Saviour or Psychopath
Was Randall P. McMurphy a saviour or a psychopath?The character of Randall P. McMurphy in Ken Kesey's acclaimed film, 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', displays characteristics that are commonly associated with being both a psychopath and a saviour. The film is set in an American mental institution in the early 1960's, which means that the attitudes of the staff, and community in general, towards mental illness were a lot different to that of the twenty-first century. McMurphy's persona seemed to be constantly changing throughout the film to fit each situation; whether he was being a madman towards his superiors or being the nice guy to his fellow inmates McMurphy always 'tried' to know what to do. "Mac", as the inmates knew him developed into a man who was on the good side of evil, slightly eccentric and mischievous but underneath a warm, loveable gentleman who would break an arm and a leg to help his friends. It is for this reason that the character of Randall P. McMurphy is comparative to Jesus Christ - he empowered and cured others to the dissatisfaction of his superiors.The argument for that of saviour is a very positive one with Randall showing many times that he is indeed a saviou
When Randall first arrived at the asylum, Chief was a "deaf, mute Indian" and none of the other inmates talked to him or cared enough about him to involve him in anything. McMurphy is either a saviour or a psychopath or indeed a character similar to that of Jesus Christ. He had taken all his anger form Billy's suicide and instead of using it in a positive way, like how Jesus would have, he used it to cause harm to another human being. He did not understand that if he behaved and did what was asked of him that he would've been out of the asylum in a flash and back to the real world. In a way, Randall actually saved Chief from a desolate life in the asylum. Another aspect of being a psychopath is acting in an anti-social way. Women were regarded by Randall as a man's sex toy, and nothing more. When Randall first arrived at the asylum a group of inmates were playing cards but because they didn't all understand the rules fights broke out, once Randall taught them how to play (and supplied them with entertaining cards) their change in attitude was quite dramatic and much fun was had. The argument about whether Randall was a saviour or psychopath has another side to it, the psychopath side, which shows how crazy and anti-social Randall really was. There were another three scenes where Randall's relationship with Chief was prominent: the second vote regarding the World Series Baseball when Randall convinced Chief to vote, after the two had misbehaved and were awaiting their shock-treatment punishment and when Chief shows the ultimate sign of compassion in murdering Randall so he would not have to live life as a vegetable. This was also apparent when Billy would socialise with his peers and as is character develops it is obvious that this has been caused by an over-powering mother. There is no need to bother comparing Randall's pathetic attitude to that of Jesus' because that would do Jesus an injustice, although it is true that Jesus was hated by the law and did everything in his power to bring the authorities to an end. The difference being, Jesus carried out his actions peacefully. Randall's attitude was nearly always anti-social and even when he tried to do a good deed he was actually breaking a rule or committing a crime. The group of inmates accepted Billy as he fitted in to their style of fun and recreation; his problem however was his speech impediment.
Common topics in this essay:
Nurse Ratched,
Randall Jesus,
Ratched Randall,
Cuckoo's Nest',
Chief Randall,
Billy Chief,
Whenever Billy,
Billy Bibbit,
Jesus Christ,
Baseball Randall,
nurse ratched,
comparing randall jesus,
arrived asylum,
saviour psychopath,
randall jesus,
comparing randall,
randall mcmurphy,
prison farm,
randall arrived,
randall saviour,
jesus christ,
randall arrived asylum,
character similar jesus,
deaf mute indian,
mcmurphy saviour psychopath,
|
Acceptance Essays
