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One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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It is a few times were a greatly honored work of literature demonstrates and promotes feminism. It is even greater when two different sides of the spectrum of feminism is highlighted. The novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is one of the first works to present Hester Prynne, a woman capable of raising a child alone, and influences altering discriminatory views against women. One the other side of the spectrum, Nurse Ratched, from One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, shows feminism but to an extreme level, so much so that she emasculates men whom already feel lessened by the societal norms from its time period. Both, Hawthorne and Kesey, use independent female characters to embody feminist ideals, through characterization …show more content…

Kesey proves women can do a job equally as well as any man by making the anatagonist boss of the Combine. Nurse Ratched implies women can be authoritive in the 50’s, a time were men would work and women stayed home, “Year by year she accumulates her ideal staff: doctors, all ages and types, come and rise up in front of her with ideas of their own about the way a ward should be run, some with backbone enough to stand behind their ideas, and she fixes these doctors with dry-ice eyes day in, day out, until they retreat with unnatural chills” (Kesey 20). Kesey uses imagery to demonstrate radical feminism in a woman who can take charge by accumulating and ideal staff and show authority or manpulation by fixing her staff with her “dry-ice” eyes, in order to achieve power, a pursuit men are socially expected to have. Furthermore, Kesey shows feminism since females hold a job after World War 2, “In this hospital,” Harding says, “the doctor doesn’t hold the power of hiring and firing. That power goes to the supervisor, and the supervisor is a woman, a dear old friend of Miss Ratched’s; they were Army nurses together in the thirties…” (38). During WW2, women had a better chance to get a job, however as the war ended men returned to their patriarchal position and many women became housewives; Nurse Ratched and the Supervisor, former army nurses …show more content…

Hawthorne’s second transition of the symbol “A” expresses liberal feminism, “The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her-so much power to do, so much power to sympathise. . .they said that it meant Abel” (91). Hester is a feminist because she like any man can raise a child and help the Puritans with their needs ,and she proves so when majority of the Puritan society view her as a charitable and independent woman. In addition, the symbols emphasizes a liberal feminism since Hester Prynne maintains equality to men by demonstrating her individual power in doing charitable actions and decisions. In doing so, she promotes change, in society’s view of women. On the other hand, Kesey validates women's capability of independence however in a radical form. Nurse Ratched attempts to eliminate male supremacy by emasculating the patients of the ward. Her emasculating ways is revealed as she hides her breasts, “A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing[on Nurse Ratched], putting those big, womanly breasts on what would've otherwise been a perfect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it” (8). Nurse Ratched’s breast symbolize femininity and fertility and when they are revealed she feels a loss of control, thus why Nurse Ratched hides them since she wishes to have control over men. Hiding her femininity helps her manipulate and have authority over men, she wishes to eliminate

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