One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Research Paper

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey brings up many good opposing arguments. Insanity vs normal, order vs chaos, authority vs rebellion, and finally he brings up selfishness vs selflessness. Throughout the novel, McMurphy is being tested on whether or not he truly is selfless. At first his motives for everything are unclear, but by the end McMurphy can easily be identified as a character with the best intentions for almost everything. McMurphy acts only with the best intentions, making him a selfless character. From the beginning, McMurphy has been a friendly guy. Although he probably went to the asylum because it's easier than the work farm, which is selfish, once inside the asylum he acts with care. When he gets to the mental hospital
George has an extreme fear of germs or dirt, so he refuses to use any of the soap there. This is an issue because Nurse Ratched required all men who went on the fishing trip to shower with a gunky salve. The orderly attacks George with the gunk and McMurphy steps in to help George. After McMurphy’s shouting fails to turn the attention away from George, he shoves the orderly. McMurphy is a smart man, so he know the negative consequences this will bring him, but he does it anyways. He can't just sit around and watch while George is being harassed. He gains nothing from attacking the orderly, he is acting out of pure selflessness. For a period of time the men stated to think McMurphy was actually selfish, but their thoughts quickly changed because of what happened with George. Chief says “Right at that time all of us had a good idea about everything that was going to happen, and why it had to happen, and why we’d all been wrong about McMurphy” (227-228). All the men switched their opinions on McMurphy when he stood up for George. They knew he only had good intentions for fighting with the orderly and that over shadowed all the times he may have gambled with