Women In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The only sane patient in the psychiatric ward stands in the corner sweeping mindlessly. In their eyes, he is deaf and dumb, not worthy of attention. The truth is he can hear everything and is constantly analyzing, like a fly on the wall. He dares not speak for fear of being thrown in prison. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, is set in a mental hospital and is narrated by a seven foot tall Indian named Chief Bromden. The ward is run by an overbearing, manipulative, and diabolical woman named Nurse Ratched also know as the “Big Nurse”. Then, a new patient, R.P. McMurphy arrives to shake up the status quo. He challenges Ms. Ratched by questioning her authority and by acting as ring leader for the patients in the hospital. Under McMurphy’s …show more content…
Topic Sentence 1: Nurse Ratched, considered the antagonist by Chief Bromden and R.P. McMurphy, plays a large role in the emasculation of the patients, stealing away their masculinity with her methods and use of power. While Nurse Ratched isn’t allowed to physically castrate her patients, she can chop “away the brain. Frontal-lobe castration” (Kesey 159). McMurphy believes if Nurse Ratched “can't cut below the belt she'll do it above the eyes” (Kesey 159). This reflects the main argument that One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is pervaded with the meaning of masculinity. Castration takes away the essence of their being so with Nurse Ratched cutting parts of the brain away, the patients are left helpless, somewhat feminized in regards to society as a whole. This idea of emasculation is furthered when Bromden narrates that the “Big Nurse recognizes [fear] and knows how to put it to use” (Kesey 15). Nurse Ratched apprises Acutes that if they don’t “cooperate with the staff policy which is engineered for [their] cure,” they’ll have to go to the Chronic side which is looked down upon. This