Proving Your Point (For Dummies)

When an author wants to prove a point, he/she can do one of two things: be discrete, or include the reader in the process that proves that point.  Clearly, Ken Kesey has chosen the former; what’s more he has taken the idea of ambiguity and exaggerated until his point can come to be lost in the plot or in character profiles. McMurphy was introduced to the novel when the narrator was the Chief Bromden that was playing deaf and dumb, and, perhaps as a side note, he was actually insane. So in order to evaluate the evolution of McMurphy as a character individually, one must take into account not only what happened, but also what was going on with Bromden when he narrated it.  It may well be that McMurphy didn’t change at all, that the narration transformed into something more understanding and rational because the narrator himself was slowly becoming more coherent.  Let’s explore that possibility. 

(Note for those who missed it: in order to prove my point, I will use the option that Ken Kesey chose to disregard)

At first the narrator is impressed with McMurphy’s methodology.  He is confused when McMurphy brushes his teeth with soap instead of toothpaste.  Bromden sees that as weird and funny, he exposes McMurphy as trying to shift the power through the use of humor.  The use of humor does stop.  But McMurphy himself didn’t change and neither did his goals.  When McMurphy and Chief Bromden decided to protect George in the showers and get in a fistfight with the employees, the narrator himself is involved in disrupting order in the ward.  So what one might take as a change in McMurphy— he has stopped using humor and turned towards violence— is really all part of his plan, what has changed is that now Bromden understands the plan.  Another textual example could maybe be the most decisive moment in the plot, when McMurphy attacks Ratched and rips her uniform open while trying to strangle her.  McMurphy has not become more violent as the book progresses.  He has not changed his mind about trying to take away power from the Big Nurse.  He has, however, affected Bromden immensely.  The newcomer that was originally seen as eccentric and unnecessarily outspoken has changed in the eyes of Bromden to become someone who will use violence if necessary in order to give justice to the ward and to take down the totalitarian control.  Through these examples, I have attempted to bandwagon the readers into sharing my interpretation of the novel— McMurphy didn’t change.

This is only a theory; the truth may be that McMurphy changed completely as the novel progressed.  The only thing that is certain is that Kesey overplayed his hand.  He tried to be discrete, and wound up being open ended. With only a handful of interpretations being correct, pleasing the author is close to impossible.  That is why the movie crashed and burned in Kesey’s opinion, and why my theory may be entirely off the mark, yet, it is also what makes this book so intriguing.