Sunday, November 15, 2009
Is McMurphy Selfish?
In the story, up to this point, McMurphy's actions have seemed to be beneficial to the other men in the ward, but I do not believe that that are done with the right intentions. By McMurphy pulling the other men out of the "fog" and having them stand up to the Big Nurse, as they do when they vote on wanting to watch the World Series, and then sitting in from of the TV when they are denied that right, McMurphy is helping the men break free from their society, but he is also hurting them at the same time because he is not doing these things for the right reasons. Chief Broom states on pg. 132, "That's that McMurphy. He's far away. He's still trying to pull people out of the fog. Why don't he leave me be?" Through this statement, it is evident that not all of the men in the ward appreciate McMurphy's actions, or support him. McMurphy is attempting to pull the others out of the fog so that he will not be alone in his situation. McMurphy is the only person in the ward who acts and feels the way he does, therefore, he is isolated from the rest of the community and feels imprisoned by his state of mind, so he seeks to force others to join him.
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In this situation, McMurphy is using the other ward patients to get what he wants. Not only do the readers notice this, but the Big Nurse also notices this. On page 133, she states "One moment, Mr. McMurphy, let me pose a question to the group: do any of you feel that Mr. McMurphy is perhaps imposing his personal desires on some of you too much? I've been thinking you might be happier if he were moved to a different ward." This proves the point that though McMurphy's actions may be benefitting all the ward members, he is only doing it for his own purpose, and may even be manipulating the ward members into doing what he wants. The only reason that McMurphy gets so many votes when the vote is cast for approval of the TV change time is because he scared the ward members into voting by an indirect threat on page 134 "I want to see the hands. I want to see the hands that don't go up,too." In other words, McMurphy's control and intimidation over the ward causes them to agree or go along with his actions, even though they might not agree.
ReplyDeleteAs Morgan stated, I believe that McMurphy is selfish in his actions to get what he wants done in the ward. However, I disagree with her statement that he scared the ward members into agreeing with him. Ultimatly McMurpy acts as a catalystic character who allows for the ward patients to stand up against the ward, someting they have all always wanted to do, yet have never had the courage to do until McMurphy. Now with McMurphy encouraging them to fight the Big Nurse, the ward patients are able to do what they have always wanted to do, and therefore are not being pushed into some unwanted action. Although McMurphy may at first be doing these actions based on his own selfish wants, overall he is helping the ward patients to find the courage they never had. Chief Bromden even excalims that the fog has vanished due to McMurphy's defiance of the Big Nurse, and he can finally see and hear the world around him clearly.Therefore, we must look past the fact that McMurphy's action are self centered and see how it is helping the patients overall to defy the opressing nature of the Big Nurse.
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