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<title> B-B-Billy-An essay in characterization by <anonymous> </title>
In this essay I will be giving a detailed description of Billy Bibbit, one of the characters in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I will try to indicate in what ways his characteristics are conveyed to the reader and how this character develops through the novel. I will illustrate my points by giving specific references to the text. I'm fully aware of the complexity of this task and therefore I have selected a few important parts of the novel, where Billy's character is highlighted and his character-development and history is revealed to the reader.

Billy Bibbit is introduced from the beginning of the novel to the reader as a rather "secondary" character, childish in appearance, not participating or standing up for himself in the first couple of power struggles between Mr. McMurphy and nurse Ratched. He has very little self-confidence, and on the few occasions he tries to communicate something which he feels is important he lets his stutter stop him from doing so. A clear picture of Billy as a secondary character can be seen early in the novel, when McMurphy introduces himself to the patients in the ward and tries to find out who is in charge among them. Billy is being spoken through, not to. (page 23-24 (Penguin/Signet, 1985)).

His lack of self-confidence and inability to communicate when upset can be seen in the part when McMurphy and Harding are discussing the group therapy led by nurse Ratched and the fact that most of the patients behave like rabbits. Billy is trying to defend and explain the patients' behaviour to McMurphy but fails because of his stutter and lack of self-confidence:

"You s-s-saw what she c-can do to us! In the m-m-meeting today.... Ah, it's n-no use. I should just k-k-kill myself....If you d-don't answer she just smiles and m-m-makes a note in her little book and then she-she-oh, hell!" (pages 63-64). Billy's behaviour continues in this manner, with a couple of small improvements, through the first half of the novel, roughly. Then, gradually, a change occurs under the influence of McMurphy and through the meeting with the prostitute girl Candy.

But before we go on to this change in behaviour, we should ask ourselves why Billy behaves like this and who or what is to blame?

In the part of the novel where chief Bromden is drifting away in "the fog" and overhears Billy telling nurse Ratched about when he first stuttered, the author lets the reader know that Billy blames himself for this speaking error:

"Fir-first stutter? First stutter? The first word I said I st-stut-tered: m-m-m-m-mamma." (page 119). The fact that Billy also blames himself for having no self-confidence is conveyed to the reader in the part of the novel where McMurphy is questioning the other patients about why they are on the ward:

"If we had the g-guts! I could go outside to-today, if I had the guts. My m-m-mother is a good friend of M-Miss Ratched, and I could get an AMA signed this afternoon, if I had the guts!" (page 168).

Here we can clearly see that Billy explains his being on the ward with the statement that he has "no guts" to go outside, in other words no self-confidence. But here, the author also points out an interesting relationship between Billy's mother and nurse Ratched and furthermore suggests another explanation to Billy's commitment. This suggestion is later explained in detail, and the truth of Billy's misfortune is revealed. On page 246-247, chief Bromden recalls when Billy's mother came to visit:

"Billy was talking about looking for a wife and going to college someday. His mother tickled him with the fluff and laughed at such foolishness. "Sweetheart, you will have scads of time for things like that. Your whole life is still ahead of you." "Mother, I'm th-th-thirty-one years old!" She laughed and twiddled his ear with the weed. "Sweetheart, do I look like the mother of a middle-aged man?"
She wrinkled her nose and opened her lips at him and made a kind of wet kissing sound in the air with her tongue, and I had to admit she didn't look like a mother of any kind."

Here, the author suggests that it is in fact Billy's mother who had him committed to the ward, that she actually don't want him to have any self-confidence and that she wants him to remain a child forever, probably because she's not suitable to raise a child (or finds it too tiresome) and that she has used her friendship with nurse Ratched to rid herself of the "problem" by letting the nurse "take care" of her son. Now that we know the sad truth behind Billy's behaviour, we should take a look at his improvements under the positive influence of McMurphy, as mentioned above.

It is clear that Billy has gained a lot of self-confidence and "guts" through his relationship with Mcmurphy. On page 221-222 Billy stands up for McMurphy when nurse Ratched accuses him of being a con-man and manipulator, and in the final part of the novel an interesting thing happens to Billy. When nurse Ratched enters the room where he has spent the night with Candy, he doesn't stutter anymore and has obviously gained a lot in confidence: "Good morning, Miss Ratched," Billy said, not even making any move to get up and button his pajamas. He took the girl's hand in his and grinned. "This is Candy." (page 263).

In the end, as we know, nurse Ratched uses Billy's fear of his mother against him, to the point where he commits suicide. As a conclusion I'd like to suggest that Billy's improvements in self-confidence throughout the story are real but not very deeply rooted, as he finally is broken down by the evil of nurse Ratched. The final question I'd like to ask is therefore:

Was McMurphy's influence on Billy really positive, or did he push Billy too far, without considering the consequences? It's for the reader to decide.
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