Why is mcmurphy a hero

Leeds points out , p. In opposition to the wholly suffocating and dehumanizing order Miss Ratched Big Nurse imposes on all the psychiatric ward, there appears the disruptionist figure of Randolph Patrick McMurphy.

Indeed, if on the one hand, all the inmates represent the great masses of subjugated populations whose rights and human dignity are denied by a superior authority, on the other hand, Miss Ratched appears as the perfect representative of the Combine, whose main intention is to maintain strict order and discipline, at the cost of physical and sexual violence, electroshock therapy EST , narcotic medication, lobotomy, or even death itself. Feigning insanity, McMurphy manages to escapes hard labor on the County work farm, where he has been serving a sentence for assault and battery, and is then committed to the hospital.

Chief Bromdem, the Indian narrator who is also committed to the hospital and pretends to be deaf and dumb, describes his entrance to the hospital. He is used to witness the same routine applying to any Admission, and always enacted by the three black boys. Nevertheless, in McMurphy's case he realizes something different, as though he were foreshadowing the importance of the roles the new arrival is going to perform on that ward. The following passage illustrates such a perception on the part of Chief Bromdem:.

But this morning I have to sit in the chair and only listen to them bring him in. Still, even though I can't see him, I know he's not an ordinary Admission. I don't hear him slide scared along the wall, and when they tell him about the shower he don't just submit with a weak little yes, he tells them right back in a loud, brassy voice that he's already plenty damn clean, thank you KESEY, , p.

McMurphy, and I'm a gambling fool. It goes without saying then that McMurphy is no doubt the protagonist in the novel. As a consequence, all his actions and his growing importance will ultimately force the reader to reach some opinions about McMurphy himself and the kind of role he is going to perform in the novel. Hence, a number of crucial questions may arise, such as: Does McMurphy fit perfectly his apparently obvious anti-heroic characterizations, or can he be viewed as a hero in spite of not possessing a series of prerequisites a hero should traditionally present?

Do heroes necessarily have to follow certain fixed mythological or religious patterns? In a word, due to the already mentioned complexity of the 's as a time of social effervescence and radical changes, portrayed in the microcosm of the psychiatric ward, Miss Ratched and the Combine behind her represent the extreme and ruthless oppression against which McMurphy's natural leadership is going to declare war. Since McMurphy has to react properly to any strategic attack by Miss Ratched, the whole situation in which they are involved grants his character a certain complexity, which allows by no means the existence of easy answers to the questions about McMurphy and the social relevance of his functions in the novel.

Concentrating the focus of the discussion on the issue of whether or not McMurphy performs the role of a hero, I firmly believe that it is possible to trace a few heroic characteristics in a character presenting so many obvious and strong features of an anti-hero like Randolph P. To begin with, it is necessary to understand the meaning of these so-called anti-heroic characteristics of McMurphy's. The first thing that inevitably comes to one's mind then is that given the harshness of the conditions on the ward McMurphy would not have had any success at all had he played the pacifist Mahatma Gandhi or even Jesus Christ.

Thus, it is exactly because of the confrontation of the social forces that McMurphy should appropriately be first seen as a hero, as Jerome Klinkowitz observes:. Against these social forces, which by the 's had come to be perceived as threats, McMurphy places himself as a revolutionary hero.

He is first of all an authority in general, and especially against the type of authority that inhibits self-expression and places limits on the individual , p. As can be seen, Klinkowitz acknowledges McMurphy's role of hero and even politician, as well as he does the same in relation to Yossarian, the protagonist in Joseph Heller's Catch Among them, Chief Bromdem is certainly the most responsive follower of McMurphy, being also responsible for the mythologization of McMurphy's resistance and rebellion.

In light of that, one can within reason argue that, - putting aside Chief Bromdem's evident idealization of McMurphy's - , Mac can also be seen as a sort of Circumstantial Hero, who hadn't had the least intention of becoming a hero, before being committed to that ward. However, if Harding's and Billy Bibbit's serious sexual problems increased by Big Nurse are taken into consideration, McMurphy's sexual vitality represents life and energy in opposition to the sterility of the universes of those repressed men as well as the others on the ward.

In addition, if sexual activity is viewed as a sign of humanization, in opposition to the mechanistic view of people as machines, then McMurphy is to be considered the perfect leader or hero to fit the requirements of that community on the ward. McMurphy is the one strong male that can defend all of the weaker ones.

Randle McMurphy lost his life courageously. McMurphy is the hero of this novel because he stood firmly against oppresive powers, showing bravery defending the other patients and ultimately paying with his life. How did McMurphy die? However, Ratched has lost her tyrannical power over the ward. The patients transfer to other wards or check themselves out of the hospital.

Bromden suffocates McMurphy in his bed, enabling him to die with some dignity rather than live as a symbol of Ratched's power. Why is McMurphy a tragic hero? McMurphy is a tragic hero who has many reasons that leads to his incentable downfall. McMurphy is a patient inside a ward with cronics and acutes. McMurphy enters the ward not knowing the policy of the ward causing mayhem by going against policy rules due to his actions.

McMurphy grins and rubs his nose with his thumb. What does Nurse Ratched do to McMurphy? McMurphy lunges at Nurse Ratched in an attempt to strangle her and tears her garment open, exposing her breasts to the other horrified patients. Nurse Ratched sends McMurphy to receive a lobotomy, and he is returned to the ward in a vegetative state. What do McMurphy's shorts symbolize? In the end, McMurphy sacrifices himself for his fellow patients. Remember me. Forgot your password? New User? First Name.