Luke and McMurphy: A Comparison

In comparing Luke and McMurphy, you find that the only way for their stories to end would be to end their lives. In both cases they were killed by other people, they were both "killed" by the person they were opposing, someone of authority. In some ways this could be viewed as the ultimate defeat, but to the other prisoners, this was a victory. The goal of the prison authority is to make the prisoners better people, so that they will not commit any more crimes if they are releases; they try to teach the prisoners a lesson. However, they failed when it came to Luke. The only way for them to stop Luke was to kill him. This was a rare moment when the authority shows weakness. This concept can also be applied to McMurphy's case. The only way the Nurse could stop McMurphy was to give him a lobotomy, an attempt to "fix" him. Although the Chief was the one that physically killed McMurphy, the Nurse killed him mentally. In the Chief's eyes, he was doing McMurphy a favor and saving him from a miserable life in the hospital. Both characters have been referred to as Christ-like and I agree. They are not Christ-like in their morals and values. In McMurphy's case he was a savior for the other patients on the ward, and Luke was the savior for the other men in the prison. They were not only saviors for the men around them, they died for them as well.