blog # 5 my least favorite character

In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the least favorite character for many would probably be Nurse Ratched, for the very obvious reasons of her manipulation  and cruelty toward her patients, but my least favorite character is Dr. Spivery, the patients primary doctor, who is ironically addicted to opiates.  Even though he is the primary doctor, he is easily manipulated, by both Ratched and his own patients, "yes, the same high school. And in the course of our reminiscing we happened to bring up the carnivals the school used sponsor-marvelous, noisy, gala occasions......The big Nurse is giving him a look that shouldn't have any doubt about about, but he doesn't have his glasses on and misses him" (108 Kesey.) McMurphy can manipulate him into planing a carnival for the ward just by bringing up old high school memories, just as easy as the Nurse does with his addiction to overlook her torturing the patients. He is mild-mannered, which is ok, but he does not have a mind of his own, he let's others control his thinking and decisions. Even though Ratched is "evil" and obsessive and heartless, she at least has a mindset of her own, she has an idea and acts upon it, she has her own goals and wishes, clearly something the doctor lacks. How ever he is a kind man at heart, he'd much rather work in an office looking at charts instead of sitting in an afternoon meeting with mental patients, but again, he is too spineless to speak up about it. Even when he thought he was in control, he was still being manipulated by McMurphy, Dr. Spivey thinks he is able to assert his own power by siding with McMurphy to take down Ratched.  Dr. Spivey has power in the ward that McMurphy hopes to redirect against Ratched and in favor of McMurphy’s desires and the needs of the men. Once McMurphy finds that his proposals will be immediately dismissed, he manipulates the system by using Dr. Spivey to back up his desires like watching a baseball game, going on a fishing trip, having a second day room for playing cards, basically making decisions for him. Rather than saying he is my least favorite character, it'd be more appropriate to say he is a character I feel most sorry for, I feel sorry for him in the sense he is a spineless human, unable to make his own decisions and fight for what he believes in to be right.