One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Personification 1 key example

Bromden does not say he is killing McMurphy, but rather that he is killing "the body." It is the body that fights back and the body that Bromden works to subdue. At first, it may seem cold for Bromden to kill his friend and refuse even to acknowledge him as more than a body. However, the personification here in fact helps make the point that Bromden does not believe he is killing his friend—only laying his body to rest. The lobotomy is what killed McMurphy. There are several different kinds of lobotomies, and some left patients more functional than others. However, it was not uncommon for lobotomies to be performed by inserting an ice pick through the nostrils and shredding the prefrontal cortex. The brain stem often kept these patients technically alive, but the physical center of their personality was destroyed. McMurphy seems to have suffered a lobotomy that has destroyed hugely important parts of his brain.

McMurphy has always been a fighter and would no doubt resist any attempt to kill him were his personality intact. By personifying the body, Bromden emphasizes that the fight McMurphy's body and brain stem put up is not the same fight the man would put up. It is important for Kesey to make this point to readers to emphasize just how tragic the outcome is for patients subjected to this treatment. It is also important for Bromden to make the point to himself that when he felt his friend's body struggling underneath his, he was committing an act of mercy and not murdering his friend in cold blood. Whether or not Bromden's action here is ethical, personification helps him make the point that the hospital's use of lobotomies on non-compliant patients is utterly abhorrent.