Of Change and Miracles

          Sometimes we underestimate the effect one character can have on an entire novel. It may seem unreasonable to think that the mere presence of a single person can completely alter the way of living of an entire group of people. Due to the influence McMurphy has on every single person in the ward, they all end up changing in one way or another, whether they do it consciously or it happens without them noticing.

               

          One of the characters that goes by mostly disregarded until the end of the story is Billy Bibbit. He is a thirty year old man whose mother works at the hospital and is one of Nurse Ratched's close friends. At the beginning of the book  he comes off as being shy, insecure and afraid - a fact that is accentuated by his evident stutter.

                With McMurphy's help, he, as well as just about every other patient in the ward, starts to come out of his shell. He goes from acting like an immature child and tattling other patients' stories by writing them in the log book to a much more confident, outgoing and charming character during the months McMurphy is with him.

                One of the defining moments this character has is when they go out boating. McMurphy invites one of his "friends", Candy, to join them and out of all the patients, Billy takes a special liking to her and starts flirting with her in his own, timid way. He starts to act out when they get to the gas station following McMurphy's example, however, when the loafers outside the bait shop start attacking Candy, he keeps his mouth shut. This proves that although McMurphy helped him start forming an identity, he is still extremely afraid of those that have some kind of power over him, such as the Big Nurse, his mother, and most importantly the Combine and those in the outside world.

                McMurphy is an idol to these inmates. He came in and from the beginning started challenging authority, making himself heard and attempting to change the things he didn’t agree with. The patients started seeing him as their savior, the one that could give them back the voices they had lost many years ago. If he was there, they felt that they became almost invincible, but when he wasn’t no one stepped up to take his place.

                The fact that Billy accepted McMurphy's arranged date with Candy shows how much he had changed since the beginning of the novel, but it still wasn’t enough to save him. The day of Billy's death, the Big Nurse appeared and popped his blissful bubble, the one all the inmates that participated in the night's events found themselves in, and it was too much for him. Reality came crashing down, as well as all the social pressures he had been under before McMurphy's arrival. He couldn't handle taking responsibility for his actions and thus, when left alone, he ended his own life.

                Change occurs around us every single day. We may not notice it but it is always there. However, as much as we would like to believe, sometimes even change isn’t enough, especially when it comes to building character. You either have it or you don’t. You can try working on it in order to make it stronger but when it comes down to it, not even McMurphy could make miracles.