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Analysis of One flew over the cuckoo's nest
One flew over the cuckoos nest narrative
Essay on one flew over the cuckoo's nest
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In Chapter 5 of the book, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest the Narrator describes Harding's hands and how they change with a shift in the conversation or his emotions. Earlier in the book, Harding’s hands are described as feminine. Not only are Harding's hands revealing of his emotions but they are also described much differently than McMurphy's. Harding's hands are “small, soft, and pretty” while McMurphy's hands are described by Bromden as hard, manly, Callous hands.Harding does not have the street smarts which correlates to personal experience and common sense. He is very gentle, almost feminine while McMurphy is seen as a hard working man full of energy. I think the author included this distinction to show how Harding lacks any Manhood or
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
Eventually he’d like to become Jack. He covets not only his position and standing in the university, but also his wife, Babette, and he makes no secret of it. Why else would he do something to lewd as to sniff her hair and grope her the way he does? He tells Jack that the only way to seduce a woman is with clear and open desire. Well, it don’t get no clearer than that.
From the moment that the apple touched Eve’s lips, women have been seen as an embodiment of all that is evil. This reflects misogynistic societal beliefs that women are below men. While many of the prejudices towards women are hidden in modern American society, some misogynistic stereotypes are still present. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, one can see many misogynistic and sexist undertones. Big Nurse Ratched is in a position of authority over a large group of men and is seen as a tyrannical and unjust ruler. Although most of her methods would have been seen as awful when used by any person, the saturation of bad women in the novel creates an unfavorable picture of women in general. The balance of power in the ward is never equal; it is either in the hands of women, or of men. Nurse Ratched is determined to take power from the men, while McMurphy is determined to win it back. Therefore, a push-pull situation is created, in which each group is attempting to take power from the other. Kesey’s misogynistic tones create the feeling that men and women cannot be equal; for one to rise, the other must fall.
One of the most controversial points McMurphy makes in the novel is fear of woman as castrators. The women in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest are uniformly described as threatening and terrifying figures. Most of the male patients have been damaged by relationships with overpowering women. For example; Bromden's mother is portrayed as a castrating woman; her husband took her last name, and she turned a big strong chief into a small, weak alcoholic. According to Bromden, she "got twice his size; she made him too little to fight anymore and he gave up" (p.
Sherwood states,” Wing Biddlebaum talked much with his hands. The slender expressive fingers…became the piston rods of his machinery expression.” (Anderson 1,4). Both characters use their hands to express their feelings. Wing fear his hand because he got in trouble in his past because of it. In “A Jury of Her Peer” Mrs. Wright is nervous when Harry question her about her husband dead, “[P]leatin’ at her apron.” (Glaspell 4). She is using her hand to show that she is nervous. Besides the main characters, Mr. Wright uses his hand to show how angry he could get it. ‘“Somebody wrung its neck,”’ Mr. Wright kill the only company that his wife
Men frequently take on the role of dominance over women in social relationships. Looking at the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, the roles seem to have switched. The novel, narrated by Chief Bromden, is set in a psychiatric hospital where the head Nurse, Nurse Ratched, runs the male ward. She is constantly picking on the patients' vulnerable places. Patrick Randle McMurphy, former prisoner of the Pendleton Work Farm, swaggers his way into the ward claiming to be psychotic often encounters many conflicts with Nurse Ratched, always refusing to abide by her rules and regulations, and gains respect from the other patients. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey uses the concepts of masculinity to define the women's role.
They are scorned towards nurse Ratched, who enjoys inflicting physical punishments on the men and who enters into a power struggle with McMurphy. There is a particular black man who appears to be older. He is viewed as the submissive black who can easily be bought with cheap alcohol and a white woman. McMurphy was a corrupted individual in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest as Lisa was in Girl Interrupted. McMurphy however, had a more positive view even though he was a rebel. He was not disabled. He was more like a guy on the inside who was actually seeing how everyone was being treated in a mental institution. He saw how all the staff, nurses and doctors treated everybody as if they were all crazy, or abnormal instead of people who happened to have a mental disorder. I like the way McMurphy’s interaction with the people in the institution. He treats them like decent human beings. He organizes different activities like basketball and card games. He jokes around with them, makes them interested in the World Series, takes them fishing on a stolen boat, and best of all gets them drunk and gives them women. Chief Bromden is a very big Indian who pretends to be deaf and dumb. He played football in high school, and was in the army. His mental illness was never diagnosed. At McMurphy’s arrival Chief Bromden’s behavior lessens a bit. His delusions lessen, and when McMurphy asserts him, he is often affected positively. Billy Bibbits, a young man with a stutter who lives in terrifying fear of his mother, looks like a little kid, but he might be in his early thirties. He is very shy, especially around women. At the party in the ward, Billy loses his virginity to Candy. After Billy loses his virginity to Candy he no longer stammers (SparkNotes Editors, n.d.). I see the black men as stereotypes because of racism. They were hired to intimidate all the mentally ill patients in the ward. Most of
During one of Gatsby’s infamous parties, a drunk woman sang her heart out. Fitzgerald writes, “she was not only singing, she was weeping too. Whenever there was a pause in the song she filled it with gasping, broken sob...” (51). Being drunk, this woman was able to portray her true feelings. She is, in reality, unhappy. This woman is unable to stand her for herself and obtain what she wants. Instead, she holds it all in and face all of her incapabilities by herself. This song and her state of consciousness was able to break down all of her built up walls. She, like many other women in this novel is unable to stand up for themselves due to their inferiorities compared to men. Also in another one of Gatsby’s parties, women were unwilling to leaving such the extravagant place. Their husband had used force in order to take their wives home, ignoring all of their protests. The wives protest with all their might, but is still unable to stand up for what they want. Instead, they can only kick and pout. No matter how hard they try, men have a physical advantage towards women. In a bodily argument, women are at a disadvantage, therefore, unable to stand up for what they want. The inability of women to stand up for themselves amongst their partner proves that Fitzgerald views women as
During the 1920’s, the role women had under men was making a drastic change, and it is shown in The Great Gatsby by two of the main female characters: Daisy and Jordan. One was domesticated and immobile while the other was not. Both of them portray different and important characteristics of the normal woman growing up in the 1920’s. The image of the woman was changing along with morals. Females began to challenge the government and the society. Things like this upset people, especially the men. The men were upset because this showed that they were losing their long-term dominance over the female society.
He also made the other men comfortable with breaking the rules. When McMurphy rebels against the big nurse, the men see this as an opportunity to get their manhood back, because up until McMurphy arrived, the nurse used fear to gain control. McMurphy recognizes this can kind of repression has lead to the worsening of their mental conditions. “ ‘You’re gonna sit back and let some blue haired women talk you into being a rabbit?’ ‘Not talk me into it. No, I was born a rabbit. Just look at me. I simply need the nurse to make me happy with my role.’ ” (Kesey 91) In this quote, McMurphy is arguing with Harding about his identity in the ward. Harding feels beaten down into a small, harmless animals that do not disobey the rules of the hospital, made by the Big Nurse. Harding is so whipped into obedience by the ward, he truly believes he is this helpless and weak. His disbelief in his abilities is truly why McMurphy is drawn to him to help; to show him just how strong he could be. Even Kesey’s word choice to use “need the nurse” shows how long Harding has been feeling this way for. This speaks to society’s harsh views on individuality because Harding is suspected to be homosexual, therefore, going against the regularities of society in this time period of the 1950s. McMurphy plays the role of being a new light in the ward. He is one who does not easily abandon his uniqueness, no matter how odd or unconventional
Throughout “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Ken Kesey builds up a feud between Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched to establish the novel’s climatic attack, a sexist exemplification that powerful women must be subjugated. Women are depicted as emasculators and castrators. The male patients seem to agree with Dale Harding, who states “We are victims of matriarchy here” (56). The patients correlate matriarchy with castration and mutilation, illustrating the dullness and repressiveness of the hospital as a result of a female dominator. The majority of the men in Nurse Ratched’s psychiatric ward have been damaged by relationships with dominant women. For instance, Chief claimed his mother became “Bigger than Papa and me together” (188). Similarly, Billy Bibbit was so afraid of his mother discovering that he engaged in sexual intercourse with Candy that he commit suicide.
The book is Anderson's form of expression, not unlike the hands of the main character in his most acclaimed piece: "Hands". In this story, a little man, Wing Biddlebaum, lives isolated from the town of Winesburg. His solitude is a result of a tragic experience years before. He had been a gifted schoolteacher who motivated young boys with his hands until one young student spread wild rumors about him. The Pennsylvanian town was qui...
Miss Hancock takes on an important role in the short story The Metaphor, written by Budge Wilson. She is a beloved literacy teacher with an exuberant personality. First, the author fabricates an image of Miss Hancock by giving a physical description of her. Wilson writes “If one tired of inspecting miss Hancock's clothes which were nearly always as flamboyant as her nature, one could still contemplate her face with considerable satisfaction.” (65). This quotes makes it clear that her personality shines through in the way of which she presents herself. Her appearance is a reflection of her exuberant personality. Another technique that Wilson uses to express Miss Hancock's personality is through
Women in the novel are accurately portrayed as they were in the 1920’s. Lewis presents two different scenarios in the novel, but both of these cases can follow the same mannerisms. First, Lewis depicts the loving housewife. Myra, Babbitt’s wife, continually comforts Babbitt throughout the whole novel. Myra even accepts the blame when Babbitt decides to cheat on her. Women are depicted throughout the novel as inferior when...