Richard, as you may or may not know, is the main character of the Secret History. I believe that out of all the characters that my peers and I have analyzed in literature class this year, McMurphy is the best to relate to Richard. Let us look at why.
First of all, both are basically in the same position from the start of the book. Both leave what they were doing for something that they believed was better, and in most aspects it turned out to be worse. Another similarity to note is that in the places that they enter, they are far different from everyone else. Richard, for example, entered the university with very little money and tried to blend in with all of the rich kids. McMurphy, however, entered a mental ward, but he was not actually mentally unstable. This also shows that they were both isolated to a degree.
Not only this, but they also fall into tragic conundrums. In Richard's case, he influences the group to perform a ritual to be able to access their minds easier. This eventually turns bad when they unintentionally kill a farmer, which leads to the tragedy that is mentioned in the post about Bunny. McMurphy can relate to this in that he influenced his group to have a party and for Billy Bibbet to have sex with the girl that he brought in, which eventually led to Billy's suicide.
First of all, both are basically in the same position from the start of the book. Both leave what they were doing for something that they believed was better, and in most aspects it turned out to be worse. Another similarity to note is that in the places that they enter, they are far different from everyone else. Richard, for example, entered the university with very little money and tried to blend in with all of the rich kids. McMurphy, however, entered a mental ward, but he was not actually mentally unstable. This also shows that they were both isolated to a degree.
Not only this, but they also fall into tragic conundrums. In Richard's case, he influences the group to perform a ritual to be able to access their minds easier. This eventually turns bad when they unintentionally kill a farmer, which leads to the tragedy that is mentioned in the post about Bunny. McMurphy can relate to this in that he influenced his group to have a party and for Billy Bibbet to have sex with the girl that he brought in, which eventually led to Billy's suicide.