Biblical Allusions In One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest

639 Words2 Pages

Biblical Allusions in One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest More often than not, humanity finds itself needing a guardian angel to save us from the tedious and humdrum cycles of society. There is such a hero in not only Jesus Christ, but also in Kesey’s great R.P. McMurphy. From the beginning, McMurphy is seen as a leader, much like Jesus, he creates a following of disciples with his charismatic and contrasting attitude. The use of Biblical allusions throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest enhances the meaning behind McMurphy’s influence and authority on the other patients. As soon as McMurphy shows up at the ward it is very obvious that his entire demeanor is much different than that of the other patients. The Chronics and Acutes are shunned from society living their lives trapped in an endless routine; McMurphy possesses a larger-than-life quality which made him attractive to the …show more content…

A clear correlation can be made between McMurphy and the healing power of Jesus. McMurphy is the one who induced Chief to voice himself for the first time in the novel when he tells him, "Thank-you." (p. 184). McMurphy essentially "cures" Chief of his “deafness” and “dumbness”. Billy Bibbit is also enabled by McMurphy, although he is ungrateful and sells out McMurphy saying "McMurphy did it!" (p. 264). Because of his deception, Billy commits suicide similarly to how Judas did when he handed over Jesus to the romans for crucifixion. Although McMurphy had been double crossed, the ultimate sacrifice was still made in order to assure Nurse Ratched could not take advantage of Billy's death to denounce the impression that he had left on the others and what they had achieved. His sacrifice is an inspiration to the others in that they finally gained enough strength so that the nurse could no longer "rule with her old power anymore" (p.

Show More
Related

  • Emotions In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    550 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, is a novel containing the theme of emotions being played with in order to confine and change people. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is about a mental institution where a Nurse named Miss Ratched has total control over its patients. She uses her knowledge of the patients to strike fear in their minds. Chief Bromden a chronic who suffers from schizophrenia and pretends to be deaf and mute narrates the novel. From his perspective we see the rise and fall of a newly admitted patient, RP McMurphy. McMurphy used his knowledge and courage to bring changes in the ward. During his time period in the ward he sought to end the reign of the dictatorship of Nurse Ratched, also to bring the patients back on their feet. McMurphy issue with the ward and the patients on the ward can be better understood when you look at this novel through a psychoanalytic lens. By applying Daniel Goleman’s theory of emotional intelligence to McMurphy’s views, it is can be seen that his ideas can bring change in the patients and they can use their

    Read More

  • AP Lit Final

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...

    Read More

  • McMurphy is Not a Christ Figure in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    1321 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first allusion to the New Testament comes when the chief introduces the reader to the patient Ellis. Ellis' arms our outspread in the pose of crucifixion, an affectation caused by many treatments on the Electro-Shock Therapy(EST) table, a pose that McMurphy later adopts when he receives the treatment. Ellis also tells Billy Bibbitt before the fishing trip to be ` a fisher of men' one of Christ's instructions to his disciples. The purpose of the character seems to be an introduction for the reader to this theme and to have it introduced so early on both highlights the universal nature of the struggle that McMurphy and the patients face and also allows the reader to be ...

    Read More

  • Comparison of Book and Movie of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    695 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Quote Analysis

    3070 Words  | 7 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.

    Read More

  • Weakening the Combine in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    When norms of society are unfair and seem set in stone, rebellion is bound to occur, ultimately bringing about change in the community. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest demonstrates the conflict of individuals who have to survive in an environment where they are pressured to cooperate. The hospital's atmosphere suppresses the patients' individuality through authority figures that mold the patients into their visions of perfection. The ward staff's ability to overpower the patients' free will is not questioned until a man named Randal McMurphy is committed to the mental institute. He rebels against what he perceives as a rigid, dehumanizing, and uncompassionate environment. His exposure of the flaws in the hospital's perfunctory rituals permits the other patients to form opinions and consequently their personalities surface. The patient's new behavior clashes with the medical personnel's main goal-to turn them into 'perfect' robots, creating havoc on the ward.

    Read More

  • Discourses of Conformity in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s nest and Advice to Young Ladies

    1209 Words  | 3 Pages

    The dominant discourse of conformity is characterised predominantly by influencing to obey rules described by Kesey’ novel ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. At the start of the novel, all the acute and the silence chronic conform to Nurse Ratched’s rules before the arrival of McMurphy. Since, she was in complete control over the ward until McMurphy arrived. After he arrived, he begins to take control of the patients. He begins to take the role of leader, a leader that was unexpected. Kesey has foregrounded the character, McMurphy to be different thus creating a binary opposite that is represented in the novel. Kesey shows the binary opposites as being good versus evil. The former represents the con man McMurphy, and the latter represents the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. An example of this would be, “She’s carrying her wicker bag…a bag shape of a tool box with a hemp handle…” (pg.4), showing that Nurse Ratched is a mechanic. McMurphy is portrayed as being a good character by revitalising the hope of the patients by strangling Nurse Ratched. This revitalise the hope for the pa...

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Power

    603 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Power comes from temperament but enthusiasm kills the switch”. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken kesey reveals how the struggle for power and authority is shown in the psychiatric hospital. Ken kesey expresses this mastery through Nurse Ratched and McMurphy and their effect on the patients in the ward. Nurse Ratched has all the power due to her technically being in charge of the ward. The patients “men” are powerless with their acceptance and obedience to her actions. However, everything changes when McMurphy arrives. His confidence and charisma give him some type of power that challenges and disrupts the Nurse’s drunkening thirst for power. Power in this novel is lost, gained and repossessed.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Mcmurphy In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Randle Patrick McMurphy is the patients’ savior. By definition a savior is an individual who saves someone or something from danger, and who is regarded with the veneration of a religious figure. A savior either directly or indirectly gives faith to his followers in hopes of them continuing their fight against oppression. Upon his arrival to the ward McMurphy is quick to adapt the role of a Christ-figure as he helps the patients reach salvation from the societal restraints of the combine. Christ, however, is the ultimate savior. According to the bible Christ performed countless miracles to spiritually heal and inspire his followers. Christ’s most renowned act of miracle healing is when

    Read More

  • OFOTCN

    1700 Words  | 4 Pages

    After the introduction by the Chief, the story proceeds to a normal morning at the ward. The patients are sitting in the Day Room after their morning pills. Then a new patient, Randall McMurphy, checks in. McMurphy was a big redheaded man who loved to gamble and got transferred to the ward from a work farm. From the beginning, McMurphy had been hard to control. He refused any of the traditional check in routines that any new patient needed to follow including taking his admission shower. The Black Boys, the orderlies of the ward, went to get Nurse Ratched in attempt to put McMurphy in line.

    Read More

  • Cuckoo's Nest Randle Mcmurphy Character Analysis

    557 Words  | 2 Pages

    He continued to show the patients that the nurses were not in power in fact had little power over him. Inspired patients occurred once again he had inspired them with is lack of surrender to the wards system. With this situation in play this brought up McMurphy picking the needs of patients to motivate his own plan of

    Read More

  • one flew over the cuckoos nest

    587 Words  | 2 Pages

    McMurphy is shown as a martyr like Jesus was because the patients really don’t become free until he dies. Before the treatment is administered to him McMurphy “climbs on the table without help and spreads his arms out to hit the shadow. A switch snaps the clasps on his wrists, ankles, clamping him into the shadow” (Kesey pg. 272) When the graphite salve is put on his temples and they tell him its a conductant he says “Anointest my head with conductant.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: 3 Points

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Kesey makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: the effects of sexual repression, woman as castrators, and the pressures we face from society to conform. Through these points, Kesey encourages the reader to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the reader realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as "crazy."

    Read More

  • Criticism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    Unable to see McMurphy imprisoned in a body that will go on living (under Nurse Ratched’s control) even though his spirit is gone, Chief smothers him to death that night. Then he escapes the hospital and leaves for Canada and a new life. We begin to see the different situations in which the patients struggle to overcome. Whether insane or not, the hospital is undeniably in control of the fates of its

    Read More

More about Biblical Allusions In One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest

Open Document