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<title> Characterisation of Billy Bibbit </title>
Billy Bibbit is not one of the central characters in Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In no way does the story revolve around him. Yet he is one of the most important characters because of the way he evolves throughout the story; how he is changed by the contact with McMurphy; and, in the end, how he dies, alone and desperate. Let us look closer at Kesey's characterisation of Billy, the character's background, mentioned off-handedly in the text, and the reason for him being in the ward. 

The most prominent feature in Billy's character is his speech-impediment: He stutters and claims he has always done so (page 119). This is evident from his first statement on page 22, where, in reply to McMurphy's question, he says "that he isn't the buh-buh-buh-bull goose loony yet, though he's next in luh-luh-line for the job." Since stuttering is an old and by authors well-used sign of uncertainty and bad self-confidence, the picture you instantly get of Billy is that of a scared and nervous little boy, something that is maintained throughout most of the story. In the end, however, at the peak of his growing confidence, when he is discovered together with Candy by nurse Ratched, he says: "Good morning, Miss Ratched...This is Candy." No hesitation here, no shame, and no stuttering. 

Why this uncertainty, then? It soon becomes evident that this is due to Billy's mother who seems to have refused to let him grow up, since this would mean admitting to her own age. For reference, see page 247 where Billy introduces the subject of going to college to his mother, who laughingly shrugs the notion away saying that he was still young and had plenty of time to do such things. Billy replies that he is thirty-one years old. She then says: "Sweet-heart, do I look like the mother of a middle-aged man?" His mother is also a good friend of nurse Ratched's, who uses this connection to punish Billy and keep him in line (page 264). 

Basically, Billy is still a child when the story begins - we are even told that he looks like a kid (page 246). Subdued by a dominant mother and unable to cope with everyday life, he has voluntarily admitted himself to the ward; a place where nobody laughs at him because of this inability, where no demands are put on him and where a mother figure (nurse Ratched) keeps him at bay. There is no mentioning of Billy's father in the story - maybe he does not exist in Billy's world (through divorce, death or an other kind of separation). Then comes McMurphy, providing Billy with a father or big-brother figure and male role-model, which he has probably never had before. McMurphy treats Billy as a friend and, more importantly, like a grown man. He makes jokes about Billy and sex (cf. pages 92 and 247) and actually provides him with a woman.

So how does McMurphy's presence and behaviour affect Billy's character? I would say it makes him rebellious, much like a little boy defying his mother. This is repeated time after another throughout the story, one example being that he goes to watch the blank TV-screen with McMurphy and the others when their request to watch the World Series has been denied (page 128). During his first attempts at revolt, he is hesitant and careful not to be the first to follow McMurphy's example, but when the fishing excursion is being planned, Billy is the first to sign his name under his hero's (page 191). And in the end of the book, when Big Nurse challenges McMurphy's motives, Billy is the last to abandon his view of him as a kindly saint or brother (pages 221 and onward).

But all is evidently not well in Billy's world. On page 64 he expresses a death-wish ("I should just k-k-kill myself") and from the razor-blade scars on his wrists, mentioned by Chief Bromden on page 121, we can conclude suicide has been attempted before. When McMurphy angrily asks how come Billy stays at the ward, since he can leave at any time, he replies heatedly that he wishes that he could, but he has not got the guts (page 168).

To conclude, we have here a young man who is completely unprepared to deal with society; who has never been allowed to grow up; and whose attempt at proposing to a woman was laughed at (page 121). He clings to the ward, his safe haven, just like Harding, Cheswick and many of the others, where they can lead a life without demands, with comforting restrictions and a watchful mother figure. As the book draws to a conclusion, Billy's rebellion reaches its peak and he his most vulnerable point when he is woken up by nurse Ratched storming into the room where he and Candy are sleeping. Here we can briefly see Billy the man - confident, without shame and, for the first time, without stuttering. By threatening to tell his mother, however, Big Nurse soon reduces him to the boy again and I think that it is this inner conflict, between growing up and remaining a child, that gets too much for Billy Bibbit and leads to his tragic suicide.
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