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Example research essay topic: Religion In One Flew Over The Nest - 1,060 words

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As he [Jesus] landed he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a Shepherd. (Mark 6: 34) Jesus entrance is much like R. P. Mc Murphys entrance onto the ward in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Much like Jesus, Mc Murphy saw the people on this psychiatric ward as metaphorical sheep, leaderless and subject to the cunning fox, in the form of Head Nurse Ratched. In this novel, told from the point of view of a deaf and dumb mute, Kesey illustrates the plight of the ward members such as Billy Bibbit, who quivers at the mere mention of his mother; Harding, who is petrified of people noticing his femininity; and Chief Bromden, the narrator who has retreated into a deaf and dumb shell to avoid people. Mc Murphy acts as a Jesus figure to these people by sticking up for their rights, disobeying the head nurse, and challenging senseless rules; and in doing so, empowers them.

Ken Kesey uses religious imagery throughout One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest in order to make the characters seem more victimized, innocent, and self-sacrificing. The patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest are not treated well. Big Nurse Ratched and the nursing staff have free-reign over the patients lives; this free reign creates the need for a savior on the ward. Patients, such as Harding, have to sit through a metaphorical pecking party, where afterwards it seems as if friends got sight of a spot of blood and they all go to pekin at it, (55). The members on the ward are so jaded by experiencing this humiliation on a day to day basis that they are convinced by the hospital and particularly Big Nurse Ratched that the pecking party is for their own benefit [and] that any question or discussion raised by Miss Ratched or the rest of the staff is done solely for therapeutic purposes. (56) The patients on Nurse Ratched's ward are all powerless, this sense of powerlessness creates a strong need for a savior, a Christ figure. The EST in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest also victimizes patients and harms them, the victims; whomever Nurse Ratched chooses.

When Harding describes the EST to Mc Murphy, he likens it to a cross: You are strapped to a table, shaped, ironically, like a cross. (64) Harding then deepens the religious imagery by comparing the EST table specifically to Jesus crucifixion, with a crown of electric sparks in place of thorns. (65) By comparing the EST table and the sparks to Jesus and his crucifixion, Kesey emphasizes the innocence of the members of the ward who are its victims, to Jesus who was still killed and crucified all though he was a righteous man (Matt 27: 19), a man in whom Pilate had found in him no crime deserving death (Luke 23: 22). An example of the innocent person being electro-shocked can be seen in Chief Bromden's description of the former acute Ellis. Ellis, who, came in an acute and got fouled up bad when they overloaded him, (20) and then turned into a Chronic. Chronic's are kept in the hospital, to keep them from walking around the street giving the product a bad name [People who] are machines with flaws inside that cant be repaired, (19) otherwise known as people with un-curable mental deficiencies. Ellis went from being an acute to being, nailed against the wall in the same condition they lifted him off the table for the last time, in the same shape, arms out, palms cupped, (20) the irreversible product of the Shock Shop. By showing how the EST table turned a curable Acute patient into an incurable Chronic, Kesey illustrates the cruel treatment of patients on the ward.

By placing Ellis in a crucified pose, Kesey further shows the innocence of Ellis by comparing him to Jesus, another innocent man nailed to a cross. Mc Murphy becomes the Savior needed so badly on Nurse Ratched's ward by helping empower those patients who are continuously victimized and abused by nurse Ratched and the nursing staff. Mc Murphy acts like a Christ figure when he tries to help the patients on the ward by encouraging them to stand up for themselves and then leads them by example. Mc Murphys ability to act as a savior can be seen when he gets Chief Bromden to speak and simultaneously begins to empower him. The night before the big fishing trip, after an aid takes away all of Chief Bromden's gum, Mc Murphy gives the Chief a fresh pack of juicy fruit gum, and in doing so, prompts the chief to speak: before I realized what I was doing, I told him Thank you. (184) This is the first time Chief Bromden has spoken in the novel, let alone during his stay on the ward.

Clearly, parallels can be drawn between Mc Murphy and Jesus, who healed, a demon-possessed man [who] could not talk [This man] was brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute spoke. (Mathew 9: 32) Another parallel can be seen when Mc Murphy convinces chief Bromden that he is no longer the diminutive product of the Combine, I looked down and saw how my foot was bigger than Id ever remembered it twice its size. (225) Chief Bromden's sickness was that he felt small and unimportant By convincing the Chief of his real size Mc Murphy, began to cure Chief Bromden's problem of being way too little (186). By making the Chief feel bigger, he empowers him, for without this empowerment, Chief Bromden would not have, walked back to the dorm, telling [himself], The hell with that I never went against what the black boys ordered before, (191) the Chief would have just obeyed the black boys and let the black boys use him. Mc Murphys effect on Chief parallels Jesus effect on Peter as when he told Peter that he could walk on water: Lord, if its you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water.

Come [Jesus] said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. (Mathew 14: 27 - 29) Jesus convinced Peter that he could walk on water much like Mc Murphy...


Free research essays on topics related to: mc murphy, nurse ratched, one flew over the cuckoos, deaf and dumb, flew over the cuckoos nest

Research essay sample on Religion In One Flew Over The Nest

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