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Nurse Ratched Quotes

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1. In the novel, women are portrayed as mean and feared beings. They are somewhat compared to as evil monsters. An example of this in the passage is on pages 4 and 5. It says, “They sense she’s glaring down at them now, but its too late. They should’ve known better...” This shows the fear the men have after being caught by Nurse Ratched. They are scared by her and fear her actions. Another example of this is on pages 4 and 5, is “She’s going to tear the black bastards limb from limb, she’s so furious. She’s swelling up, swells till her back’s splitting out the white uniform and she’s let her arms section out long enough to wrap around the three of them five, six times. She looks around her with a swivel of her huge head.” This shows the fear …show more content…

We learn on page 38 that Nurse Ratched has many connections and will use them to her advantage to get what she wants. On page 38, it reads, “the doctor doesn’t hold the power of hiring and firing. That power goes to the supervisor, and the supervisor is a woman, a dear old friend of Miss Ratched’s; they were Army nurses together in the thirties. We are victims of a matriarchy here, my friend, and the doctor is just as helpless against it as we are.” This proves that Nurse Ratched uses this relationship with head supervisor to her advantage. 3. The relationship between men and women in this novel is portrayed as the women being more dominant. For example, on page 183, Harding’s wife says to him, “Dale, when are you going to learn to laugh instead of making that mousy little squeak?” It is not common that a woman would speak to a man like that so this shows that women were more dominant and ruled most relationships. This is also shown by Nurse Ratched bossing around the black boys on page 4 and 5 telling them to get back to work by saying, “...and we have quite a number of appointments this morning, so perhaps, if your standing here in a group talking isn’t too urgent...” This shows the authority she has over the male employees. 4. In this novel, power is held more

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