Male aggressive dominance McMurphy is linked with the mythical frontier American when he engages in battle with Harding for the position of "Bull Goose Loony": "Then you tell Bull Goose Loony Harding that R. P. McMurphy is waiting to see him and that this hospital ain't big enough for the two of us. I'm accustomed to being top man. I been a bull goose catskinner for every gyppo logging operation in the Northwest and bull …showed first 75 words of 818 total…

…showed last 75 words of 818 total…thought you meant touch upon her-something else." "Now what could you- " But she stops. She was almost flustered for a second there. (39) McMurphy undermines Big Nurse's power over the other male patients by characterising her as a "bitch," a "buzzard" and a "ball-cutter" (51-52). He wins some major battles with her by asserting the right for the men to "watch" the ball game on TV (111-114) and by organising the deep sea fishing trip (186 ff).