After reading part four of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, I was extremely surprised as to how it ended. Although the ending was very sad, it totally pulled together the whole story for me. At first I didn’t really understand why Bromden would be made the narrator of the story, but the end made me realize that he is truly the main character when it comes down to it. He is the one who in the end gets to live and break out of “the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
A main part in part four I would like to talk about is how McMurphy truly represented Christ in this last part. When he undergoes the electroshock treatments, McMurphy is belted to a cross-shaped table, which is an allusion to a crucifix. This Christ imagery shows an impending martyrdom on the part of McMurphy, and he even compares himself to Christ when he asks whether he gets to wear a crown of thorns. Of course, a martyr ultimately must sacrifice himself to save others which he does in the end of the book. I really liked how the author portrays McMurphy as Christ throughout this whole book. His symbolism that he creates throughout the whole story is genius.
By the end of this book I had so much more respect for the character of McMurphy than I did for him in the beginning of the book. He saves these men’s lives while ultimately killing his own. It was a bitter-sweet ending because at the same time both Ratched and McMurphy win in that Ratched got rid of McMurphy through her tactics of Lobotomy, and McMurphy by getting the men to not be afraid of Ratched anymore, took over the hospital.
Over all, this was an amazing book and I really did enjoy reading it!
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