Research Paper on:
Kesey/Cuckoo's Nest & Leadership

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
a distinctive portrait of leadership and how positive leadership values individuality, creatively showing others how to optimize themselves and their lives. Examination of Keseys classic shows that its protagonist, Randle  Patrick McMurphy, is a natural born leader whose talents include his ability to understand the dynamics of power in human relationships. The story is from the perspective of half-Native  American "Chief" Bromden, who is a long-term patient in the mental facility where almost all of the action occurs. The routine on Bromdens ward is changed by the arrival of  McMurphy who has chosen admittance to the mental hospital rather than complete a sentence at a prison farm. McMurphy soon realizes that the "Big Nurse," Nurse Ratched, enjoys having dominance  over these men and requires the patients on her ward to submit to her will and idea of conformity. She meets with little resistance until the arrival of McMurphy whose  leadership begins to show the men alternative ideas, such as there being challenge in the outside world, but also joy. Bromden, who is a large man, conveys his feelings  concerning McMurphys leadership through his perception of size. He tells McMurphy that he is "bigger and tougher" than he is, "I used to be big, but not no more. Youre  twice the size of me" (Kesey 17). As this suggests, Bromden perceives the idea of the "big" man quite literally and sees the forces of society that wear a man  down as literally shrinking him. For example, he sees his fathers marriage to a "town woman" and the governments dismantling of his tribal heritage in terms of shrinking (Semino and  Swindlehurst 146). Bromden explains that "Everybody worked on him because he was big and wouldnt give in and he did like he pleased...He fought it a long time till my