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  • Essay / The Correlation Between Mcmurphy's Character and Christ in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    RP McMurphy is not your average mentally ill person stuck in an institution ward. In fact, McMurphy is one of the most unique patients the "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" ward has ever seen. While most men in the neighborhood enlisted, McMurphy chose to be placed in an institution instead of serving time and spending time on a farm. McMurphy is a big man with remarkable confidence. Other men idolize and fear him from the first moment they spend in his presence. At the beginning of the book, McMurphy plays with Big Nurse and the other hospital staff. He figures he might as well have some fun with them, because he's under the mistaken impression that he only has "x" days left before he's released. Soon, however, he realizes that he is at Big Nurse's mercy if he ever wants to be free again. Before he realized this, he was an inspiration, someone others looked up to and tried to emulate. When McMurphy realizes that he is destroying his own chance to be free and continues on this path anyway, he effectively becomes the savior of the room. Much like Christ's decision to die for man's sins, McMurphy gives himself up for the freedom of the other men in the parish. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Repeatedly throughout the book, the similarities between McMurphy and Christ are revealed through McMurphy's interactions with the other men in the room. For example, when McMurphy takes Chief by the hand and tells him that he will make him well, the images of the scene alone serve as a reference to Christ. McMurphy makes Chief, a Native American with a broken spirit and rampant insecurities, his project, embodying everyone who needs saving. At one point, McMurphy grabs Chief by the hand and Chief, as deluded as he is, feels McMurphy's blood pumping directly into his own arm. It seems to the chief that McMurphy is literally giving up his own blood to restore him. Later in the book, another example of McMurphy's Christ-like behavior in the presence of the Chief occurs when the Chief admires McMurphy's arms, commenting on the fact that they resemble his own when he played football in his youth. The chief is impressed by McMurphy and thinks, "I should touch him to see if he's still alive." » Again, this is a scene in which McMurphy's character is heavily influenced by Christ. The leader comments on the similarity between McMurphy's arms and his own, recalling how Christ was created in the image of man. People are encouraged to see Christ in themselves and in each other: He was brought into this world as a mere mortal so that he could spread the Word in a way that humanity could easily relate to. identify. McMurphy is just a man, like any of his friends in the parish. At another point in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” the Chief imitates “Doubting Thomas's” reaction to Christ's resurrection. He feels he must be in physical contact with McMurphy to believe in him; this recalls Thomas' need to put his hand into Christ's wounds to feel for himself that the holes are real. McMurphy's cross is not easy to bear: even if he does not completely accept his fate, he is aware of it. He knows that if he continues as he has been doing so far, he will become Big Nurse's main target. Men will be free to witness his strength and weakness, and will therefore grow as men and as people, free to be proud of their lives. Each.