TO BE, TO BECOME, TO TRANSFORM

One of the amazing things about characters in novels is that the author can change them any way they want, making everything more credible and lifelike in readers’ heads. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey is a clear example of this, because by the end of the novel, pretty much every character has changed in some way. Let’s take McMurphy for example. When he first comes into the ward, he’s laughing, showing off his good mood and superior attitude to the patients, not really seeing how terrible the power Nurse Ratched has over them. And as the story progresses, he sees that he can only make a difference and be remembered, if he dies in the ward. Symbolizing personality and mentality change towards his situation and the one that surrounds him.

When McMurphy first comes in to the ward, he performs an act that not only intimidates superior control, but also makes patients idolize him in the ward; he laughs.  Since he comes in the ward laughing, he preforms an act that has not been seen there is no much time, and by that, making himself an image of change and in some ways hope to the other patients that have been trapped in there for so long. Things start to change when he starts opening his eyes to the enormous level of power the nurse has over the ward; the football game and the change of schedule for example.

As the novel progresses and comes to an end, McMurphy starts to become an image of change in a way he didn’t even imagine it. He has not only become the person everyone talks bout, but also because of his brain removal, he is a symbol of sacrifice and pin for others. This part of the novel is not only important because of the instant image one gets of Jesus when reading that he sacrificed himself for the well being of others, but also because as an analyzer, we can see that he as a character at the beginning of the novel didn’t expect it either. At first he came to the ward because he wanted a place to rest and think for himself without any disturbance from society.  But as he meets the people in the ward, and as his character and leadership is constantly pulled down by the “Big Nurse,” his vision of life and his meaning to be there changes drastically, making him sacrifice his own freedom and life for that matter in order to finish off with the horrid organization of the ward.

So as one closes the last pages of the novel, the feeling of change is something very present that is kept in mind. A character as complex as McMurphy has change written all over him when the novel ends because he does something he never thought he would do when he comes into the ward, he gives in to the control of nurse Ratched, and by that he changes the way the ward works and destroys the feel of manipulation she has had since the novel began. Characters change like people do, and McMurphy is an excellent example of this.