Women's Control in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey is about a man named Chief Bromden. He is half Indian and is locked up in a mental institute. He has led everyone in the ward to believe that he is deaf and dumb; instead he is just quiet and observant. Big Nurse is the head of the ward and mentally controls every patient she has, not allowing them to become better. McMurphy is a transfer to the ward and loosens up the atmosphere. He is a very relaxed, outgoing, funny guy that loves to joke around and be loud. When he too notices the Big Nurse's mental control on everyone, he sets out to help the patients become sane and not be influenced by the Big Nurse. One of the possible themes for this story is that women, although not physically stronger than men, can mentally be stronger than men and can control them with that alone. In the following paragraphs I will show how Kesey portrays women's control.
The Big Nurse was the first women introduced in the novel, and she definitely has the most overpowering characteristics. She is the main woman with power throughout the novel. She is introduced and described by Kesey through the eyes of Chief Bromden. Ken shows her overpowering nature by writing, "She dips a nod at me as she goes past. I let the mop push me back to the wall an smile and try to foul her equipment up as much as possible by not letting her see my eyes-they can't tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed"(10). From this passage you can tell that the Big Nurse terrifies Chief and has a mental advantage over him. She keeps him scared and willing to do what she wants.
A man named Harding is also in the institute. While at a meeting, Mrs. Ratched, The Big Nurse, starts talking about Mr. Harding's wife. She is a beautiful woman that receives many stares from other men. Because of this Harding is afraid that his wife is cheating on him. Ratched shows her mental superiority by asking the other patients to comment on the subject, which further embarrasses Harding making him even more intimidated by the nurse. Kesey shows his embarrassment when he writes, "Harding shuts his eyes, and nobody says anything" (44).
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...
Nurse Ratched is a former army nurse who works in the ward, she has manipulates the men in many ways. One way is having the patients “spy on each other” making them write things down, they think she would want to hear, or know. Bromden described Nurse Ratched as having the ability to “set the wall clock to whatever speed she wants”, a metaphor for her control, showing how the patients lose track of time. Nurse Ratched acts authority on the ward shows controls how superior over the person who would normally be her Superior, such as, Dr. Spivey.
People often find themselves as part of a collective, following society's norms and may find oneself in places where feeling constrained by the rules and will act out to be unconstrained, as a result people are branded as nuisances or troublemakers. In the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, the author Ken Kesey conveys the attempt McMurphy makes to live unconstrained by the authority of Nurse Ratched. The story is very one sided and helps create an understanding for those troublemakers who are look down on in hopes of shifting ingrained ideals. The Significance of McMurphy's struggles lies in the importance placed on individuality and liberty. If McMurphy had not opposed fear and autocratic authority of Nurse Ratched nothing would have gotten better on the ward the men would still feel fear. and unnerved by a possibility of freedom. “...Then, just as she's rolling along at her biggest and meanest, McMurphy steps out of the latrine ... holding that towel around his hips-stops her dead! ” In the novel McMurphy shows little signs like this to combat thee Nurse. His defiance of her system included
If the patients saw that Ms. Ratched could get angry, and that she was hiding her personality, they would realize that they are not rabbits after all, and that she is not a “good strong wolf”, as they previously believed. When patient R.P McMurphy, the hospital patient that tries to remove all of Ms. Ratched’s power, arrives on the hospital ward, he makes no effort to hide his personality, and the patients begin to recognize how Ms. Ratched hides her personality, in the novel, Chief Bromden says, “He stands looking at us, back in his boots, and he laughs and laughs. In the novel, Ms. Ratched just removed the tub room, which was used as a game room, from the patients, this angered McMurphy, so he decided to do something subtle to get revenge on Ms. Ratched. In the novel, it says, “The Big Nurse’s eyes swelled out as he got close. . .
In Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Kesey makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: the effects of sexual repression, woman as castrators, and the pressures we face from society to conform. Through these points, Kesey encourages the reader to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the reader realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as "crazy."
“Power comes from temperament but enthusiasm kills the switch”. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken kesey reveals how the struggle for power and authority is shown in the psychiatric hospital. Ken kesey expresses this mastery through Nurse Ratched and McMurphy and their effect on the patients in the ward. Nurse Ratched has all the power due to her technically being in charge of the ward. The patients “men” are powerless with their acceptance and obedience to her actions. However, everything changes when McMurphy arrives. His confidence and charisma give him some type of power that challenges and disrupts the Nurse’s drunkening thirst for power. Power in this novel is lost, gained and repossessed.
Soon after completing this heroic task, Ishtar, the goddess of love and war sought to marry Gilgamesh. As a king who should abide by the gods, Gilgamesh had an outburst of denying Ishtar 's proposal because of her infidelity and cruel relationships with her past lovers. "[Who is there] would take you in marriage? [You, a frost that congeals no] ice, a louvre-door [that] stays [not] breeze nor draught, a palace that massacres...warriors," (Tablet VI 32-35). Because he denied Ishtar, this further shows how Gilgamesh is immature and not ready to accept his responsibilities as king by marrying Ishtar. As a result of her denial, Ishtar requests from her father Anu to send down the Bull of Heaven. His denial in taking part of the sacred marriage ceremony and his eagerness to disrespect and dishonor the gods ' wishes to punish his city of Uruk exhibits Gilgamesh 's fault in taking up his role as king. Gilgamesh took this opportunity to slay the Bull of Heaven to, again, have another event to add to his repertoire of heroic deeds. He arrogantly completed these heroic acts of the killing of Humbaba and the killing of the Bull of Heaven. Without humility, a ruler will be looked down on by both the people, and in this situation, by the gods. Since Gilgamesh focused entirely in trying to be a great
Nurse Ratched gains much of her power through the manipulation of the patients on the
The history of nurses hadn’t developed until the nineteenth century. The first law was passed to require that nurses attain a license in 1938. After passing this law, the New York State began a movement to have certain programs to promise new standards in the field. Since the first schools were opened the training and criteria has changed tremendously. Education standards for nurses have improved in many different ways. Programs are an option throughout the country, and there are laws to back up the qualification and training standards for licensure. The nursing field is an important role as a part of the health care team, and can benefit one is so many ways. The history of nurses has changed from being a minor occupation to a major one. In today’s society people rely on nurses, doctors, and specialists more than ever. Nurses have brightened our future in the most beneficial way (Hopke 592).
In the 1960s, the drinking age was set as 21, to match the voting age. However, around the time of the Vietnam War, the public began to argue that if an 18-year-old was old enough to fight and die for his country, then he should be able to vote as well. As a result, the voting age was lowered to 18. Between 1970 and 1976, 29 states lowered their legal drinking age as well. In the words of Carla Main, author of Bulldozed and various other published works concerning law and society, the results were “catastrophic,” as “[h]ighway deaths among teenagers and young adults skyrocketed” (Main 33). Many states began raising the legal drinking age up again. In 1984, under the supervision of Ronald ...
The first reason why eighteen should be the legal age to drink is because one can vote and serve in the military at the same age. Dr. Ruth Engs stated in an interview, the banning of alcohol by young adults (who can vote, serve in the military, etc.) is not working, we need to get rid of this failure and replace it with proven, realistic, and successful approach to fix the situation (Hanson, 1997-2013). The legal age to vote is eighteen in America, the age where young adults make the decision on the country’s future leader, possibly take a bullet for it, but can’t allow them to buy alcohol. If young adults have to trained and kill for the country, as tiring as that is, they should have all the rights to obtain alcohol, because they deserve it. It does not make sense at all to some people. If at the age eighteen, one is legally an adult, can vote and serve in the military, then drinking alcohol should also be the same (Harold, n.d.).
4 Giancola, J.K., Grawitch, M.J., and Borchert, D. (2009). Dealing with the stress of college: A
There were no heroes on the psychiatric ward until McMurphy's arrival. McMurphy gave the patients courage to stand against a truncated concept of masculinity, such as Nurse Ratched. For example, Harding states, "No ones ever dared to come out and say it before, but there is not a man among us that does not think it. That doesn't feel just as you do about her, and the whole business feels it somewhere down deep in his sacred little soul." McMurphy did not only understand his friends/patients, but understood the enemy who portrayed evil, spite, and hatred. McMurphy is the only one who can stand against the Big Nurse's oppressive supreme power. Chief explains this by stating, "To beat her you don't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as sson as you loose once, she's won for good. And eventually we all got to lose. Nobody can help that." McMuprhy's struggle for hte patient's free will is a disruption to Nurse Ratched's social order. Though she holds down her guard she yet is incapable of controlling what McMurphy is incontrollable of , such as his friends well being, to the order of Nurse Ratched and the Combine.
Teenagers run great risk when they decide to drink unsupervised and undergo binge drinking. The effects can be dangerous and even fatal, but not only for the drinker but for their peers as well. Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under 21 die as a result of underage drinking, including 1900 deaths from vehicle crashes, 1600 from homicides, 300 from suicide, and hundreds more from other miscellaneous injuries such as burns, falls, etc. (“Underage Drinking”, 11) These death rates are quite alarming and should be paid more attention to, yet teenagers still want to run the r...
Ishtar is the goddess of love and war, and Gilgamesh is a powerful king, two thirds god. However, he still refuses her offer to become her husband. He offers valid reasons for that, and all of those reasons are Ishtar's previous six lovers who came to a bad end.