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Shah 1 Kunal Shah Mrs.

Jones English 11H, Period 4 27 February 2014 Nonconformity at Its Best In Ken Keseys novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Randle Patrick McMurphy, the protagonist, serves as an anti-hero because of his anti-social behavior and resistance to oppression. This is evidential when Nurse Ratched announces his pre-hospital record stating: McMurphy, Randle Patrick: committed by the state from the Pendleton Farm for Correction, for diagnosis and possible treatment, 35 years old. Distinguished service in Korea for leading an escape from a Communist prison camp. A dishonorable discharge for insubordination, arrests for street brawls, drunkenness, assault and battery, disturbing the peace, and rape (Kesey 44). McMurphy exhibits the ideal profile for an anti-hero because he went from an honorable war hero to a nonconformist. The war changed McMurphy beliefs, outlooks, views of life, and how he should live it. After the war, McMurphy started to live life to the fullest and did as he pleased. The nonconformist acts that McMurphy did after the war show his lackadaisicalness. Because of this attitude, McMurphy is not petrified by the nurses authority as the other patients are; therefore, he begins to openly resist to oppression. McMurphys courage helps the patients become less lethargic and helps them regain some control over their lives during his stay in the ward. McMurphys main goal throughout the novel is to help rescue the patients from their soporific conformity. McMurphy shows a sense of anti-heroism because, although he demonstrates a paradigm for anti-sociality and resistance, he has an optimistic attitude and is willing to help the patients improve their lives by motivating them to pursue change.

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