McMurphy To The Hospital example essay topic

McMurphy is the saviour of the institution. McMurphy starts off as a run of the muck person not needing medical attention and almost from the start realizes what's going on in the institute and works (sometimes in an odd way) but to help the inmates get out of the "fog". Where the other patients are timid and quiet, McMurphy is cocky and loud; where they are unable to do more than snicker, his healthy laughter shakes the walls; where they are sexually repressed, he is a self-proclaimed (and, by the evidence, genuine) champion lover. Much of Cuckoo's Nest is devoted to showing how McMurphy teaches the rest of the patients to be sane.

What does this sanity consist of? Above all, it is the ability to laugh, both at yourself and at a world that is often ludicrous and cruel. Says Chef Broaden, 'He knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. ' He may brag, but he never takes himself too seriously. When George Sorenson refuses to shake his 'dirty' hand, McMurphy doesn't take offence, merely jokes, 'Hand, how do you suppose that old fellow knew all the evil you been into?' And he accepts himself. Where Harding is embarrassed by his 'feminine' hands, McMurphy is at ease with his gentler side- his fine handwriting, for example.

One of the ways the Nurse and other members of the Combine destroy men is by making them impotent. The Chief's return to sanity is signalled in part by an erection. Billy will defeat his domineering mother (and Nurse Ratched) when he loses his virginity to Candy. Equally important is Mcmurphy disregard of society's rules and conventions whether he is brushing his teeth with soap powder, letting Martini play his own wild style of Monopoly, or watching a non-existent baseball game on a blank television screen, McMurphy never lets rules or even common sense stand in the way of good fun which comes from his rebellious side. This shows the other patients that the Power of the Big Nurse is not absolute and complete, they don't have to live the way she says, she is governed by rules (although loosely) but she can be over come. The court that sent McMurphy to the hospital ruled him a psychopath; while his diagnosis is so obviously harsh even Dr. Spivey doubts it, while the readers may lead to suspect that it contains just a bit of truth.

Among the characteristics of a psychopathic personality are "extreme self-centered ness and a disregard for moral and social responsibilities" - Mum (Nurse). Certainly McMurphy shows some of those characteristics in the early portion of the book. He came to the hospital only to seek an easier life than he had at the work farm, and at first the battles he fights are fought solely in pursuit of that easy life. They may benefit the other patients, but first they benefit him: it's McMurphy who wants to play cards in the tub room, who wants to watch the World Series.

Even the Chief suspects that McMurphy has escaped the Combine because he has 'no one to care about, which is what made him free enough to be a good con man. ' The same strong instinct for self-preservation that makes him break the rules also makes him obey when he discovers Nurse Ratched's power to keep him in the hospital. But then something happens. One of the patients, Chiswick, who has idolized McMurphy, grows despondent when McMurphy surrenders. He kills himself. McMurphy begins to see that, against his will, he has been saddled with the responsibility of being a hero to men who desperately need a hero.

The rest of the book shows him slowly but steadily rising to that responsibility, teaching the other patients- through basketball games and fishing trips- not to let their fears paralysed them. Unfortunately, his generosity is still mixed with a desire for personal gain: he lets George Sorenson go on the fishing trip for $5, not for free; he makes the Chief keep his bargain to lift the control panel so McMurphy can win bets; he demands money from Billy for Candy's visit. This residue of greed convinces the patients that McMurphy was never anything more than a conman. Only the Chief understands the truth: that at great cost to himself, McMurphy has become the hero the patients require.

Their need for him is what keeps his worn out body and spirit going; it's what pushes him to fight for George in the shower, suffer shock treatments, refuse escape until Billy has his date with Candy, and, finally, suicidally, attack Nurse Ratched. It is because saves the patients from personal destruction, by freeing them and pulling them out of the fog, that he is the saviour of the patients.