Essay | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Mcmurphy as Christ

Randall P. McMurphy of Ken Kesey's classic novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is, in every sense of the phrase, his own man. To say a few things about him, he is a big, loud, drinking, gambling, wisecracking, hotheaded Irishman. Although he is not clinically insane, he gets himself transferred to a mental hospital because he decides he would find life easier there than at the state work farm he was sentenced to. However, at the hospital, McMurphy discovers a ward full of patients who have been stripped of their humanity, self-respect, and their manhood, by the tyrannical, heartless Nurse Ratched. During his stay at the hospital, McMurphy comes to the rescue of the oppressed, dehumanized mental patients and leads a revolution against the hospital's old regime. He leads the oppressed patients to humanity, and ultimately sacrifices his sanity and his life for them....
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