Strength And Vulnerability In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's

Ken Kesey’s, 1962 gripping novel “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest” explores the idea of strength and vulnerability in a typical 1950’s mental hospital. Nurse Ratched commonly referred to as “Big nurse” rules her ward with an iron fist, until McMurphy a new patient arrives on the ward, with the sole intent of messing with the ward rules, and to ruin Nurse ratchets schedule. In “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest”, Ken Keseys Portrays women to be overwhelmingly negative, who constantly use fear to reign over the men, and mask their feminine qualities. Because of which, Women are referred to have a strong character trait, while the men are betrayed to be vulnerable because they constantly fear the women. This is witnessed on the ward as most of the male patients affliction of …show more content…
Billy Bibbit’s a voluntary patient at the ward, as he fears he is not strong enough for the outside world. Ken Kesey has given Oedipal tactics to Billy’s mother to keep Bibbit attached to her, which is why Billy has had troubled confronting his own issues. Ken Kesey has however given Billy a sense of strength when he looses his virginity to Candy, the prostitute, as he speaks for the first time without stuttering, which is an indication that he has a shred of self-confidence for the first time. Loosing his virginity symbolically resurrects his manhood, and is shown through standing up to Nurse Ratcheted “Aren't you ashamed?” “No, I'm not.” Billy replied. Ken Kesey uses the characterization of Nurse Ratched and her manipulative power, to bring Billy back to his vulnerable self, “You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to take this.“ This represents Nurse Ratched manipulation towards Billy about his mother, and Billy’s fear of his mother. Ken Kesey has portrayed Billy Bibbit to be a vulnerable character; this is shown through his excessively close relationship with his