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<title> A description of McMurphy in "One flew over the cuckoo's nest", written by Ken Kesey </title>
Since the story is told by an Indian, our picture of McMurphy is drown by the Indian's impressions, by the things that the Indian hears other people say to or about him and what McMurphy says about himself. McMurphy is one of the main characters in the book and the way he acts and behaves results in changing some patients lives in the mental house.

McMurphy is condemned to psychology treatment against his will, declared to be a psychopath. His records say though that there might be a possibility that he is feigning psychosis just to escape from drudgery on the Working Farm. In his world, he is at the hospital because he had planned to get there, and he believes that he can get out from there after a while when he wishes so. 

McMurphy gives the impression of being a quite big man, walking with great confidence, grinning and talks loud. He knows what he wants. He laughs and sings, jokes and tries to make people laugh. He want to be the man in charge, he wants to take over the hole show, be the "bulls go loonly" as he self calls it, be the leader, the boss. He does not want anyone to decide anything upon himself unless it is in his plan. He does not want to follow the rules, he wants to make up own rules, his own play, like he says: "that is the ex-act thing somebody always tells me about the rules." (25) He is a gambler.

The nurses think that he is a manipulator who takes over and disturb the ward. The patients get a kick from his way of acting. He gets great help from the doctor in changing things in the ward, like fixing a second dayroom without music (88) and making a fishing trip.

McMurphy is curious about why people are acting as they are in the ward and why they are in this place. He can not understand why they are not trying to change their own situations, as it should be a democratic institution. He believes that the nurse is the big problem and he learns that all of them are scared of the nurse and her electrotherapy and operations. That is why everybody is so cagey and they do not dare to say anything. The Indian thinks that McMurphy tries to help and wake the other patients. He sees the parallel with the way McMurphy plays games with the others, talking, roping and leading the game, but backing just when they were about to quit, to give them confidence. It is the same when they are fogging the place and nobody complains because they are feeling safe, but McMurphy wants to drag them out, he can not understand why they like the fog (102).

As a gambler, McMurphy is betting on everything. How to change the nurse in a week (62), if he can lift the control board and later if the Indian can lift it, if he can change the Indian to grow bigger. Everybody thinks that he is always winning including the nurse who has to do something about the situation. McMurphy takes no responsibility for people around him as in the boat trip with the life-vests (195), or the kid with the hydrocephalus (134). It seems like McMurphy cannot see the reality, nothing is impossible to do in his world and to be able to fulfil his plans he is cheating people. It also seems like he lacks empathy. When McMurphy gets mad he cannot control himself, like betting on if he could lift the control board which no normal man can lift, he can not then see that he makes a fool of himself. This is like psychopaths being able to move mountains, as one of the patients put it (99). He is stubborn as when he does not stop watching the TV-screen even though the nurse has turned it off; in this case he believes that he won the voting about watching the games on the TV (114). All these things make some patients to realise that you can change things if you really want to. He is their hero, who makes them live. He is their strength. But he is not strong enough to leave the hospital and this they do not realise. 

McMurphy gives the impression of being a big, strong and careless man, doing whatever he wants to do. Nobody knows why he is acting as he is, but he gives the patients courage with his laugh, talking, expeditions and the other happenings. Like the Indian is describing it, McMurphy looses his strength as the patients are gaining theirs. McMurphy's life is giving many patients their lives back.
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