Compare and Contrast Patrick McMurphy and Timothy Treadwell - Essay Example

In contrast, Timothy Treadwell was a real character who was an environmentalist who chose to live among the grizzly bears in Katmai National Park located in Alaska. Treadwell made many trips to this park over 13 summers. In the last summer he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a grizzly bear (Sanders). 2 The Early Years Not much is known about McMurphy’s early life because the concentration for the book is on his experiences in the mental hospital. Sanders states that Treadwell’s early years were spent in the abuse of alcohol and drugs.

In fact, after he left his family and moved to California, he worked in restaurants, attended college for a short time and eventually overdosed on heroin and cocaine; however, a friend of his saved him by taking him to the hospital. Although the reader gets a glimpse of the character that McMurphy was previous to his admittance to the mental institution, they can only guess at what his early years were like. Although it can be assumed that Treadwell was an outsider, it is not clarified by the things that he wrote in his diaries.

It seemed that Treadwell was more consumed by his love of the study of the bears and he was able to stay in society easily. During his winter months, he worked in bars around the California area where he lived as a bartender and during these times he stayed sober (Sanders). The most that Treadwell did as an “outsider” was to ignore the rules that the park service had put in place for human safety around the bears. He had several violations with the park service over the13 years that he spent time in the area.

He refused to carry bear spray which was something that may have protected him later. 2 Violations and Altercations with the Law McMurphy was no stranger to problems with the law. He was sent to jail because he had sex with a 15 year old that he said lied about her age and was the one that started the sexual encounter. He was in jail because of the rape. McMurphy went to Korea in the war and was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross after he led an escape from a Communist prison camp, but he thwarted authority once he was released from the service.

He would become drunk and then pick fights with people and disturb the peace. Because of these behaviors, he was dishonorably discharged from the Marines for insubordination. He went to prison afterwards for the rape and to the mental institution to sit out the rest of his sentence (Kesey). Most of Treadwell’s violations and altercations with the law were confined to the park area. He defied the laws of the park especially the ones for safety. As an example, he would not carry bear spray and he always camped too close to the bears.

He also would leave food out to attract the bears and would give tours to other campers without prior authorization. Treadwell was never arrested for what he did because they were only small infractions of the law. He was cited for them but never arrested. 3 Similarities in Treatment Although McMurphy did not really seem to be “crazy” with problems like the rest of the people in the mental ward, he did begin to lead an escape. Many of the men in the mental hospital were there because they had signed themselves in.

The challenge was that Nurse Ratched always kept these men under control with medication and with a pseudo-group therapy. McMurphy sees the fallacy in this and begins to talk to the men. In one sense, it seems that