Dr. Spivey sits down at his desk and puts his glasses on. He shuffles his papers and begins to review the events of the previous weeks in his journal. Spivey then contemplates the letter requesting his resignation. These past weeks have been hard on everyone. As much as Mr. McMurphy has changed this ward for good, there are moments when I wish he had never been committed. Before McMurphy there had been an age of oppression. The patients’ life schedules were forced down their throat, whether they liked it or not, by the immense form of Nurse Ratched.
Each day was a game of cat and mouse, a patient grows restless, speaks up, only to be on the receiving end of Nurse Ratched and her accusing gaze. This life, while hardly free, was safe. And safe is what these patients need in this difficult part of their lives. Receiving this letter asking for my resignation brings out mixed emotions. I hated this job, for a very long time. That part of me wants to accept and be done with this whole damned hospital. Then I think of what happened to McMurphy, what she did to him.
If he could lead the stand against Nurse Ratched, surely I could finish it? When I first met Mr. McMurphy I was quite skeptical of his self-diagnosed insanity. He showed tremendous self-confidence and had a certain charisma not often seen in the mentally unstable. Furthermore, Nurse Ratched’s intimidating presence seemed to have no effect on him. When I think back now, to how everything was before we met McMurphy, I wonder how he did it. At the time the patients thought him as some sort of hero, superhuman even.
The Essay on Mcmurphy One Hero Patients
... Nurse Ratched wielded supreme power. No single patient had the ability to stand against the injustices to which they were subjected. McMurphy united these patients. ... lobotomy and later dying. In conclusion, Randle McMurphy lost his life courageously defending the other patients. McMurphy had several chances to save himself, but ...
I laughed such notions off at first, considering them to be the desperate thoughts of the weak and unstable. But then he died. Every day his ghost grows larger and more powerful. And as this memory grows, so do the patients. You see it, in the way they talk, the way they hold the once overpowering gaze of Nurse Ratched with ease. We’ve had three voluntary’s leave the ward already since McMurphy arrived here, their own decisions, not mine, not the Nurse’s. Who could accomplish so much in so little time but a hero?
When McMurphy saved these patients, he threw away his mind. He lost his sanity so the others may find theirs. In the same way that our so called ‘patients’ grew, Nurse Ratched has shrunk. Her once total domination of this ward has been reduced to a token leader, with next to no power thanks to McMurphy. He did more than physically assault the Nurse, he tore down the walls she had built around this ward. Not just figuratively either, I will always remember the time McMurphy first put his fist through the glass barricade, shattering it into a thousand pieces.
From that day on the difference between the patients and us staff became less and less obvious. From day one that was McMurphy’s goal, and by god he did it. Whether it was the games of blackjack or the vote to watch the World Series, one by one each patient became a man. Despite the positives that came out of this adventure, sacrifices have been made. What Nurse Ratched did to young Billy was monstrous. If McMurphy hadn’t been there first I might have choked her myself! Billy was the most obvious improvement to come from his presence here in the ward.
How can one untrained man provide better therapy in months than we can in years? If there is just one reason to fight for this job, it’s for Billy. McMurphy has given me a motivation I haven’t had since medical school. I actually want to help people! If there’s one thing I owe these patients it’s my time. Billy took his life after a night of living, of being a man for the first time in his life. I will not let the memory of Billy or McMurphy be trodden into the ground. I will never bow down to Nurse Ratched again. Tears up letter of resignation and throws into bin.
