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<title> BILLY THE KID </title>
I've read Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. The novel has many special characters, and I've chosen Billy Bibbit, who I think is the most interesting.
	Billy Bibbit's real first name is William, but he's mostly called by his nickname, Billy. This, I believe, is an important contribution to his character. All other persons in the book are most often called by their last name, like for example Mr McMurphy. Billy on the other hand, sounds like the name of a young boy, who hasn't grown up yet. Sometimes McMurphy even calls him Billy boy, which tells us a lot about McMurphy's and the other people on the ward's view of Billy. I think Kesey uses this name to emphasise the nature of Billy's character as a little boy, and not as a man. 
	Besides the name there are more things that strengthen the feeling of Billy being a kid. Some of these things are that he's very shy, insecure, stutters badly and is afraid of doing something wrong. In the beginning of the novel Billy is the one that wants to be good and obey the adults, even if he doesn't agree with them. He believes that grown-ups are always right, and that you'll get punished if you don't do what they want. Kesey gives a very clear example of that, when he describes Billy as "the telltale". Billy is the ward's most frequent writer in the logbook, when the other patients say something that doesn't suit Miss Ratched's ward policy. He acts just like a little kid who wants to be rewarded, by pleasing the powerful Miss Ratched, of whom he is really afraid. 
	As the story goes on Billy's fear of Miss Ratched, and the wish to please her diminishes. Instead he grows into a tougher person. This has to do with Billy looking up to McMurphy, and takes McMurphy's side against Miss Ratched. I believe that Billy sees him as a father figure, a hero and a role model. McMurphy is the reason that Billy develops into a more secure and confident person, even though he doesn't do anything radical enough to get punished by Miss Ratched. An example of this is that he stops writing in the logbook. Later he also, by himself, defends the absent McMurphy at a morning meeting, as Miss Ratched accuses McMurphy of stealing from the other patients. Or when he calls "the big guy" from the service-station back, because he misses a spot on the windshield. 
	This courage only glimpses through a few times. Otherwise Billy is very shy. His appearance is described very clearly by Bromden. I quote from page 231; "...in spite of him having wrinkles in his face and specks of grey hair, he still looked liked a kid - like a jug-eared and freckled-faced and buck-toothed kid whistling barefoot (...) - and yet he was nothing like this (...) he wasn't jug-eared or freckled or buck-toothed at all under a closer look, and was, in fact, thirty-some years old". This shows how everybody on the ward see Billy, and that effects the way they treat him; as if he was a little boy. He gets the role of being a child. 
	This, of course, adds to Billy's lack of confidence and insecurity. His own introspection shows when he argues with McMurphy about why he's in the mentalhome; "You think I wuh- wuh-wuh-want to stay in here? (...) But did you ever have people l-laughing at you? No, because you're so b-big and so tough! Well, I'm not big and tough". He sees himself as a weak boy, who wouldn't survive on the outside. 
	Billy's role as a weak child is the result of his relationship with his mother. He wants to please her by being a good boy, and is very scared of doing something that might let her down, even if he has to do things that embarrass him. For example he must kiss his mother, who is a receptionist on the ward, on the cheek when they walk by, just as if he was a little boy. Another example of when his mother is coddling him is when he lies in her lap and tells her that he wants to find a girl and to attend college. His mother replies: "Sweetheart, you still have scads of time for things like that. Your whole life is ahead of you". It seems likes she doesn't want him to grow up, that she wants him to still be her little boy. 
	The fear of letting his mother down really shows in the end, before Billy cuts his throat. Miss Ratched threatens to tell his mother that he has slept with Candy, the whore, which is going to disturb his mother terribly. I quote a few, significant lines from page 247, when he stutters for several minutes begging Miss Ratched not to tell his mother; "Nuh! Nuh! Nuh! His mouth was working. He shook his head, begging her. You d-don't n-n-need! (...) He was shaking his head in panic like a kid that's been promised a whipping just as soon as a willow is cut (...) Duh-duh- don't t-tell, M-M-M-Miss Ratched." It's also this fear that leads to Billy's suicide. 
	Instead of committing suicide, Billy could have had become a man, if only he had overcome the fear of his mother's disappointment and anger. Unfortunately that fear, and Miss Ratched's power, are stronger than the support from the patients and his hero McMurphy. The suicide is the final prove of that Billy never succeeds to become independent and grown up. Instead he goes through a regression, and acts like a child, blaming others: "No! I d-d-didn't. I was (...) She did (...) And M-M-McMurphy! He did. And Harding! And the-the-the-rest...". (Page 247). are stronger than the support from the patients and his hero McMurphy.
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