One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 4
At a point in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo`s Nest, Harding says that the men on the ward as well as all the men in the world are "victims of a matriarchy". Seeing how the main reference made to women in the novel involves the Big Nurse, Nurse Ratched, who is represented as a controlling and manipulative woman, one could say that Harding's statement could be justified. Through Nurse Ratched and her role in the book, all women are represented as controlling and manipulative people. The Big Nurse depicts Ken Kesey's view of women as opportunists. Miss Ratched takes advantage of her position to get power; she puts her morals and her ethics (considering she has morals and ethics) on the line by abusing the men that are depending on her to get a higher and more powerful position. While reading the novel, it is possible to say that Kesey views all women that way. The reason the author sets the novel in a mental hospital, in an all male ward is because traditionally, a woman cannot obtain the kind of power the Big Nurse has in a society mostly controlled by men. Because she is a nurse in a mental hospital, the men there are unstable, vulnerable and weak, so she revels in her pow
What Ken Kesey is trying to say about women such as these and especially such as the Big Nurse, is that women like these would not be able to obtain a lot of power had they not been associated with weak and unstable men. The Big Nurse would not have had that kind of power in the real world. What is implied here is that women are constantly trying to find their places in society and will go to extreme measures to obtain a powerful one. Candy is the main "nice" woman in the novel. She appears so, because she never speaks out against the man and will do anything for the man. er over the men, especially when she succeeds in making them feel less manly. Although Nurse Ratched is the main female character in the novel, she is not the only one that takes advantage of her position to gain power. Similar statements could be said of Billy Bibbitt's mother and Mrs. Harding, who take advantage of the instability of, respectively, their son and husband. There are three women in the book that exploit their femininity (or at least Kesey's version of it) and are therefore considered nice: Candy, Sandy and Miss Pillow otherwise referred to as the Birthmark Nurse. Since Miss Ratched do
Some common words found in the essay are:
Miss Ratched, Nurse Ratched, Ken Kesey, Nest Harding, Billy Bibbitt's, nurse ratched, Ken Kesey's, ken kesey, Miss Pillow, obtain power, represented controlling manipulative, , measures obtain powerful, takes advantage position, takes advantage, advantage position, represented controlling, controlling manipulative, trying women, morals ethics, extreme measures obtain, measures obtain,
Approximate Word count = 799
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
