Similarities Between The Wasp Factory And One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Innate nature can be defined as ‘existing at the time of birth’, thus it comes as no surprise that authors like Iain Banks and Ken Kesey explore the idea that either we, as human beings, are inclined to cruelty and violence due to this or that we’re influenced by the society that surrounds us and the actions of other individuals in said society. To some extent the theory of determinism; which suggests that all events, including human action, are all determined by causes external to the will, and as a result we cannot be morally held responsible for our actions, links in with the argument of innate nature. Both ‘The Wasp Factory’ and ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ provide prominent examples of this, for example the fact that Frank, the protagonist

in Banks’ novel, was dosed with male hormones: “He started dosing me with male hormones, and has been ever since.” And that in Kesey’s novel, Chief Bromden, the novel’s narrator, didn’t start “acting deaf; it was the people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see anything at all.” Which inevitably led to his loss of sanity, which is a key theme in both novels in addition to masculinity, psychopathic behaviour, misogyny, isolation, conformity, factories and control to name only a few.
Freud claimed that within each one of us we have a reservoir of aggressive energy, and that as it builds up it must be drained off periodically, the most common way by competing in sports, or we explode into violence, as well as proposing that venting this aggressive energy should make us less aggressive - which is known as “catharsis”.

Frank finds comfort in releasing his aggression and worry through his rituals in his Wasp Factory and Sacrifice Poles, which could be argued to stop him committing murder again because his aggression has been drained off through these violent rituals. However, Berkowitz’s study demonstrates that we are likely to become more violent after such participations, concluding that “Engaging in aggressive play just strengthens the disposition to react aggressively.” Indeed, it could be suggested that Banks is speculating on both theories and in turn challenging them throughout his

novel.
Isolation; “Being far away from other places, buildings and people”, plays a key role in both texts for different reasons. The hospital in which the majority of ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ is set isn’t about the healing of supposedly mentally ill patients but rather about dehumanizing and manipulating them until they’re so weak that they have no other option than conform to the Big Nurse and her institution, which has the potential to be a microcosm of America in the 1950’s. Kesey uses imagery of machinery and other mechanical components to describe wider society. Those components that are broken are sent to, in Chief Bromden’s words: “The combine” in order to be fixed and wired back into wider society to be a “functioning, adjusted component.” However, what is considered to be ‘broken’ in the 1950’s American society is controversial. The novel’s patients aren’t all actually mentally ill, for example, some are homosexual which at the time was seen as a major fault in a person. The novel suggests that the repression of their sexuality directly leads to their insanity and warped sexual identities with several suggestions of rape and illicit sexual acts, represented by the jar of Vaseline that the Nurse leaves with the aides – a symbol of her permission. Although, the overall message the novel expresses is that the patients are indeed victims of a society which demands conformity, and those that don’t conform are punished through isolation and being deemed mad or insane. A possible reason for Kesey’s use of punishment in the novel could be the stigma attached to being mentally ill in the 1950’s, as well as his own experiences dealing with such patients. The fact these individuals don’t conform, whatever the reason, results in them being isolated in the institution and oppressed by a woman, which is interesting regarding contextual factors as well as with the idea of conformity, why did Kesey chose for the oppressor to be a woman? It could be argued that the patients are inclined to cruelty once they turn ‘mad’ as a result of the environment they’re in, rather than their innate nature. However, the character of McMurphy proves that insane or not, the hospital is ultimately in control of their fate, not them.
Similarly, ‘The Wasp Factory’ presents isolation as a prominent theme throughout the novel.

Set on a remote, unnamed Scottish peninsula, Frank is isolated from the rest of society and rarely interacts with other people, especially his own age: “I didn’t grow up with anybody of my own age […]” and thus lacks being socially educated due to his Father’s choice of educating Frank himself, giving him the opportunity to manipulate his understanding of the world in which he lives: “For years I believed Pathos was one of the Three Musketeers, Fellatio was a character in Hamlet […]” In society’s eyes, Frank doesn’t exist: “I was never registered. […] nothing to say I’m alive or ever existed.” And constantly hides from Diggs, who can be seen as a representation of society. Due to his non-existence, Frank can never have aspirations outside of the island, thus making his life hopeless. The few people that are aware he exists are either related to him, disabled or have been lied to and believe his cover story. Another example of how Banks uses hope throughout the novel is using victims as a representation. In this novel’s case, the victims are utterly innocent, so when Frank kills the children, he is actually killing symbols of hope. The murder of his younger brother, Paul, shows the destruction of innocence due to Banks’ use of language, describing him as having “a podgy hand.” Emphasising how undefined and young he is. Through being chemically wounded by his father, Frank “naturally”

causes violence and uses cruelty on nature along with noticing specific, unpleasant details such as the torment in an unseen animal’s cry of pain, a dead frog that had been dropped by a bird and his sacred relic of the skull of the dog which supposedly castrated him – Old Saul. With this Banks raises the question of, ‘Does nature teach violence?’ However, it could be argued that Frank’s trips to the pub and other ‘normal’ teenage pleasures; along with his boyish love of dams and weapons convey how, as humans, we’re shaped by our surroundings and upbringing. Frank’s narration is disturbing and twisted as he offhandedly describes the murders and other atrocities he’s committed, giving us insight into his mind which makes him more understandable and less outright horrific. Banks’ use of adding bizarre deaths, such as Esmerelda’s death, distances us from the horror and forces us to focus on the absurd instead.
Gender binary; “The classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine.” Is deconstructed in ‘The Wasp Factory’, and to an extent explored in ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. Throughout the novel, Frank performs rituals which he has created in an attempt to affirm his identity as a male whilst holding the belief that the reason for not having a penis is due to a dog attack when he was a toddler. Although, it is clear that he struggles to do so, hence the repetitiveness of said rituals: “I take the same number of strokes of the same length in the same sequence each morning.” Which is a clear example of a daily devotion to routine and social practice in an attempt to sustain impossible norms, and prove that he’s masculine by shaving. It is evident that Frank’s perception of himself is warped as a result of being virtually beyond repair by his Father’s arbitrary invention of a castration complex, causing Frank to completely reject the feminine in order to boost his own damaged masculinity. For example; rejecting characteristics that are stereotypical of a female: “[Eric] cried like a girl” and noting that in order for a woman to be strong and valuable it’s essential that they have “more man in their character than most” portraying the idea that women are flawed and under-developed. This idea is apparent very early on in the novel when he states that he “hates having to sit down in the toilet all the time. With my unfortunate disability I usually have to, as though I was a bloody woman.” Which solidifies Frank’s perception and attitude to women being less evolved, and in his opinion ‘disabled’ versions men but also brings Freud’s theory of penis envy into place due to his embarrassment and shame of having an ‘unmanly’ body. Frank’s misogynistic attitude seems to stem from the abrupt disappearance of his mother, influencing his path of anti-feminism ideals: “My greatest enemies are Women […] and are nothing compared to them […]” Despite all of Frank’s violence and cruelty in an attempt to reaffirm his masculinity, he openly rejects Eric’s compulsive destruction of dogs: “This burning dogs stuff is just nonsense” possibly because dogs are seen as a man’s best friend and his actions take place in public which contrasts Frank’s secluded cruelty outside of the public domain.
Gender and misogyny is primarily explored in ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ through the struggle between the Big Nurse and McMurphy. The Big Nurse is a representation of the idea that women are castrators; she’s presented as a threatening and terrifying individual who has the power to infantilise and humiliate them, eventually rendering them sexless: “We are victims of a matriarchy here.” And her breasts are a metonym as she becomes a parody of a protective and nurturing mother figure to the men. In contrast to this, the character of McMurphy is symbol of hope for the other men. From a masculinist viewpoint, he is a charismatic hero whose laugher restores the men to life. Similarly to the Nurse, his hand becomes a metonym of full identity and transmits power like a life force through the ritualized action of shaking hands, as well as celebrating male strength which is seen in the fistfight McMurphy has with the aides to spark the rebellion again. Early on in the text, McMurphy describes the Nurse as “a bitch and a buzzard and a ball cutter.” So when Rawler commits suicide by cutting off his testicles, Bromden remarks that “all the guy had to do was wait” implying that the institution would have castrated him in the long run anyway. The novel’s depiction of genuine madness is offered through McMurphy’s psychopathic madness; the cruellest and most violent form of misogyny – the rape of the Nurse. The only way for a conclusive victory for the men is through a sexual violation so they send McMurphy as a sacrificial hero to represent the group but as a result he must also pay the price of the scapegoat for his actions that the others had supported and encouraged. In addition to this, the novel ends with Bromden suffocating McMurphy, enabling him to die with some dignity rather than live as a symbol of the Nurse’s power, although, some critics have interpreted the ending to also be a rape on Bromden’s part.
It is clear that to a certain extent both innate nature, and the individuals we’re influenced by in society play a vital role in our inclination to violence and cruelty as human beings. Iain Banks and Ken Kesey mutually adopt these arguments and explore them in their texts using the particular themes of; gender, masculinity, isolation and misogyny. However, when taking both sides into consideration I would argue that in fact the society that we live in, and the individuals that surround us make up the stronger side to the debate as to whether we’re inclined to cruelty and violence due to our innate nature or not, and both novels support this view to a larger extent.