Sexism/Racism in One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest - 1542 Words

Now First and Foremost, i must Explain this, I payed little attention to the novel and movie, but this Essay will more then likley get you a C or a B, Depending on if you make changes to the paragraph that starts with The portrayal of woman in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is in a way, a role reversal. The Woman are strong, leaders and feed off the power they possess as the men are weak, passive-non aggressors who get ordered around and (until the introduction of McMurphy) have no say in what activities or what happens. it retells the story too much and needs fixing but i think that i have almost done this with my final copy, please e-mail me on kippa_dog@hotmail.com if you can think of a better way of putting it.also, make sure that†¦show more content†¦A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing, putting those big womanly breasts on what would of otherwise been a perfect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.† -Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest page 11. London: Picador, 1962 The implication here is that the only real women are those whose big breasts make them objects of desire for men. McMurphy undermines Big Nurses power over the other male patients by characterizing her as a bitch a buzzard and a ball-cutter (pages 51-52). He wins some major battles with her by asserting the right for the men to watch the ball game on TV (pages 111-114) and by organizing the deep sea fishing trip (Part3) Kesey chose to portray Ratched as an stereotypical unlikable old woman referred to in blatant sexual terms with gender specific insults about her used to win fights between her and her patients, giving the novel a sexist value. The African-American nurse’s aides in one flew over the cuckoo’s nest are racially depicted by Kesey, with mentions to them being sadistic sodomites, and implications that they are inferior to white people in society. Many a reference is made to these abnormal behaviours in pages 14, 31, 33, and 117. The Black men in One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest are presented as Big Nurses henchmen. There is the repeated suggestion that they aid in the matriarchal degradation of men by anally raping them, for instance, in theShow MoreRelatedGeorge Orwell s One Flew Over The Cuckoo s Nest2635 Words   |  11 PagesGrace Wang Period 3 Humanities V 4/17/2015 Defending Controversial Novels Essay Draft Kesey Flew East, His Critics Fly West: They’ve All Missed the Merit in the Cuckoo’s Nest â€Å"There s something about taking a plow and breaking new ground. It gives you energy† (Kesey qtd. in Sova 244). This energy, however, comes with a cost, as demonstrated by Kesey’s revolutionary novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In the process of writing the book, Kesey embarked with ambitious goal of ultimately reshapingRead MoreOppression in Cuckoos Nest1621 Words   |  7 Pageselements. An example of this exists in the two texts, â€Å"One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,† and â€Å"The Life Your Save May Be Your Own;† in both texts we see a clear correlation between the plot events in the stories and the events that took place in American History to oppress women and Native Americans. â€Å"One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,† and â€Å"The Life You Save May Be Your Own,† are similar due to the fact that they both metaphorically represent racism in the United States; it is clearly displayed throughRead MoreKen Ke sey s One Flew Over The Cuckoo s Nest1641 Words   |  7 PagesCalifornia mental health facility, Ken Kesey formed the basis for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, published in 1962. The book was enormously popular, selling nine million copies, especially after the award-winning movie released in 1975. Even in the face of all this success, many school districts have voted to ban this book from their curricula. The reasons for removal have been numerous, but can be summed up by one Ohio school, which said that the book â€Å"glorifies criminal activity, hasRead MoreAn Analysis Of Ken Kesey s One Flew Over The Cuckoo s Nest 1311 Words   |  6 PagesWhile One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is only a little over fifty years old, it feels like an even more dated story then some things written hundreds of years ago. This is because it is set in a field, psychology, that is constantly evolving and makes drastic progress in short amounts of time. The sexist and r acist undertones coupled with the outdated view of psychology dates the book and undercuts the theme of the story. Psychology is the study of the human mind and behavior. It is only roughly