I believe that this book is extremely similar to The Great Gatsby in the sense that it has the same basic structure of hero, antihero, amd villain. The protagonist in this book, the cheif, speaks sparsely and is merely an observor of what goes on in the mental ward. He keeps to himslef and doesn't appear to be the hero although I can certainly see the audience rooting for him.
McMurphy is going to be the antihero and that is the closest that we will come to a hero in this book. He is a brute and he can sometimes be a jerk to the other patients but he is someone who will work against the system. When McMurphy says, "...it's just foul the way they tore into you like that," to Harding, the audience knows that he will at least try to turn the system on its head. Thus, although we may not agree with him, he is basically the only character to root heavily for.
The villain is obviously the big nurse. From the way the patients describe her as being a fearsome and sometimes cruel woman, along with the power she holds among the staff and the doctors, she controls the hospital. She simply has too much power and thus will do anything to maintain order, setting her up ideally to abuse her power and maintain control.
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