Salvation through McMurphy - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Subject  > Literature Research Papers  > North American

'One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo's nest.' It is from this children's rhyme that Ken Kesey based the title of his book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Set in a 1960s mental hospital, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest focuses on the battle between the fun loving but rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy and the head nurse, Miss Ratched. McMurphy's disciples are the weak patients in the mental ward. Among them is Dale Harding, who protects himself with his intelligence, Billy Bibbit, a stuttering mama's boy, and Charles Chesswick, nervous, but the most open. The narrator of the story, Chief Bromden is also a patient. Using shame and fear, ...

... existence, McMurphy crashes through the door of Big Nurse's office and chokes her. He falls to the ground and is instantly smothered by security guards. They take him to the disturbed ward for a lobotomy. Through this final sacrifice, McMurphy not only achieves his own salvation but also leads the others to salvation. Even without McMurphy physically there, the patients still believe in him and what he stood for. Many of them sign out 'Against Medical Advice.' When Big Nurse returns, it is hard for her to rule with her old power 'with McMurphys presence still tromping up and down the halls and laughing out loud in the meetings and singing

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