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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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