Suicide is the 9th leading cause of death in Canada with 11 people dying by suicide each day. The change in mental state causes rash actions such as suicide involving their social pressure and dignity. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, the character Billy Bibbit was a person who resided in a hospital ward who was mentally fragile, who went through a series of events that changed his life including an illegal party at the hospital. When Billy was apprehended after the party that McMurphy planned, he committed suicide. The causes of Billy Bibbit’s suicide stems towards McMurphy’s actions by giving Billy false hope, Billy’s unstable mindset involving social interaction, Nurse Ratched’s manipulation of social pressure
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To begin, while McMurphy resided in the Ward, he had always opposed Big Nurse and the hardships she presented to the ward. He attempted to lead the patients to become independent and unoppressed by Nurse Ratched’s verbal power. Billy believed in McMurphy’s ability, so he decided to follow him in order to recreate his life without the hardships of Big Nurse and where he can live a fulfilling life. Billy was under the illusion that McMurphy would change everything but did not think of the consequences of following McMurphy. If Billy was not involved with McMurphy, then he would not have gone against Nurse Ratched and deal with her retribution. Another decision that McMurphy performed was the argument during the fishing trip. He went up against the gas station workers and had everybody else, including Billy, go up against the gas station workers. This gives them false confidence because Bromden says, “He’d shown us what a little bravado and courage could accomplish and we thought he’d taught us how to use it. All the way to the coast, we had fun pretending to be brave”(Kesey 203). Billy would be severely affected by this because he thinks that he has enough guts to face the problems in life, but in reality, he is still the same as before. Because of this, Billy tries to convince Candy, to be his girlfriend, which would lead to Billy regretting his decisions because it goes against society at that time for a prostitute to be a permanent girlfriend. One final decision that McMurphy did was having a party with the prostitutes in the hospital ward. This action was something that Billy thought McMurphy had complete control over and decided not to worry about the possible repercussions because he knew
To begin, while McMurphy resided in the Ward, he had always opposed Big Nurse and the hardships she presented to the ward. He attempted to lead the patients to become independent and unoppressed by Nurse Ratched’s verbal power. Billy believed in McMurphy’s ability, so he decided to follow him in order to recreate his life without the hardships of Big Nurse and where he can live a fulfilling life. Billy was under the illusion that McMurphy would change everything but did not think of the consequences of following McMurphy. If Billy was not involved with McMurphy, then he would not have gone against Nurse Ratched and deal with her retribution. Another decision that McMurphy performed was the argument during the fishing trip. He went up against the gas station workers and had everybody else, including Billy, go up against the gas station workers. This gives them false confidence because Bromden says, “He’d shown us what a little bravado and courage could accomplish and we thought he’d taught us how to use it. All the way to the coast, we had fun pretending to be brave”(Kesey 203). Billy would be severely affected by this because he thinks that he has enough guts to face the problems in life, but in reality, he is still the same as before. Because of this, Billy tries to convince Candy, to be his girlfriend, which would lead to Billy regretting his decisions because it goes against society at that time for a prostitute to be a permanent girlfriend. One final decision that McMurphy did was having a party with the prostitutes in the hospital ward. This action was something that Billy thought McMurphy had complete control over and decided not to worry about the possible repercussions because he knew