The Role Of Characterism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Individuals often mistake their reality for the reality of the world. An extreme case of this is R.P. McMurphy in Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. McMurphy is a “redhead with long red sideburns, and a tangle of curls,” the color of his hair coinciding with his spitfire personality (Kesey 11). He is brought to a mental ward at the start of the novel and acts as the catalyst for all the events to follow in his time spent there. He takes it upon himself to liberate the weak men of the ward from their oppression, and aid them in the regaining of their manhood. On this journey, two patients he is helping end up committing suicide: Cheswick near the beginning, and Billy Bibbit toward the end. McMurphy plays a role in both events,

This idea of society as a system of oppression is what the narrator of the novel, Chief Bromden, is attempting to explain to McMurphy the whole time. Chief, being a mentally ill man, refers to this system as “the combine” which to him is “a big machine room down in the bowels of a dam” (153). This use of mechanical imagery in describing the entity that controls the men feeds into Kesey’s commentary on how inhumanely mental patients are treated by society. McMurphy is first seen to understand this idea when sitting outside an X-ray room with the other patients. The patients sit discussing the evils of Nurse Ratched, this is seen when Kesey writes, “They talk for a while about whether she’s the root of all the trouble here or not, and Harding says she’s the most of it” (192). Following this moment, instead of having him agree, Kesey provides McMurphy with a contrasting opinion when he writes, “McMurphy isn’t so sure anymore,” which implies he is coming to the realization,“It’s the whole combine, the nationwide combine that’s really the big force,” that has power over the men (192). McMurphy finally becomes certain of his assumption in the first conversation he has with Chief. Chief, for the first time explains his idea of the combine to McMurphy when he says, “‘they

Nurse ratched states, “‘He opened the doctor's desk and found some instruments and cut his throat,’” when describing Billy Bibbit’s death. Kesey employs straightforward and disturbing imagery to make the reader uncomfortable, and upset at Billy’s death. Billy is driven to this decision when Nurse Ratched threatens to tell his mother he slept with a prostitute, Candy. Directly following Nurse Ratched’s statement, “‘What worries me Billy, is how your poor mother is going to take this,’” Billy drops to the floor and pleads for her forgiveness, revealing he is still a weak boy even after sex. This moment highlights the idea that McMurphy, while doing his best to prepare Billy for the world by providing him with Candy, still lacks the understanding that the patients of the ward suffer deeper battles than their ones against Nurse Ratched. Billy has been coddled by his mother his entire life, which is the biggest factor in his inability to develop as a masculine figure. When Chief is describing a scene where Billy asks his mother if he can move on to larger things, he says ,“His mother tickled him with fluff and laughed at such foolishness”(295). This pushing aside of his masculinity by his mother can be assumed to occur in his everyday life. Billy has been conditioned into being the little boy he