Transgenderism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

In the 1960s the views of women were not as they are today. For centuries women have been objectified and not treated as equals, only being viewed as property or looked at for their physical features. Ken Kesey the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with the character McMurphy, learned towards the superiority of the male sexuality over female authority (123 Helpme). The women in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are portrayed as weak, sex objects, and domineering.

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

As soon as McMurphy arrives on the ward, he challenges Nurse Ratched’s abusive regime in hopes of restoring humanity and the rights of the individual. It didn’t take long

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, was a very successful novel which was impactful on the world in the past, and still is today. Ken Kesey, a big believer in individuality and the freedom to be oneself, brought new meaning to the world of psychiatry that changed treatments forever. This book didn’t just affect American society, it had a global impact. All around the world there are people that are admitted into mental institutions, and this book changed treatments in these facilities. The novel also raised awareness of the psych ward culture in which this book took place.

In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the motif of masculinity is often used as a way to gain power, or is simply power itself. It is a way to show dominance, and in many cases can deceive and distract others into doing something they otherwise wouldn’t have. Most commonly, men do and are able to use their masculinity to overpower women, and to show their superiority over them. However, in this novel that is reversed. Nurse Ratched, the head nurse, stripped all the men of their masculinity the second they stepped foot in the ward, thus, giving her all of the power.

One of the major themes expressed in Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is gender role reversal. Stereotypically speaking males are hardened authoritarians and women are passive non-aggressors. In One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest these roles are inverted, showing the inhumane, chaotic world of a mental institution. Nurse Ratched, Mrs. Bibbit, and Vera Harding, are the three main power figures of the novel that demonstrate how this is accomplished.

Members of society feel at peace knowing that their mentally disturbed are receiving ‘proper’ treatment, but when treatment entails electroshock therapy and lobotomies, how does one protest when they are unaware of this malpractice? In the 1960s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the lives of psychiatric ward members are changed forever when introduced to Randall McMurphy. While he claims to be insane, what separates him from the others are the means of comitance; Randall pleaded insanity to avoid a difficult jail sentence while the others more or less committed themselves. His confidence is a never before seen attribute in the ward that inspires the other patients to break out of their comfort zone to not only speak up for themselves against the overbearing head Nurse, but to embrace their masculinity and take power of their own lives. In Ken Kesey’s fiction novel, patients in a psychiatric ward are under the cruel regiment of Nurse Ratched when the introduction of new patient Randall McMurphy challenges her control to revealing themes of conformity, technological influence, and confidence.

Throughout the novel ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ written by Ken Kesey, and the poem ‘Advice to Young Ladies’ crafted by A.D. Hope, there is evidence to suggest that the discourses represented by the characters in the novel and poem unveil the ways discourses of conformity underpin the characters’ actions, perceptions and motives, as well as inviting and silencing beliefs, attitudes and values. The author and poet are able to strongly convey their beliefs to the reader from their personal experiences. The four dominant discourses that both the novel and poem share and represents: conformity, sexuality and religious. These will be analysed and compared.

Feminist The gender roles are switched in this novel, with the women as the head of the hospital who are very strong and powerful while the men are the disabled, weaker ones who need the help of the women. Nurse Ratched, the head nurse runs the entire hospital and everyone is beneath her, which is a representation of the beginning of the women’s equality movement that occurred during this time period. The patients view the head nurse as a “ball-cutter” who symbolizes castration. With a woman as the head nurse, the male patients are stripped of their manhood and are excluded from their sexual desires.

The ways of Health Care has advanced tremendously over the centuries, specifically, Psychiatric Care. There is a drastic difference between how the mentally impaired were treated in the 1930s and the now, 21st century. People with mental illnesses in the 21st century can be anyone, they’re just another face you see on the sidewalk, no big deal.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is set in America in the 1950s, a time when women were expected to be quiet and submissive, which is the complete opposite of how women are portrayed in the book. Ken Kesey presented women in a way that was not the norm in America in the 1950s. Almost all the female characters in the novel are shown as being extremely dominant and as “castrators” completely contradicting the stereotypical image of females in America at the time.

In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest , we witness that women have the power to shatter men's self confidence and make them feel powerless. Ken Kesey makes most of the female characters in this novel metaphorical castrators. The women use many techniques to control the men including, but not limited to sexuality and manipulation; therefore making the men feel like less of a man. Another method seen in the book is with manipulation turning then men against one another and making them feel alone and fearing punishments. The women do this to escape the social norms of the the 1950’s, when women were expected to be the stereotypical housewife and nothing more. These women use men to assert themselves in a more dominant role than the social norm of the fifties would allow. These women have the power to belittle the men and suppress their self worth.

If you have read Ken Kesey’s book One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest you are familiar with Nurse Ratched, and how she is labeled as the villain in the book. But really, for a woman of her time, she is tremendously successful. The book is set in the 1960s, in the same time when women in the workplace faced open sexism. So really, for any women at this time to have that much power was an anomaly for society in the 60s. The T.V. series Mad Men is a real life depiction of what women were up against in the 60s, and there are similarities between both.(Emily Lee-Ack)(Parker Molly)

society, as well as sanity vs. insanity are greatly expressed through the characters actions and events in the novel, as seen from a patients eyes. Randle McMurphy, the main character of the novel portrays the theme of the individual against society through his dealings with Nurse Ratched and the hospital. “The main action of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest consists of McMurphy's struggles against Nurse Ratched. Her ward at the hospital is a society in itself. McMurphy challenges the rules from the beginning” (Malin 224). The effects of the battle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is expressed in the reactions of both characters, as well as the changes brought to the ward. “But she stops. She was flustered for a second there. Some of the acutes hide grins, and McMurphy takes a huge stretch, yawns, winks at Harding” (Keasey 45). The individual vs. society theme is clearly displayed here though McMurphy's struggle against the rules of the asylum, and against the rule of Nurse Ratched. This represents a a man, or individual, fighting for his own rights when faced with the views and obstacles forced upon him by a tyrannical society with strict guidelines. The second major theme in this novel, tied to the individual vs. society, is the theme of insanity vs. sanity. “Sanity vs. insanity is a topic that is established by society itself, set by public values and rules on what normalcy should be and what insane should be qualified

Our perspective of a stranger whom we’ve never met nor seen, but only heard of through the mouth of the enemy’s opinion, will inevitably align with the only version of the story we’ve heard. This sort of bias is found in Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with Nurse Ratched’s depiction through the narration by Chief Bromden. The reliability of Bromden’s perspective is questionable, as it is his interpretation of the world, rather than what it actually is.