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<title> The big redheaded brawling Irishman </title>
" (...) even though I can't see him, I know he's no ordinary Admission. I don't hear him slide scared along the wall, and when they tell him about the shower he don't just submit with a weak little yes, he tells them right back in a loud, brassy voice that he's already plenty damn clean, thank you." (Page 15). It is indeed true that Randle Patrick McMurphy is not an ordinary Admission. He is actually not an ordinary person in any way, and he will come to change a lot during his time at the ward. McMurphy is the sort of person that always says exactly what he is thinking, without making it sound any sweeter than it is. But he is not a mean person. He does the things that he thinks are right and fair. The other Acutes on the ward look up to him and follow his example. They think that he is big and tough, and they feel strong together with him.

" Committed by the state from the Pendelton Farm for Correction. For diagnosis and possible treatment. Thirty-five years old. Never married. Distinguished Service Cross in Korea, for leading an escape from a Communist prison camp. A dishonourable discharge, afterward, for insubordination. Followed by a history of street brawls and barroom fights and a series of arrest for Drunkenness, Assault and Battery, Disturbing the Peace, repeated gambling, and one arrest -for Rape." (Page 44) This is Randle MacMurphy. He is not the marrying kind; he lives from day to day. He gambles about everything that he could possible think of. "Then who's willing to lay five bucks? Nobody's gonna convince me I can't do something till I try it. Five bucks..." (Page 109). If he would feel like singing out loud in the middle of the night, he would probably do that. The crime to be "disturbing the Peace" is not anything he would care much for. 
McMurphy doesn't have very good manners and he swears and brawls a lot. But the question is, is he crazy? I believe that is up to every single reader to judge. In my opinion he is just an extraordinary man. He is who he is, crazy or not. But I believe that there are many crazier people out in the streets than Randle McMurphy. He himself claimed to be crazy. "But I am crazy, Doc. I swear I am." (Page 46) But that was just a trick to get away from the work farm. He is the lazy kind, who thought he would get away easy when he managed to get removed to the mental hospital. "I'm in this place because that's the way I planned it, pure and simple, because it's a better place than a work farm. As near as I can tell I'm no loony, or never knew it if I was." (Page 68) 

But although all his bad qualities you, as a reader, like him. I think it is because you notice that he has a positive effect on the other patients. The Big Nurse believes that he is only thinking about himself, and that he will destroy her exemplary order on the ward. He isn't like the others and she simply cannot control him. "-That is exactly what the new patient is planning: to take over: He is what we call a 'manipulator,' Miss Flinn, a man who will use everyone and everything to his own ends." (Page 29). But the other Acutes start to be more sure of themselves when McMurphy is around, they say what they think and not only what they believe that the Big Nurse wants them to think. Just him being there makes them feel safer. It might be the first time in years that the patients on this ward actually are making any progress. "Now that McMurphy was around to back them up, the guys started letting fly at everything that had ever happened on the ward they didn't like. -Why does the dorms have to be locked on the weekends? Cheswick or somebody would ask." (Page 145). "He's pleased to be sitting next to McMurphy, feeling brave like this. It's the first time Cheswick ever had somebody along with him on his lost causes." (Page 105) 

But McMurphy is a rebel, and he starts his own war against the Big Nurse. "Then, just as she's rolling along at her biggest and meanest, McMurphy steps out of the latrine door right in front of her, holding that towel around his hips -stops her dead! She shrinks to about head-high to where that towel covers him, and He's grinning down on her. Her own grin is way, sagging at the edges. 'Good morning, Miss Rat-shed! How's things on the outside?'" (Page 87). McMurphy and the Big Nurse are a bit similar; they both want to be in charge. All the time they test each other's power and strength. But McMurphy's mistake is that he thinks he's getting out of there in a couple of months. In reality, it's the Big Nurse who's got the power all a long, and she knows it. 

This book contains the story about a man who many people would call mad, but I believe that his problem is that he doesn't fit in anywhere. He cannot stand order and structure. He needs to be free to do as he pleases. I also believe that despite his strong and brutal surface he's actually a caring and kind person. He has a stronger therapeutical effect on the Acutes than the Big Nurse could ever have. He believes in them, he believes that they are capable of doing things they think they can't. He makes them remember that they are real people, with thoughts and feelings. He shows them how to be strong. Even after his death they seem to keep his strength and they get the courage to return to the real world again. The way I see it that makes McMurphy triumph over the Big Nurse. At the end, McMurphy is the winner.
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