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Gender Roles In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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“The problem with is that it prescribes how we should be, rather than how recognizing how we are. Now imagine how much happier we would be, how much freer, to be our true individual selves if we didn 't have the weight gender expectations” (Adichie). Some people go away from stereotypical gender roles, many characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s do not follow typical gender roles. In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the narrator, Chief Bromden, tells a story of control over a mental ward where he and Randle McMurphy are patients. McMurphy and the head nurse, Nurse Ratched, are the two characters battling for power in the ward. Many female characters in this story are portrayed as manipulative and emasculating to the men in the ward. With this, Ken Kesey supports typical gender roles by portraying the women not following gender roles as manipulative and emasculating to men through the characters of Chief’s mother, Nurse Ratched, and Vera Harding. One character that does not show typical gender roles and is shown as being manipulative is Chief’s mother. During an inspection of the Native American village that Chief’s family lived in by the government, they were to speak on the best way to start the talks to acquire the land from the residents. One of the members has the idea to target their plans towards …show more content…

Chief’s mother does not follow gender roles by not taking the name of her husband and belittling him, Vera Harding is able to manipulate her husband by not following the gender role of loyalty to one person, and Nurse Ratched is completely work focused and emasculates the men. These women in the novel felt like the only way for them to gain power was through the breaking of gender

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Ken Kesey’s comic novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, takes place in an all-male psychiatric ward. The head of the ward, Big Nurse Ratched, is female. Kesey explores the power-struggle that takes place when the characters challenge gender dynamics in this environment. One newly-arrived patient, McMurphy, leads the men against the Big Nurse. The story is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a patient who learns from McMurphy and fights for his freedom.

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Seixm is the discrimination against someone based on their sex; this discrimination is usually directed toward females. Barbara Kingsolver uses her novel to spread social awareness. Not only does she speak heavily on sexism, but she speaks on Central American immigration and includes Native American characters. Kingsolver shows how hard it is to be a female in a male dominated world, as well as how hard it is to be in a minority group. In Barbara Kingsolver’s

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Moral Lense Literary Analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest The 1950s, the context of which One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a novel by Ken Kesey, was written, was called the Era of Conformity. During this time, the American social atmosphere was quiet conformed, in that everyone was expected to follow the same, fixed format of behavior in society, and the ones who stand out of being not the same would likely be “beaten down” by the social norms. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey argues that it is immoral for society to simply push its beliefs onto the people who are deemed different, as it is unfair and could lead to destructive results. First of all, it is unjust for people who are deemed unalike from others in society to be forced into the preset way of conduct because human tend to have dissimilar nature.

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Throughout Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the balance of power is challenged in the psychiatric ward. Out of the several leaders that appear in the novel, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy are the most prominent. During Nurse Ratched and McMurphy struggle for power, they share many of the same qualities. It is argued that: “McMurphy and Ratched are alike in intelligence, military service, distinctive (if opposite) clothing, and conventionally masculine qualities” (Evans). These small similarities; however, do not distract the characters from fighting for their individual beliefs.

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Forcing people to follow a societal norm is detrimental to the health of the mind and body. The struggle between conformers and non conformers creates a schism in society. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey asserts the overarching importance of individuality through the use of a conflict between the patients and the nurse as a microcosm of society. In the novel, the delusions of the narrator create a surreal world that reveals a strong message on the nature of conformity.

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Instead of accepting her mother’s perspective, Kingston merges reality with fantasy as she explores the possible personalities of her estranged relative. Instead of complying with the cultural belief that one must not bring dishonor to one's family, Kingston explores what would cause someone to “drown herself in the drinking water” (16). This strong language is a metaphor that suggests than women are destroyed by the very same thing that allows them to live. This dichotomy is presented in “White Tigers” as some talk-stories depict “swordswomen jump over houses from a standstill” (19) while others communicate that women must be demure. This inconsistent portrayal of gender roles depicts the narrator's struggle with identity.

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Ken Kesey uses his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to describe the lives of patients in a mental institution, and their struggle to overcome the oppressive authority under which they are living. Told from the point of view of a supposedly mute schizophrenic, the novel also shines a light on the many disorders present in the patients, as well as how their illnesses affect their lives during a time when little known about these disorders, and when patients living with these illnesses were seen as an extreme threat. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the novel, has many mental illnesses, but he learns to accept himself and embrace his differences. Through the heroism introduced through Randle McMurphy, Chief becomes confident in himself, and is ultimately able to escape from the toxic environment Nurse Ratched has created on the ward. Chief has many disorders including schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, in addition to these illnesses, he pretends to be deaf and dumb.

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In addition to that, the black community isolated Sethe because she did something that the community considered wrong. Black feminism will be the approach utilized here to see the oppression of woman of color because it includes sexism, classism and racism. Since the female characters are very dominant in the novel, a black feminist approach should be very effective and it enables one to see how the female characters deal with the past and live with it in the present, what motherhood mean to the female characters, and how much the past influences the female characters who lives in the present. The end of the novel reveals the forgiveness and the acceptance not only of the black community toward Sethe’s choice (killing her daughter) but also of the white people (the Bodwins) who accepted Denver to work for them. This reconciliation shows that the courage and the will to get rid off from the past to live side by side peacefully and to move toward the future together.

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