There is much debate on whether or not Nurse Ratched, the head nurse portrayed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is mentally ill, or if she is just harsh in order to maintain control over the patients in the ward. Many believe she has a form of PTSD that has been used by her working in the ward for many years, while others argue that she may only have an extremely severe case of antisocial personality disorder, also known as ASPD or sociopathy. The reader can, without a doubt, determine for themselves that Nurse Ratched is not your ordinary nurse. There is definitely a psychiatric problem with her that makes her stand out from other nurses.
The comparison to a teacher shows just how controlling she is, and is perceived. Kessey also portrays women as manipulators who are taking away the men’s masculinity. Nurse Ratched says: “’A manipulator can influence the other patients and disrupt them to such an extent that it may take months to get everything running smooth once more’”(Kessey 118). In order to remain in control over the men, as well as the workers, Nurse Ratched manipulates the workers into being submissive to what she wants.
The protagonist, Randle McMurphy, referred to as "Mac," can be considered an anti-hero. When placed in a mental institution center, he disagrees with the practices upheld by Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher. The other patients are afraid of Nurse Ratched, and her abuse of authority. Mac notices this and takes advantage, become a leader of new patient rebellion. Although the audience is most likely aware that the patients are better off in the institution than otherwise, they cannot help but root for the rebellion, because they are aware of the negative side of how the patients are treated.
Kesey has used characterisation to get the idea that in this novel there are aspects of venerability and strength. In Nurse Ratched’s case, Kesey has made it so that she is shown with strength and power over the whole ward, including the black men in white, other nurses, and mainly the patients. An example of Nurse Ratched’s power over the patients is when she says to Billy Bibbit, “What worries me, Billy, ' she said- I could hear the change in her voice- 'is how your mother is going to take this.” This shows how one sentence was able to debilitate Billy into begging Nurse for forgiveness and restraint of telling his mother.
The novel was a Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a beautifully written book. The novel gives you so many reason to look into specific concerns such as what the author was trying to express about society. The characters in the book showed their concerns and with the complex characters and thoughts provoking events. This book is very controversy. Kesey skills as a fiction writer made note of the novel to be good and evil parables.
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, published in 1962, tells the story of men in a psychiatric ward and focuses on two characters called McMurphy and Bromden, and their defiance towards the institution’s system. A critical factor in this novel are the women. The 1960’s played a significant role in changing the norms of social issues, and the perfect idea of women was changing too. Women were no longer just stay at home wives, but had their own voice in society, and many people did not agree with these untraditional views. Kesey’s representation of women in this novel illustrate them in a poor light that makes it obvious that they don’t fit the ideal womanly persona.
Nurse Ratched exposes the men’s weaknesses by getting each of them to point out each other’s flaws. Kesey shows that when women hold leadership roles, it takes away a man 's ability to be a man and leaves the man with physical damage. In the story, McMurphy explains to Harding about Nurse Ratched and how she is manipulating the men, using her influence to emasculate them. He says, “The hell with that; she’s a bitch and a buzzard and a ball-cutter, and don’t kid me, you know what I’m talking about” (Kesey, 61). By using the phrase “ball-cutter,” Kesey implies that because she is a woman and has more power than the men, she is depriving them of what makes them a man.
In Ken Kesey’s comic novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, gender is a definer of one's power in the hospital, and this leads to Nurse Ratched hiding her femininity, the patients’ attempts to boost their own masculinity, and both sides trying to expose the other. Kesey uses these examples to explain that men cannot handle a female leader. Nurse Ratched, a female who is head of the ward, attempts to hide her femininity so the men respect her power. At the beginning of the novel, Bromden is describing the Nurse’s appearance. He states, “A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing, putting those big, womanly breasts on what would of otherwise been a perfect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it” (6).
Due to McMurphy’s attempts to break down the villainous Nurse Ratched with his particularly disruptive antics despite his selfish motives, and Bromden’s quiet progression to courage, the two are heroes to those in the ward. A former army nurse, Nurse Ratched has the entire ward under her control, going by her schedule and her rules. Everything in the ward has gone by her plan, even the staff was chosen
That influenced his writing about women in the book. He talks about how “Nurse Ratched is performing a mother figure in the mental institution” (Kesey 33). Which is an example of what he faced at home.
The movie opens with a man behind a desk questioning McMurphy about his mental state and it is clear the man behind the desk has power over him. From there McMurphy encounters Nurse Ratched who is always leading the group and telling them
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.
By weakening McMurphy’s power in the ward, she creates an environment where can continue to thrive in her power through the systems she has set in place. However, Nurse Ratched’s plan does not succeed and McMurphy is allowed to proceed with his fishing trip. He continues to undermine the nurse’s authority to the point where he physically assults her after she blames Billy’s death on him. His actions give Nurse Ratched an opportunity to give him the ultimate punishment, a
His rebellious and free mind makes the patients open their eyes and see how the have been suppressed. His appearance is a breath of fresh air and a look into the outside world for the patients. This clearly weakens Nurse Ratched’s powers, and she sees him as a large threat. One way or another, McMurphy tends to instigate changes of scenery. He manages to move everyone away from her music and watchful eye into the old tube room.
The movie was mostly focused on the feud between the warden/nurse Ms. Ratched and McMurphy. McMurphy tried to go against the hard-set plan set by the institution. More he tried to establish dominance and leadership within the group. This threatened the nurse’s ways of subduing patients, and they felt of less importance in their own institution. This led to a bitter rivalry and because of it the nurse tried to subdue, with same techniques as with other patients, McMurphy even after realizing that he was not a mentally unstable person.
