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<title> THE BULL GOOSE LOONY </title>
Ken Kesey's novel "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" contains quite a few interesting characters, but one of them stands out and dominates the story fully once he makes his entrance into it. Not only is the pace of the story sped up by his bold approach, his never-ending energy and jollity, but he also makes the other characters come to life. He is indeed a complex character who possesses inexhaustible ingenuity, though his aims sometimes are difficult to grasp. Often one has to question his sincerity and wonder if there really is more to this riotous, life-loving rebel named Randle Patrick McMurphy than just audacity and a longing for frolic.
	McMurphy enters the text, and the quiet ward for that matter, with the following description from the narrator, Chief Bromden: "Still, 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". Though the narrator never expresses any opinions of the sort, McMurphy comes off as a rather self-righteous person when he instantly wrecks the tranquillity and takes over by declaring himself "bull goose loony". Also, he refers to himself as a gambling fool, and says that he has feigned insanity in order to be transferred to a mental institution where he more easily can cheat his fellow-inmates out of their money, and that does not exactly give the impression of a humble man.
	However, it does not take long until one starts to wonder if he truly is as self-centred as he seems. His aim to render the relentless nurse Ratched powerless certainly has a lot to do with his own disregard for authority, but it also seems as if he cannot stand to see the other patients suffer under her rule. He refuses to accept that they see themselves as rabbits, hence he takes it upon himself to change their attitude and put some courage into them. In order to achieve that he is primarily using two tricks, one being "getting nurse Ratched's goat", and the other being getting them to laugh and loosen up. "I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing. A man go around lettin' a woman whup him down till he can't laugh any more he loses one of the biggest edges he's got on his side." That statement by McMurphy is later indeed proven true, once he gets the other patients to laugh and loosen up they too work up the nerve to question Ratched's dictatorship. 
	What is so interesting is that you can never be certain if McMurphy is really fighting the war against nurse Ratched on behalf of all of them, or if he is merely a troublemaker seeking revenge on society's representative. His successful raids against the daily routines help himself as much as the others, and in making his fellow-inmates self-assured he might just be creating soldiers for himself. He clearly punishes them when they fail to stand up for him and his ideas. What seems most likely though is that he started the war out of mischief, but continued waging it for a more worthy cause, namely to attain justice. Because as time passes he gets to know many of the other patients well, and it is obvious that their timidity does not just bother him because it makes his rebellion more difficult, but also because he cares about them personally. One battle that he clearly does not fight for his own benefit and therefore shows unselfishness on his part is when he helps the former sea captain, George, escape the aides' rough treatment. He could have no other reason for doing that than that he felt sympathy for George. 
	In any case, the other patients gain both enjoyment and self-respect from McMurphy's various actions, so does it even matter what makes him act? One simply cannot help but to be impressed by a man whose fortitude give life to others, whether he intends it to or not. The narrator, whose life probably changes more than anyone's owing to McMurphy's vital force, describes his admiration like this: "I'd take a look at myself in the mirror and wonder how it was that anybody could manage such an enormous thing as being what he was." As reader of the text one is more unbiased, but one has to agree to that an equivalence to McMurphy's lusty character is not to be found anywhere. Tragically, his rebellious spirits ultimately cost him his own life, but he made men out of the rabbits, he was their deliverer and indisputable hero. He was indeed the bull goose loony.
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