Masculinity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The oppression of masculinity and sexuality can make any man feel insecure and self-conscious about himself. However, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the emasculated men are oppressed to feel insecure to the extreme point of seeming as though they may be insane and in need of therapeutic help. The novel is set during the 1950s in a mental institution located in Oregon, U.S.A. Narrated through the perspective of one of the patients, Chief Bromden, the majority of the men there are not necessarily mentally ill, however, dominate forces such as Nurse Ratched, with her carefully selected staff, control and are able to manipulate the men by depriving the men of their male identity, causing them to believe that they are undoubtedly

insane. Through the use irony, personification, metaphors, simile, symbolism and allusion, Kesey creatively demonstrates the malicious effects of manipulation and the loss of masculinity.

Kesey utilizes women in the novel as the antagonist. The majority of the women are dominant figures who harm and manipulate the men in the novel. For example, Chief Bromden is among the most paranoid and tormented victims on the ward. Although Bromden stands at six foot, seven inches tall, he struggles to express free will, instead, he pretends as if he is dumb and deaf in an attempt to escape reality. Being half Indian, Bromden’s past is filled with instances of manipulation and abuse. From the Colonization Era to modern day America, the Native-Americans have always been victims of abuse. Bromden’s father, Tee Ah Millatoona, is the main leader of Bromden’s tribe, however, Millatoona marries a Caucasian woman which leads him to his own demise. Society believes that Natives are beneath them in every aspect of life. Hence why Bromden describes his Caucasian mother as “‘bigger than Papa and me together’“(Kesey 219). Although Bromden’s mother is not physically bigger than Millatoona, she controls and manipulates her husband in a one-sided relationship. The fact that Bromden inherits his mother’s last name is evidence of the power and dominance the female character holds against

the male character.

Bromden’s mother manipulates her husband until “‘[she] made [Bromden’s father] too little’” (220). Bromden insinuates that by asserting her dominance over her husband, Bromden’s mother striped Millatoona of his masculinity, which leads to his downfall. She made Millatoona weak causing him to turn to alcoholism to cope with his loss of masculinity. After witnessing a lifelong worth of traumatic abuse, Bromden creates a theory called the Combine to help him understand the coercive forces of society. Kesey uses the Combine to create a fictional world which is run by a series of interlaced mechanics and machines that control the whole world. It is like a system or government that uses people’s weaknesses to get them to conform to its establishment. Consequently, Bromden believes that the Combine have got him too but not because of his mother, he believes that the Combine got him through the form of Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is a former Army nurse who served in World War II, which is why she is an advocate for strict order and control. As a result, she runs the hospital on a strict schedule as if it is a military

unit and not a mental institution. Her reign over her subjects can be described as a dictatorship or an autocrat because she holds absolute power over the patients and staff. After much experience with Nurse Ratched, Bromden “watched her get more and more skillful over the years… she wields a sure power that extends in all directions on hairlike wires too small for anybody’s eye but mine; I see her sit in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend her network with mechanical insect skill, know every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get the results she wants” (29). Through the use of metaphors and similes, Bromden explains Nurse Ratched’s expert skill in the art of manipulation. He says her power extends on “hairlike wires too small for anybody’s eye”, implying that she can control and manipulate her subjects without arousing suspicion or make it known that they are being controlled. When Bromden says “I see her sit in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend her network with mechanical insect skill”, he is suggesting that she is the main leader within the Combine. Her judgments are determined with precise calculation, which is why “to get the results she wants”.
One of the most afflicted victims of manipulation is Dale Harding. Harding is an intelligent and well-spoken man. Although he lacks leadership and masculinity, he is still able to become the leader and spokesperson for the Acutes. At a glance, Harding seems like an ordinary man with no mental disabilities. However, Kesey insinuates that Harding is “‘different... [Harding] [indulges] in certain practices that our society regards as shameful. And [Harding] got sick. It wasn't the practices…it was the feeling that the great, deadly, pointing forefinger of society’” (307). The 1950s is known for its leap towards equal humanitarian rights, however, society still regards homosexuality