Gender Inequality In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Abusing Power: A Literary Theme Analysis of Part One in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Throughout the passage of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, from Kesey’s “Part One”, we come across our protagonist, Randle Patrick “Mac” McMurphy. He is the manipulator of the ward who fights against society’s demands as opposed to the oppressive Nurse Ratched “Big Nurse”, who controls the ward under her tyrannical rule. McMurphy is admitted into a mental institution in Salem, Oregon, claiming that he’s indeed a “psychopath”, which is all just an act to escape labor duties at the Pendleton Work Farm. After his arrival, he has certainly shifted the ward by encouraging the patients to rebel against the Nurse Ratched’s orders. He seeks to crack Nurse Ratched by testing her authority, but what he doesn’t realize is that she’s capable of using her power against him — by sending him to the Shock Shop.

However, in this essay, I will argue that Gilman portrays John as an antagonist or “villain” in her story because, through his actions, he is the main reason for his wife 's descent into insanity which proves that he didn’t know what was best for his wife after all. Therefore, John represents the bars of the wallpaper which confines the woman and doesn 't allow her to be free. First, we can observe the descriptions or feelings that the narrator expresses when speaking about John. Although these descriptions or feelings may seem positive at times, they slowly become more negative and judgmental throughout the story as she realizes that John doesn’t

Chief Bromden, the narrator of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is a willingly mute inmate of a psychiatric ward, run by a nurse who clings to control in order to secure herself as the leader of the ward. She uses her matronly presence as a weapon against Chief and his fellow inmates in order to deprive them of their masculinity. The Nurse (what Chief calls her) uses these tactics to break down the inmates. Chief, wanting to avoid this confrontation decides to be mute. As he tells the story through his eyes, Chief repeatedly looks at his inmates ' hands and describes them thoroughly.

Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest follows the power struggle between Nurse Ratched, a head nurse in a psychiatric ward, and Randle Patrick McMurphy, a felon pretending insanity to escape prison. Ironically, though Nurse Ratched holds position as caretaker, she actually does the complete opposite and inflicts pain on the patient's. When McMurphy then goes on to realizes that he is at Nurse Ratched’s mercy. He begins to submit to her because he wants to leave. However, when he finds out that she is the one who causes Billy Bibbit to commit suicide.

The fight does not end well and Edgar wakes up in Sissy’s lap in the storeroom. Edgar feels so lost at this point that he reaches out and grabs Sissy’s breast, but Sissy pushes him away. She is the first woman in the story to resist Edgar’s sexual desires. Sissy tells him that he is not a part of their world and he never will be, and she tells him that people like her and Junior would give anything to be a part of Edgar’s world. Edgar finally realizes that he should be

In the novel “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”, the narrator, Chief Bromden, tells the reader a terrible tale. At the end of the first chapter, he prepares the reader for what is to come. With the saying “But it’s the truth, even if it didn’t happen”(8), he says that even though what he will narrate sounds too horrible to be true, it is. This harbinger points to how the institute tears down the patients so much that they will come to find laughter as something to help them take back their freedom. The hospital ward is controlled and dominated by Nurse Ratched, who has over the years gained enough power to now control every thing and person in the ward.

The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb. The question of sanity becomes apparent when McMurphy, a confident gambler, who might have faked psychosis in order to get out of the work farm, is assigned to the mental hospital. He quickly stirs up tension in the ward for Nurse Ratched by encouraging the men to have fun and rebel against her rules. Brodmen appears to be sane for the most part, despite his hallucinations of a fog, which seems to be the result of something both the ward and the world has done to him. He is able to think logically and though others believe him to be deaf and dumb, he uses this to his advantage.

In novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, a leader organizes a group of mental patients and rebels against the figurehead of the broken institutional system of the mental hospital. McMurphy pushes The institutions rules of order, bringing out the evil in the situation. Bromden, due to his bias narration, misconstrues Nurse Ratched as the antagonist where, in truth, she falsifies this by trying to maintain order and by ultimately seeking the best for her patients. Kesey chooses Bromden as the narrator, by doing this, he introduces an element of skepticism for the audience as Brombden opposes the institution. He only associates negative things to the institution because of what they did to him.

In a literary article,The Role of Women in Othello: A Feminist Reading states that,” Society weighs heavily on the shoulders of women; they feel that they must support the men and defer to them, even if the actions of the men are questionable” (Literary Articles). Although Emilia does not ever say these powerful words out loud, she is still willing to not follow her husbands commands despite his strong character. Emilia proves again that she has powerful thoughts when she stated that,”Let husbands know, Their wives have sense like them; they see and smell, And have their palates both for sweet and sour As husbands have’ (Othello IV.3.92-5) Emilia contends that women are physically the same to men,they both get distraught and have issues that trouble each other, they should treat each other similarly. Women can still analyze literature about the inequality and rights for women through many of the injustices that are modern today.

In the book One flew over the cuckoo’s nest, Nurse Ratched (One of the main characters) is a main factor of bringing fear into other patients. A film called The Ward there are also patients that are scared of the doctor operating on them. Both the doctor and Nurse Ratched are very alike as they put so much fear in the patients with their aggressive looks and that is why patients go from enjoying their entrance to the ward, then fearing for their lives. In the film the doctor also has a soft side which is not shown as much within the film but Nurse Ratched also has a soft side which nobody sees which means both these film and novel have a great connection within them. When people enter a mental ward for the first time they immediately become intimidated from the way they see how it looks.