Theme Of Gender Stereotypes In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

A stereotype is a fixed image of a person or thing. Specifically, a gender stereotype is a fixed image of what a boy is and what a girl is and each person may see this in a different way. An example of this is that girls love the color pink and are dainty while boys love the color blue and are aggressive which in some cases isn’t necessarily true. Stereotypes are seen throughout “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” at various times. Many of the men in the Mental ward are in there voluntarily because they do not feel like they go along with society. They feel like they are outsiders and therefore are easily controlled by the Nurse. When Mcmurphy has been in the ward for awhile he begins to see who goes against normal gender stereotypes and how they act differently than normal people in society. Some of

Harding is visiting with his wife and Mcmurphy is making observations about what he sees Harding doing during their visit. “ Well Harding’s telling the story he gets enthusiastic and forgets about his hands, and they weave the air in front of him into a picture clear enough to see, dancing the story to the tune of his voice like two beautiful ballet women in white” (kesey, 183). When Harding is visiting with his wife he starts to move his hands again like he did earlier in the book. His wife confronts him and it makes him nervous because he knows what he is doing isn’t very masculine. Men usually have big rough hands while Harding has small and dainty hands that move gracefully making him very feminine. When he does this he tries to hide is hands because he ashamed about who he is and doesn’t want Mcmurphy to think he is gay even if it might be true. The relationship of Harding and his wife conveys an abnormal gender stereotype. Harding is insecure and shy about who he is usually what a girl would be stereotyped as while his wife is dominating and degrading how a man would usually be