'This man is a Napoleon, a Ganghis Khan, Attila the Hun'

Sveta: The words above belong to a member of professional meeting held by Nurse Ratched. I suppose this is a very vivid answer to the question 'What does McMurphy represent in the novel?'. Without reading the novel we can outline his character and role in the novel judging by this phrase.

While serfing the 'Net searching for the answer to the question I found pretty numerous ideas deserving special attention. First of all, some add him to social disturbers. By the way, the Big Nurse herself is in search of every possible cause to send him to the Disturbers ward. Well, frankly speaking, McMurphy is a disturber in a positive sence of the word. I mean he belong to that kind of people who gets sick of inactivity. That's why he bursts into long-established environment and intentionally destroys it. Of course, those who inhabit this atmosphere are woken up by his energy and they don't like it. That's why they consider him dangerous and excentric and new. It's the latter that they mostly afraid of.

Another opinion bases on the concept of Jesus (http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/2/18/24539/9666). Some people compare McMurphy with the Christ. As for me, such belief is rather superfluous. First of all, I have never met any prototype of Jesus Christ in American literature (unlike in Russian one. We all remeber Ieshua in Bulgakov's 'Master and Margaret'). Secondly, McMurphy is intentionally striving for better conditions on the ward. I mean his ultimate goal is not to make the Acutes and Chronics' life easier at hospital. He does everything contrary to the Nurse's orders. He contradicts her just out of the wish to contradict, the wish to change. I don't think he cares much about the patients. They are just 'flesh' which are likely to give him support. Jesus, on the contrary, didn't waste his energy on those who were in power. He knew it was useless. I doubt if he was thinking aabout it at all.

Another group of people stick to the opinion that McMurphy is an outsider. Somebody with boisterous personality, first widely accepted and then totally damaged by public unruffled equnimity. I have to disagree with them. The point is that a typical outsider does his best to move away from all other types of people. He himself choses to be alone, abandoned, secluded or whatsoever. As you can understand, McMurphy on the contrary penetrates into the new company in order "to defeat the enemy from the inside".

From my personal point of view, McMurphy can be ranked among outstanding egotists, the prominent conquerors, scientists, kings and villains. Such people are not stopped by the number of victims of their deeds. They want to prove the whole world that one individual costs and is capable of much more than the whole world.

Psychologic battling

Sveta: Sorry everyone for not posting so long. Spring, april... and winter cold, you know. Quite an appropriate opportunity to stay home and write a couple of lines. I'm starting to get an impression that the Big Nurse and Mc'Murphy are struggling mental battles. Mc'Murphy provokes Mrs. Ratched to show emotional and verbal feedback to his offers adn suggestions. In turn, the Nurse does her best to conceal fuss but all the patients notice it: "She fumbles with thr papers, and it looks like her hands are shaking". However, soon she gets unbelievably calm and dignified: "Her face is still calm, although she had a cast made adn painted to just the look she wants. Confident, patient and unruffled. No more little jerk, just that terrible cold face, a calm smile stamped out of red plastic..." Why is it so easy for thr nurse to gain confidence and unrufled equinimity so abruptly? It's just because she knows it's her ward, her place, her war... And both the patients and personnel admit it. These are the wards of the narrator: "She's too big to be beaten. She covers one whole side of the room like a jap statue. There's no moving her and no help against her. She's lost a little battle today, but it's a minor battle in a big war that she's been winning and that she'll go on winning... As soon as you let down your guard, as soon as you lose once, she's won for good. And eventually we all got to lose. Nobody can help that". So it's not Mc'Murphy opposing the Big Nurse but all the patients. By the way, during the Monopoly game most of them turn to be quite sane and healthy-minded.

Interesting things

Elya:Searching for the information related to our theme, I've found several interesting links. They are downright different, so please don't critisize me for such diverse information put together.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-136,pageNum-88.html Here is a quiz based on the text of "One flew over the cuckoo's nest". Not so easy one, frankly speaking. I suppose this link would be useful for those people who have read this novel and want to check their knowledge and also understanding of the novel itself. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/trivia Here are some amusing facts about the movie "One flew...". Actually I didn't know that the producer of the film is Michael Douglas(a famous american actor) and his father, Kirk Douglas, possessed the movie rights for a long time, before Michael finally started the project. I think it's worth reading just because such things always turn to be interesting.
As far as the film itself is concerned I was searching for it very long, and, unfortunately, in the end I missed to find it. You know, a link from which you can download the movie for free)Well, I hope I'll find it some day...
And one more thing: in Moscow theatre "Lenkom" you can see the play based on "One flew..." with such well-known actors as Al. Abdulov, A. Sirin, A. Lazarev, S. Stepanchenco, S. Frolov acting in it. It would be better, of course, if the the actors spoke English on the stage, but still it must be absorbing, I'm sure.

About the fotos

http://www.littlereview.com/goddesslouise/ - This is Louise Fletcher appreciation page. There is nothing youcan't find here. You may look through the latest interviews of the famous actress as well as learn detailed information about her creative work, biography and what's not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Nicholson - If you want to get a clue of Jack Nicholson's cinema-life, this web-site will be more than enough. You'll see how his internal life influenced his career choice and his film characters. A fabulous link, very eye-cathing and rather detailed. Enjoy yourselves!!

P.s

This link is for those who're unwilling to read 400 pages about mental disorders:
http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/cuckoosnest/charlist.html. Have a nice read!!

More than awesome

Sveta: now I think I can add more details to Mc'Murphy's personality than just "awesome". I completely Agree with Lilya on the point that it's absolutely sane of him to swap a prison sentence for the life in the mental hospital. Moreover, I'm starting to think that he is more reasonable than Dr. Harding and the Big Nurse. While his argument with Dr. Harding, Mc'Murphy proved to be better-attached-to-life, if I can put it that way. Doctor is like a naive child believing the Nurses's humane intentions while she simply needs to demonstrate her power over the mentally disabled. It's a token of a weak person, I suppose. She does her best to conceal her weakness and fears. No surprise, she has no family, no children. Maybe, it's for the better. I can't imagine her raising her own offspring. As for Mc'Murphy, he makes the doctor believe he's sane. Of course, Harding doesn't notice that he treats Mc'Murphy in a kind of respectable way.

just some thoughts

Elya: Well, now it's my turn to write something. I must admit that it is really not easy to read this book. In most cases colloquial speech is used, and sometimes it's quite hard to understand it, espessially reading it during my way to university and back without any dictionary at all...) But the more I read, the more hooked on it I become. Actually, I haven't read much, but I've mentioned 2 things, about which the author constantly "speaks". The first is that the whole clinic is viewed as a machine, a mechanism, that is headed by The Big Nurse. "It"(I can't even imagin this monster can be a woman) doesn't pity anyone, but is very zealous in keeping everything in order. "It" plays a role of God in "its" small world, but do human beings have any rights to do this? And what is more, I' m convinced it's not the quality of "the person who is above" to treat others like "the monster" does. Well, it's question to be discussed, but a bit later. The other moment that attracted my attention is hate. The hate that fills the ward. The Chief Bromden always speaks about it("they are in the contact on a high-voltage wave length of hate"). Sounds impressing, doesn't it? But McMurphy is "outa" special. In his words and laugh that so impressed the Chief, by the way, power, freedom and self-confidence can be "heard". I just begin to smile when I read his "hoo boy" or "hey, buddies".

One more thing I'd like to add is a link http://www.key-z.com/KenKeseyPics7.htm

Some fotos of Kessy. I think he was rather cheerful)