McMurphy Faces example essay topic

McMurphy clowns around during breakfast, embarrassing Billy Bibbit by claiming that Billy is known as "Billy Club" Bibbit of the famous fourteen inches. McMurphy bets the other patients that he can fling a dab of butter in the center of the face of the clock. He appears to miss, but the butter slides down to the clock, hitting the face. McMurphy complains to Nurse Ratched about the music, but she tells him that he is being selfish, for there are older men who couldn't hear the radio at all if it were lower, and the music is all that they have. He suggests that the patients be allowed to take their card games someplace else, such as the room where the tables are stored, but she tells him that they do not have adequate personnel for two day rooms.

McMurphy has an interview with the doctor, and during the daily meeting the doctor tells the patients that he and McMurphy went to the same high school, and were reminiscing about the school's carnivals. He suggests a similar carnival for the ward. The patients reluctantly like the idea. Nurse Ratched tells the doctor that an idea like this should be discussed in a staff meeting first. Dr. Spivey also mentions how McMurphy was concerned that the older fellows couldn't hear the radio. When Dr. Spivey mentioned that the younger men complained about the noise, McMurphy then suggested opening a second day room, a game room.

Dr. Spivey believes that there is sufficient staff to cover two rooms. When they return to the normal business of the meeting, Nurse Ratched's hands seem to shake. Chief Bromden thinks that she shows weakness or worry, but realizes that this makes no difference, for she has the Combine behind her. Analysis: Although One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest can be construed as a parable pitting the counterculture (McMurphy) against the establishment (Ratched), to view the novel in these terms is too simplistic. If McMurphy is a challenge to the establishment, he nevertheless attempts to work within it. His request to have the music volume lowered is rational and diplomatic, while his counterproposal to open the tub room as a game room for the patients is also a viable option.

Nevertheless, Nurse Ratched is less interested in working with McMurphy than in demonstrating her dominance over him. She will not allow McMurphy these concessions, for to do so would empower him. Her interest is not in the patients, but rather in perpetuating her own sense of control, as shown by her apparent dislike of any idea that is not her own. It is only when McMurphy finds his proposals will be immediately dismissed that he manipulates the system by using Dr. Spivey, but even in this case he uses the established system, however instrumentally for his own ends, instead of challenging it. This method is particularly infuriating to Nurse Ratched and the impetus for the sudden crack in her steel facade. McMurphy uses the system that Nurse Ratched manipulates against her.

Nevertheless, Chief Bromden emphasizes that no matter what McMurphy gains, his struggles are inevitably in vain, for Nurse Ratched has the power of the Combine, thus society, behind her. Chapter Ten: McMurphy plays Monopoly with Harding, Martini, Scanlon and Chiswick. Martini hallucinates, thinking that he sees things on the board. Analysis: Even when McMurphy cannot gamble, he finds some way to 'bet' with the other patients and gain money, as this game of Monopoly demonstrates. Chapter Eleven: McMurphy keeps high-class manners around the nurses and black boys in spite of what they might say to him, in spite of every trick they pull to get him to lose his temper. McMurphy begins to see how funny the rules are.

McMurphy will be safe as long as he can laugh. Only once does he become angry: at one of the group meetings, he becomes angry at the other patients for acting too cagey and 'chicken-shit. ' McMurphy had wanted to change the schedule around so that the men could watch the World Series during the day and do the cleaning work at night. McMurphy expects the nurses to oppose him, but does not expect the Acutes to not say a thing. McMurphy attempts to round up a vote for a schedule change, but they fail to see the use in doing anything. He confronts Harding, for he believes his failure to support McMurphy indicates that he is afraid of Nurse Ratched.

Billy Bibbit claims that nothing they could do will be of any use in the long run. McMurphy claims that he's going to break out of the institution by lifting up the control panel in the tub room and throwing it through the window. He tries to lift it, but it weighs far too much. Analysis: Kesey moves the social criticism in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to a different level in this chapter by demonstrating that Nurse Ratched is not the only obstacle that McMurphy faces to effect social change. The apathy of the other patients proves a burden to McMurphy, for they do not have the energy to support changes in ward policy that they actually do want.

They take Billy Bibbit's position that any action that they may take is useless. This chapter in particular suits a Marxist interpretation of the novel. If Nurse Ratched and the other administrative staff represent the ruling class in the institution, the patients are certainly the proletariat, an unformed mass that must be exhorted to collective action. McMurphy will serve as the driving force for creating this solidarity and will for action among the patients. The control panel in the tub room will prove significant later in the novel.

Kesey includes this early mention of it as foreshadowing for later events; although McMurphy cannot lift it, there may be others who can. Chapters Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen: Public Relation shows a visiting doctor the institution, and has him examine Chief Bromden. Public Relation claims that there would have to be something wrong with a man who would want to run away from a place as nice as this. The fog gets worse for Chief Bromden, who thinks that McMurphy cannot understand that the fog does keep the patients safe. One of the patients, Old Rawler, kills himself. Analysis: Kesey presents these chapters in short succession.

Two of these contain little more than a paragraph. This serves to show the disjointed nature of Chief Bromden's observations. He presents only brief glimpses of events that occur in the institution, none of which contain any great significance. Even the suicide of Old Rawler is largely inconsequential in terms of the plot and atmosphere of the novel. The most important point that Chief Bromden makes is that the 'insanity' as represented by the fog is a comfort for the patients.

It allows them to recede from the difficulties of reality that McMurphy wants them to face.