everyone's lives so much they they cannot function in normal society pushes fits Ken Kesey’s own beliefs. Being part of Counterculture groups Kesey disagreed with
From the moment McMurphy enters the ward it is clear to all that he is different and hard to control. He’s seen as a figure the rest of the patients can look up to and he raises their hopes in taking back power from the big nurse. The other patients identify McMurphy as a leader when he first stands up to the nurse at her group therapy, saying that she has manipulated them all to become “a bunch of chickens at a pecking party”(Kesey 55). He tells the patients that they do not have to listen to Nurse Ratched and he confronts her tactics and motives. The patients see him as a leader at this point, but McMurphy does not see the need for him to be leading alone. McMurphy is a strong willed and opinionated man, so when he arrives at the ward he fails to comprehend why the men live in fear, until Harding explains it to him by
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) The character McMurphy as played by Jack Nicholson, McMurphy’s is a criminal who is troubled and keeps being defiant. Instead of pleading guilty, McMurphy pleads insanity and then lands inside a mental hospital. Murphy reasons that being imprisoned within the hospital will be just as bad as being locked up in prison until he starts enjoying being within by messing around with other staff and patients. In the staff, McMurphy continuously irritates Nurse Ratched. You can see how it builds up to a control problem between the inmates and staff. Nurse Ratched is seen as the “institution” and it is McMurphy’s whole goal to rebel against that institution that she makes herself out to be.The other inmates view McMurphy like he is god. He gives the inmates reason to
McMurphy and proctor eventually become heroes. In the end the men choose to do what is right, defending others, giving their lives in the process. In Kesey’s novel, McMurphy defends George, a patient afraid of dirt and the hospital soap that an orderly tries to force George to use. He tries to defend George by reasoning with the orderlies but this does not work so he fights them (Kesey 272-275). He later tries, partially succeeding, to choke Nurse Ratched and destroy her and her power. He is lobotomized for his actions so, to end his suffering, Chief smothers him (Kesey 319, 321, 323). Proctor chooses to die instead of confessing to a crime he didn’t commit (Miller 149-150). Both men’s deaths cause them to become martyrs, saving both the ward and Salem from complete and total destruction. Proctor and McMurphy’s martyrdom shows them to have grown to become heroes rather than selfish.
Foreshadowing clues and images are used to contribute to McMurphy as a figure of Christ. In the beginning of the novel McMurphy is baptized with a shower before entering the ward. The reader is also introduced to Ellis, a character who spends the entire novel in a cross position "nailed against the wall, arms out," (page 20). Another clue to McMurphy's developing character is presented during the electroshock therapy. McMurphy willingly lies down on a cross shaped table, ending up in the same position Ellis foreshadowed. McMurphy also asks for his crown of thorns. Before the therapy a schizophrenic patient approaches him and says "I wash my hands of the whole deal", as Pontius Pilate said to Jesus before sentencing him to death. Jesus was also friends with a prostitute named Mary, just like McMurphy was friends with prostitutes.
McMurphy uses his power of speech to rally his fellow patients against Nurse Ratched who is constantly revoking their privileges. He also uses it furtively to acquire all that he desires, by conning the other patients. Throughout the novel he is very loud and is known for his unwavering ability to speak his mind and confront those that oppose him.
In the novel, Kesey suggests that a healthy expression of sexuality is a key component of sanity and that repression of sexuality leads directly to insanity. For example; by treating him like an infant and not allowing him to develop sexually, Billy Bibbet's mother causes him to lose his sanity. Missing from the halls of the mental hospital are healthy, natural expression of sexuality between two people. Perverted sexual expressions are said to take place in the ward; for example; Bromden describes the aides as "black boys in white suites committing sex acts in the hall" (p.9). The aides engage in illicit "sex acts" that nobody witnesses, and on several occasions it is suggested that they rape the patients, such as Taber. Nurse Ratched implicitly permits this to happen, symbolized by the jar of Vaseline she leaves the aides. This shows how she condones the sexual violation of the patients, because she gains control from their oppression. McMurphy's sanity is symbolized by his bold and open insertion of sexuality which gives him great confidence and individuality. This stands in contrast to what Kesey implies, ironically and tragically, represents the institution.
Initially the ward is run as if it was a prison ward, but from the moment the brawling, gambling McMurphy sets foot on the ward it is identified that he is going to cause havoc and provide change for the patients. McMurphy becomes a leader, a Christ like figure and the other patients are his disciples. The person who is objective to listen to his teachings at first is Chief Bromden (often called Bromden), but then he realizes that he is there to save them and joins McMurphy and the Acutes (meaning that they have possibility for rehabilitation and release) in the protest against Nurse Ratched, a bureaucratic woman who is the protagonist of the story, and the `Combine' (or society).
Consider McMurphy and Mr. Keating, both characters are very similar in a multitude of ways. Neither of them is in charge as they are both under their respective antagonist, either being Nurse Ratched or Principle Nolan. However throughout the progression of each plot, they both teach and inspire either the patients or the students to become individuals. McMurphy gave the patients the ability to seize back the power from Nurse Ratched through showing them the way how, and teaching the patients that they are their own person and have their own rights. Mr. Keating teaches the students how to be outside the box, as shown when in class he strays from the regular methods of teaching and shows the students a truly out-of-the-box concept about life, “Carpe Diem.” Towards the final moments of the plot, both characters achieve a full commitment to their cause that eventuates in self-sacrifice. McMurphy is lobotomized and Mr. Keating is fired from Welton Academy. However similarly in both plots, after both characters sacrifices themselves they pass on what they have learned and allowed others to beat their struggle for independence. Chief leaves the institution and the students stand up against Principle Nolan with what they believe in. Weir and Kesey use these characters to inspire and support those who struggle for independence and use their characterization as a technique to do so.
The biggest theme of the story is oppression. Throughout the course of the story, patients are suppressed and fight to find who they really are. One particular symbol that represents the struggle is the control panel. McMurphy makes a valiant effort to lift the control panel, but it ends with “Then his breath
Nurse Ratched has such a control on the ward that she has gotten he patients to believe that their conditions are a lot worse than they actually are. The patient’s ultimate goal is to leave the hospital mentally stable and healthy, being told that their conditions are worse than they were before only strikes a panic. McMurphy is desperate for an escape from the ward but he knows the only way out is through Nurse Ratched. He knows that she can keep him in the ward for as long as she pleases, and he worries that will be a very long time. “Doctor—do I look like a sane man?” (Page 30). McMurphy has been set up to believe that he is extremely mentally unstable. This forces him to seek confirmation in his doctor. McMurphy does not let it show, but he deeply fears that is mental state will deteriorate during his time in the ward. Asking the doctor whether he thinks that he looks sane is McMurphy’s way of admitting that he is desperate for a release from the hospital and from Nurse Ratched’s controlling ways. “You seem to forget, Miss Flinn, that this is an institution for the insane."(Page 19). The way in which Nurse Ratched addresses the mental institution resembles her dehumanization of the patients in the ward. Nurse Ratched speaks of the mentally ill as if they should be ashamed and punished for something they have no control over. The nurse inflicts pain onto those whom are mentally ill as a way of treatment. McMurphy, who is originally the most mentally stable of the patients, is given pain treatments prescribed by Nurse Ratched. The treatment, in which Nurse Ratched gives McMurphy, is a punishment for not being in the right mental state. Because McMurphy’s mental state has not yet deteriorated tremendously, the pain treatment does nothing but make him internally fight with