Tuesday, May 14, 2013
I am about maybe two thirds of the way through this book and since we have already seen the ending I am curious to know how the end of the book relates to the end of the movie because that was not personally how I had pictured it. Though now reading the book I have the assumption that McMurphy dies I think I look at it differently. I think the poetic justice in his death at least in the movie says something about the authors view on rebellion, violence, aggression, sexuality etc. Not just on what McMurphy has stood for but how he has stood for it. If that makes any sense. McMurphy's outspoken refusal to obey authorities led to his death in the movie and so far in the book has caused unpleasantness for him and Nurse Ratched. Though I am not completely sure, Ken Kesey the author was a somewhat inclusive man as someone who referred to him self as "too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie," and considered himself to be a link between the two, one can assume he neither advocated for violent protest or authoritarian rule. I think maybe thats why he kills McMurphy, because vehement opposition is not a solution.
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I am commenting on this because I realized my original post was not long enough, so please consider this as an addition to the original post. I have been researching more about Ken Kesey I found an interview in which he talks about McMurphy in which he says "The character of McMurphy comes from Sunday matinees, from American Westerns. He’s Shane that rides into town, shoots the bad guys, and gets killed in the course of the movie. McMurphy is a particular American cowboy hero, almost two-dimensional. He gains dimension from being viewed through the lens of Chief Bromden’s Indian consciousness." http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1830/the-art-of-fiction-no-136-ken-kesey
ReplyDelete(there is the link to the whole interview)
I thought this was an interesting perspective that I had not though of before. McMurphy was the archetypal hero, the fact that his depth came from Bromden eludes to why McMurphy his actions seem so deliberate and and patriarchal.