The Comparison of Mcmurphy to Christ - Essay Example

Mcmurphy as Christ The underlying message in the book is that of salvation of individuals in an oppressive society. The comparison of Mcmurphy to Christ is martyrdom, which is the selfless act of both the Christ and mcmurphy. This representation and comparison are communicated through the role of feelings brought out by other characters, the fishing trip by Mcmurphy and his disciples, the utilization of images and finally foreshadowing. The use of foreshadowing is key in the contributory factor to the creation of Mcmurphy as a figure that resembles Christ Jesus in the bible. The book begins its allusions in the first chapters of the book; the comparisons intensify when they go for a fishing trip and finally come clear in the conclusion. Our first meeting with the comparison occurs when Mcmurphy is baptized in the shower before stepping into the ward. This is in comparison with Christ in the bible and is similar to when He is baptized in the river and a voice comes down from heaven saying that Jesus was the son of God with whom He was pleased with. The act of baptism is symbolic in the sense that now Jesus officially commenced His mission and now entering into the world. The baptism of Mcmurphy before entering the ward then is construed to signify that he was now entering into his world to officially try and free his people. In chapter three of the book Mcmurphy meets Ellis who is an inmate in the asylum “nailed against the wall with his arms out,” (page 20). The character spends the entire time nailed to the cross, with nails pulling him back to the wall every time he seeks to be free. This is deliberate by the author to draw the reader follow the analogy of Christ on the cross so as to pursue the whole analogy of the story. That as an act improves the metaphor of crucifixion of Christ which again only tries to enable the reader to observe the developing analogy. The magnitude of this enactment is so important that it spread over to the other characters in the novel when another character who is Harding explains to Mcmurphy the procedure of electroshock therapy. In connection with the explanation given by Harding, Mcmurphy out of his volition lies down on the table that is cross shaped which is the same position that Ellis foreshadowed. Mcmurphy in fact goes ahead to ask for his crown of thorns the crown that Christ Jesus had too. What is interesting about that act is that for Christ, it was put by the soldiers by force as a sign of torture but notice that Mcmurphy asks for it willingly. This can be interpreted that Mcmurphy was trying to show that he is willing to accept the troubles of his fellow inmates and take them as his own. The author continues to develop the Christ like figure through this act too. As you go on you will notice that before the therapy a schizophrenic patient comes to Mcmurphy and tell him that he washes his hands off the whole deal. The same words that Pontius Pilate used when he found no fault with Christ as the author insinuate a similarity between Mcmurphy and Jesus Christ. Also perhaps the interesting fact to note at this point is that the trouble that Mcmurphy has gone through are all because of his own faults, as he challenges the authority of the head nurse. Compared to Christ, the troubles He goes through in the bible up to this stage are by no means any fault of His own. The troubles of Mcmurphy start only as a game but develop into something deeper which is a mission that is self-chosen. The mission is to try and bring psychological salvation to his fellow inmates and he intends to achieve this by sacrificing himself. He comes to realize the power that he summons in the asylum and decides to use that for the salvation of his fellow inmates. In the novel we are introduced to Taber as a voice of a former inmate. Taber had tried himself to effect the reforms that Mcmurphy is attempting to do. It is clear that the author was attempting to infer to the earlier prophets that came before Christ to prepare the way for him in specific John the Baptist. The analogy now deepens when Mcmurphy takes his fellow inmates for fishing and apparently this was to measure and test their faith in him. The narrator says that Mcmurphy “takes the twelve of us towards the ocean” (page 203). In the bible, the book of John chapter 21 says that Christ finds peter after a long night of trying to catch fish without success and asks Peter to throw the nets back in the water and catch fish. Now it is common knowledge that when you want to catch fish you do that at night but here Jesus is telling them to throw the nest in the morning and after they have had a tiring night at sea. Normally that would be stupid and it is clear that Christ wanted to find out just what amount of faith they had in Him. Definitely that was the idea that Mcmurphy had in mind with his fellow patients. The most vital part of the trip is when they return from fishing, the chief, a character in the novel, tries to describe how different the patients had become after the trip. He says that they “weren’t the same bunch of weak weak-knees from a Nuthouse anymore.”(Page 215). What is to understand at this point is that Christ influenced how the multitudes thought. The sentiments expressed by the chief demonstrate the kind of influence that Mcmurphy has on the patients and they have now become his followers. Before they embark on their fishing trip, Ellis tries to pull himself from the nails without success and tells Billy Bibbit to be a fisher of men when in fact it is Mcmurphy who consequently becomes the master fisher of men and teaches the others how to be fishers of men themselves. By taking the patients to the fishing trip, it is probable that what he wanted was to establish a movement which, if compared to the bible is the church. He had been teaching at initiating them to his own way of life every single day by revealing his masculinity in the way he asserted himself in the ward. He brushed his teeth at the wrong hours of the day, by breaking windows, by throwing butter on the walls, wearing his whale emblem against the rules of the ward. Through this action he was demonstrating to the patients that it is possible to break free from the state they were in. Perhaps the only interesting part to note is that his ways were maybe a bit too drastic. It's now on the fishing trip that he goes to ascertain whether what he was teaching them had taken root. So we can say that the trip in some way was like a baptism into the Mcmurphy religion. All these acts are actually at the end of it all preparing the disciples after his departure. Chief Broom says that he was getting to see some good in the life around him, which shows that the teachings of Mcmurphy are indeed shaping the way his disciples are thinking and starting to see life. What we get also to learn from the fishing trip is that Mcmurphy was now turning into a man of sorrows. Ever since he arrived at the ward he has been troubled by the plight of his fellow inmates but it is not until now that he just realizes just how much he had become a martyr and a redeemer figure. Chief says that he noticed how exhausted Mcmurphy had become and then after that we start to see how frantic and tired Mcmurphy becomes. Chief is healed and says “thank you.”(Page 184). This is the first time that we actually see chief speak. But Billy betrays Mcmurphy by saying “Mcmurphy did it!” (Page 264). He blames the entire incident on Mcmurphy and as a result of the guilt, he commits suicide. This again relates to the Christ figure in the bible after Judas betrays Him and takes the disciples to the garden of Gethsemane, where Christ says that He is deeply sorrowed. This final analogy in the novel does nothing but perfect the development of Mcmurphy as the Christ in the bible. At the end Mcmurphy becomes increasingly tormented by the fact that he cannot be able to do anything to help the fellow inmates and which prompts chief and Harding say that he is doing all these things because of us. When Mcmurphy even tries to suggest leaving the ward, chief says that he will stay because he could not let what had been achieved slide back. In my view, that reaction was triggered by Harding after greeting chief they way that had only applied to Mcmurphy and chief finally realizes how he was just feeling all these months with so many faces screaming at him. In real sense there is no possibility that Mcmurphy would have left out of his own volition and if he had, the chances are that he would have come back. The story of Christ will not be complete without the last supper so Mcmurphy arranges for the party which is to mean the last supper in preparation for the betrayal by Judas who in this case is Billy. After the betrayal Mcmurphy is prompted to attack the nurse which consequently leads to his death. The sacrifice that he makes becomes very inspirational to the disciples that he leaves behind. He not only leaves behind an army of disciples he had created but also leaves his spirit which brings down the powers the nurse had on them and she could not “rule with her old power anymore.”(269). Finally at the end we see the chief resurrecting the memories that Mcmurphy had left behind and clearly show the reader just what impact he had brought in the lives of the disciples he had left behind. At this point the analogy between the two men has completely run its course. In my view the elements that are in the novel which relate the two men are too many and their repetition whether they were intentional or incidental is of little consequence since the analogy is created at the end of the day which was the aim of the book. If the novel is looked at more keenly, one would realize that it goes far beyond just comparing the character to the story of Christ. The book talks about modern civilization and how it lacks a proper moral compass. The author uses the analogy of Christ to suggest that perhaps the only way to regain that moral compass would be to have an awaking such as the one Christ brought to the earth. In conclusion, it is impossible and ironic at the same time to understand why the author took to create such a character that believes the only way to preserve oneself, one must assert themselves and compare that to Christ who is an epitome of humility and who said that in order to preserve oneself, then they must lose themselves. This goes against every fundamental value that Christians believe in. However, if the aim was to create a modern civil world and its redeemer, and so there was no better messiah than Mcmurphy. Work Cited: Kesey, K. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated. Press. (1963). Print Read More