The female characters of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest can be separated into two quite different categories: prostitutes and “ball cutters”. Prostitutes are portrayed as the “good” characters while the “ball cutter” characters are seen as “cruel”, such as Billy Bibbit’s mother, Harding’s wife, Nurse Ratched, and Chief Bromden’s mother. Respectively of these women are committed on dominating men by emasculating them, though the prostitutes Candy and Sandy are enthusiastic into pleasing men and doing what they're told to do. Despite the apparent nature of this observation, Kesey objects higher than just asserting male dominance above female acquiescence. His goal is to affirm those qualities branded as feminine to undermine those qualities …show more content…
deliberated masculine. One of the central topics in this novel is the fear of women. Excluding the prostitutes, the women are all seen as threatening and terrifying characters and all the male patients seem to suffer under the power of these women. In the beginning we see Nurse Ratched through, McMurphy, the narrator’s point of view, as a monster. McMurphy uses many monster-like words to describe her as a terrifying creature. By describing her voice having a “ tight whine like an electric saw ripping through pine”, she can be imagined as some big beast about to rip anything in its way. Both Bromden and McMurphy describe their suffering through emasculation and devitalization done by Nurse Ratched. Throughout the novel, we see how all of the male characters agree with Harding’s comment that they “are victims of matriarchy”. The majority of the male characters have been ruined by past relationships from women, but most importantly powerful women, which would support the idea of a “matriarchy”.
When Harding’s wife came to visit, she immediately gets into an argument with Harding and plays with her husband’s sexual insecurities by using her sexuality to this advantage. Billy Bibbit’s mother still continues to treat him as a child. This was he could never sexually develop and never had any long lasting relationships. Due to his lack of relationships, he truly had no confidence in himself and was why he personally checked himself into the psychiatric hospital, much like other patients. But when he interacts with one of the “good” characters, Candy, a prostitute, he manages to regain some of his confidence back, which is cut short due to his suicide when Nurse Ratched threatens to tell his mother of him sleeping with Candy, which is another example of Nurse Ratched emasculating many of the male characters. Bromden’s mother similarly has a great power over her son much like Billy’s mother. But in Bromden’s case, his mother built herself up by putting both Bromden and his father down. She managed to change the once powerful and fierce chief into a weak alcoholic. Will Bromden’s mother seems to emasculate the males in her family in a more severe and powerful way, while Billy’s mother seems to do it in an even “nurturing” sort of view, both women have ruined their sons through their very controlling
relationships. While there were the more “cruel” female characters, there were also the “good” characters, Sandy and Candy, the prostitutes. These women were seen as more soothing compared to the rough nature of the more “ball-cutter” women and gave a sort of sense of ease to the men. In fact, after sleeping with Candy, Billy Bibbit, who had little to no self-confidence, started to regain some self-confidence back. Both of these women had enough of a calming presence that they both were to accompany the male patients on a fishing trip. While sandy did not appear since she was getting married, Candy did. In fact, afterwards this, McMurphy manages to get Candy to visit Billy Bibbit so that she can sleep with him. These women seemed to take the paitents’ minds off of what was happening in the hospital and would provide them with some comfort. Another “good” character would be Nurse Pilbow due to her overwhelming guilt over her job and the affect that her job has to her patients. Unlike Nurse Ratched, she does not toy with the patients’’ emotions, but she even feels a sort of connection due to her confusing feelings about her own sexuality. Many times throughout the novel, it’s been referenced that this hospital is male only so you see how the women take “advantage” of their situations and emasculate them. Rawler eventually kills himself by cutting off his testicles, which could even lead to that emasculation is done so much by the women there, that the ward ends up leading the patients to do the same. This novel shows us the perspective self checked in patients and how women devitalize men and drive them to become “damaged goods”, and how the “good” women tend to nurture them back to “health”, much like in Billy Bibbt’s situation.
In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, role reversal puts a woman, Nurse Ratched, in control of the ward, which is important in creating a contrast to traditional power. Within the ward Ratched has ultimate power by “merely [insinuating]” (p. 63) a wrongdoing and has control of the doctors. Soon after the first confrontation with Randle McMurphy (Mack), her power is demonstrated through the submissive and obedient manners of all there (152). Ratched is shown as having great power within the ward and outside, despite that time periods constriction of being a women, showing an important contrast to traditional power structures.
Chief Bromden, who is presumably deaf and dumb, narrates the story in third person. Mr. McMurphy enters the ward all smiles and hearty laughter as his own personal medicine. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a story about patients in a psychiatric hospital, who are under the power of Nurse Ratched. Mrs. Ratched has control over all the patients except for Mr. McMurphy, who uses laughter to fight her power. According to Chief Bromden, McMurphy "...knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy" (212). Laughter is McMurphy's medicine and tool to get him and the rest of the patients through their endless days at the hospital. The author's theme throughout the novel is that laughter is the best medicine, and he shows this through McMurphy's static character. The story is made up of series of conflicts between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. McMurphy becomes a hero, changing the lives of many of the inmates. In the end, though, he pays for his actions by suffering a lobotomy, which turned him into a vegetable. The story ends when Bromden smothers McMurphy with a pillow and escapes to freedom.
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...
I chose the subject about “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” written by Ken Kesey in 1962 for my research paper because my mother told me years ago of the accompanying film and how interesting it is. Two years ago a friend of mine came back from his exchange programme in the United States of America. He told me that he and his theatre group there had performed this novel. He was and still is very enthusiastic about the theme and about the way it is written. Although I started reading the novel, I didn’t manage to finish it till the day we had to choose our subjects at school. When I saw this subject on the list, which we were given by our English teacher Mr Schäfer, I was interested immediately. So I chose it.
...both prostitutes who hardly speak out against the men and will do anything for them, this apparent when at the docks Candy was harassed by other men.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental institution in the Pacific Northwest. The narrator of the novel is Chief Bromden, also known as Chief Broom, a catatonic half-Indian man whom everybody thinks is deaf and dumb. He often suffers from hallucinations in which he feels that the room is filled with fog. The institution is dominated by Nurse Ratched (Big Nurse), a cold, precise woman with calculated gestures and a calm, mechanical manner. When the story begins, a new patient, Randall Patrick McMurphy, arrives at the ward. He is a self-professed 'gambling fool' who has just come from a work farm at Pendleton. He introduces himself to the other men on the ward, including Dale Harding, the president of the patient's council, and Billy Bibbit, a thirty-year old man who stutters and appears very young. Nurse Ratched immediately pegs McMurphy as a manipulator.
In What ways is Sexuality portrayed as central to the conflicts of the individual-v-society in Ken Kesey's One flew over the cuckoo's nest and Tennessee Williams A street car named desire? In What ways is Sexuality portrayed as central to the conflicts of the individual-v-society in Ken Kesey's 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' and Tennessee Williams 'A street car named desire'?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a film directed by Czech Milos Forman in 1975. Using potent elements of fiction--characters, conflict, and symbolism--Forman illustrates the counterculture of the 1960’s. This film depicts American society as an insane asylum that demands conformity from its citizens. The film begins with a conniving convict being assigned to the asylum. R. P. McMurphy is sent to the asylum to be evaluated by the doctors and to determine whether or not he is mentally ill. He is unaware that he will be supervised by an emasculating woman named Nurse Mildred Ratched who watches the patients’ every motion from her nurse’s station.
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.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there is much controversy and bias present throughout the characters in the Combine. The patients have been rejected and forgotten about by society and left to rot with the antithesis of femininity: Nurse Ratched. But even Ratched isn’t immune to the scrutiny of the outside world, and she has to claw her way into power and constantly fight to keep it. With his own experiences and the societal ideals of the 1960’s, Ken Kesey displays how society isolates and ostracizes those who do not follow the social norms or viewed as inferior to the white american males.
Within the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, two of the main themes are borders and marginalization. These themes are found within the various characters within this story, which lead to readers being able to clearly see the effects of this marginalization. Throughout the story, readers see a female-tyrant rule over those below her in a hierarchical setup. This leads to a clear separation of male and female characters. In this novel, the author is able to convey a sense of separation as well as slight misogyny with his use of borders and margins.
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest uses Juvenalian satire to illustrate his message that women were beginning to achieve stature and control as they climbed up the proverbial corporate ladder and were making headway in other facets of society. For Kesey to get his point across, he used sexist language and exaggerated how the male characters in his novel viewed women (Kurkowski).
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.
Kappel, Lawrence. Readings on One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print.