Ken Kesey-The Alienated Hero
Ken Kesey creates one of America's most famous alienated heroes in his work "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Kesey's alienated hero, Randle Patrick McMurphy, is a wild red-haired American of Irish heritage. McMurphy is a lazy, rowdy fighter. He also gambles constantly and has been prosecuted on the charges of the statutory rape of a 9 year old. A character with many flaws, McMurphy is not the likely character for heroics, but it is his rebellious lack of authority that makes him the perfect hero for Kesey's story. Transferred from a work camp to a psychiatric ward, McMurphy is the only patient sane enough to fight the tyrannical, oppressive Nurse Ratched and her staff. To understand McMurphy's role as an alienated or anti-hero, the term must be clearly defined. The Living Webster Encyclopedia Dictionary defines a hero as "a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength." A hero is a character that the reader is intended to fully embrace due to the character's selflessness and moral values. The Wikipedia Encyclopedia defines an anti-hero as a "character that has some of the personality flaws and ultimate fortune traditionally assigned to villains but nonetheless also have the heroic qualities or intentions
His wine is different than that of Christ. Had it not been for the nurse guilting Billy, by threatening to tell his mother of his sexual encounter, Billy would have emerged from the bedroom far better than he had entered. Bromden is Native American, which stereotypically puts him at odds with McMurphy. Yet the heads of the hospital don't see things the same way, and he courts a dangerous confrontation with the authoritarian head nurse of the ward" (Puccio). But there still isn't a man raking his pile of cigarettes. He lets the others decide themselves, who will receive a life jacket (Olderman 55). McMurphy then sits in front of the blank TV announcing an imaginary game. There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. In the war between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the victor is clear, and predictable that the anti-hero would eventually fall. McMurphy also forces the patients to assert themselves. Kesey used this device to demonstrate the effectiveness of McMurphy.
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Acceptance Essays
