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| Tim Lane |
Select some brilliant literary criticism written about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest from this Google Drive folder (click on that link). Mention the critic's name. Summarize, reflect, connect, dis/agree in 300+ insightful words.
89 comments:
February 11th
6 Bose said…
I read Walter Kerr’s insight on the Broadway Performance of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I would have to agree with him on the fact that it is surprising that the crowd was all or at least a huge majority of young folks. To my connection of the book and its time period, you would assume that an older generation would be interested in attending the show, due to the fact that the book takes place during their (older generation) time period so they may be able to make more connections to the performance and understand it in a different way. Walter looked into the reasoning why younger people were at the performance and it was really interesting. The younger generation is at the play to see if they have been conditioned as the patients at the ward have been conditioned. They don’t want to say things they don’t mean or be robbed of their identity as Kerr puts it. This makes sense, today you do things that is normal or mundane. Being different is weird, strange, and abrupt in a way to society. Society takes it as offensive and assumes that there is something wrong with you. Mr. Kerr also describes our society as being or holding us down in shackles and we must throw the shackles off. I think that the younger generation picked up on this and wants to avoid it at all costs. Not being a robot and having your mind controlled and manipulated by society is important to the younger people. The younger generation wants to stay as far away as possible from conformity and do things their own way and not be controlled. Another thing that I found interesting in Mr. Kerr’s observation was when he used the example of the City of Words by Tony Tanner, and how the people of our society don’t want to have no shape or control like a mushy jellyfish but on the other hand not be trapped in a prison of rules and regulations. It is finding that happy middle section of how to control ourselves that is important. I understand and completely agree with Mr. Kerr’s observations of the play.
I am merely three-fourths the way done with One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and I have already noticed, predicted, and analyzed different types of sexism and racism. I also have learned and understood the usage of a feminist lens when analyzing this book. I looked over the critic’s articles and I found one that stood out to me by a girl with the name of Marcia Falk. In the beginning of this book I discussed in my groups forum discussion how the Big Nurse, Mrs. Ratched, is built up into a disgustingly cruel version of a women. Mrs. Ratched is seen as a over-powering, up-tight, and mean person...in other words a villain. Also Chief Bromden’s father has been said to have taken his wife’s name, showing another sign of women way too over-powering. His wife said to have been much more manly and large, foreshadowing the threatening rise of female power. After reading through Falk’s critic over this book I still agree with the outrageous sexism. Falk discussed the way each and every women in this book was demeaned in some way. The big nurse was a bully and made the institution corrupt. One of the small Nurses in the book was actually terrified of McMurphy. Thus showing how dumb and silly women are stereotyped to be, when in actually McMurphy was overstepping his boundaries. The other viewpoint of women in this book was actually being a whore. Vera, Harding’s ‘“wife,” was actually used to demean women in a sexual way. She was seen to have a big butt but with no actual self respect, besides her looks, from all the men in the institution.
At the end of her reading, she came to the conclusion that Ken Kesey was actually terrified of the women race and the thought of them overpowering men. If this actual assumption was correct, the book would make much more sense. The other people who helped create this book are so brainwashed by the assumption that men are of greater power, refuse to seek any other viewpoints from others.
The best lense to look at One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through is by far a marxist literary criticism lense. A marxist literary critic looks at how the book portrays society and the characters within it. It looks at how there could be themes of communism or people in it with communistic personality traits. Marxist lense can relate the work back to the socioeconomic status of the author himself, relate the society and its’ downfalls back to the period of time it was written, and look for symbols of a communist culture. The critic who best caught my attention is Harold Bloom. He became a prominent critic with his colleagues when he worked at Yale University and was well respected. He wrote one book based on his literary theories such as, The Flight to Lucifer: A Gnostic Fantasy (1979). Reading some of Bloom’s ideals and stances, I find him too conservative and not liberal enough in his beliefs. I am an independent so too much of either side disturbs me. I do not agree with all of his beliefs, but his stance against marxism is something I stand with. His stance against feminism though I do not stand with. How does marxism relate to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest you ask? Well in this novel, life within the asylum is like a mini society. With Nurse Ratched at the head ruling with a totalitarian fist and echoes of communism, and the patients her obedient (until McMurphy comes along...maybe he represents Democracy?) and poorly treated people. Chief Bromden, the book’s narrator, believes society is a machine-pushing people through the Combine and forcing them to all come out the same. If someone comes out different and does not fit through society’s gears, they are sent to the ward like he and his friends. This resembles communism and how the whole idea of it is that everyone is equal, the same.
I read the essay titled “Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs: Sex-Role Failure and Caricature” by Leslie Horst. This essay reflects on the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey by discussing and reflecting the roles of women in the book. Horst believes that women are either castrators like the Big Nurse, twitches like Sandy and Cindy, a normal wife that bonds her husband away from freedom with children and love, a good woman like the nurse with the big purple birthmark who is scared of men’s sexuality, and a good woman like the Japanese nurse who dislikes other women. I found an important quote from this text that stated, “Furthermore, her statement implies that all humanity shrivels up in women who live their lives without men.” This quote is portraying who Kesey shows the Big Nurse as evil and the Japanese nurse as good. The difference comes with the opposite presence of men in their lives. All humanity has shriveled in the Big Nurse because she has have no man in her life. However, the Japanese nurse remains good because she is married and happy with her husband and dislikes most other women. Horst describes the patients of the ward as eunuchs. He discusses the development of the little, scared rabbit into men. This development occurs when the female crushing power is disrupted by the masculine power of McMurphy. It discusses how the black boys rape the patients because they have no power in their work environment besides being above the patients. It also talks about McMurphy’s role as the hero and macho male figure of the tale. I agree with all statement Horst made. He did a very good job of picking out symbols and other important details. These will be useful things to discuss during the forum on Tuesday.
Quite clearly written of a feminist lens, Leslie Horst’s essay “Bitches, Twitches, & Eunuchs: Sex-Role Failure and Caricature” analyses the relationship between sexuality and characterization represented in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. To my disappointment, I found this essay to be one of stereotypical feminist visage, twisting the humanity of the novel to depict women as victims of dehumanization and men as proprietors of domination. This assumption seems superficial, by my eye. Rather, I believe Kesey’s goal in writing this novel was to level the playing field in sexual regards. Literarilly, a gender-neutral protagonist is, by rule of thumb, male; old cultural concepts of supremacy do reflect unto this rule, however both sexes must be able to identify with the protagonist on a mental level, and one is not misled in believing that most men do not understand particularly grand aspects of female life. A protagonist must have ties to every audience if the author wishes to connect with every audience. Additionally, the novel portrays evil women in positions of power and weak men in positions of subjection, which may not be to degrade women, as Horst suggests it does, but to show that men too have been oppressed, that sex does not correlate with esteem or personality--after all, the primary conflict in the novel is Bromden’s struggle against the Combine, showing that the individual is, in fact, an individual of his (gender-neutral) own choosing. No standard exists for human beings, because men can be rabbits, and women can be wolves, and vice versa. Perhaps the issue lies more in the generalization, close-mindedness, and misunderstanding of sex-roles than the sex-roles themselves. Naturally, one gender is more likely, but not guaranteed, to be more adept at certain walks of life. Our society today has a poor habit letting loose every hiss and boo the moment a man expresses negativity toward a particular woman or women in general; similar conduct on a woman’s part is to be excused with a quiet, “Yeah, he’s kind of a jerk,” or unconcerned shrug of the shoulders by this unspoken edict. “Never hit a girl,” and “protect the women and children,” are other common rules, different in that they have been overly articulated. Why should men receive no mercy? Why should a woman’s ranting and raving be tolerated and a man’s silenced? It should not be. Social “correctness” should not be dictated by sex. Rather than blaming any sort of mistreatment or derision on sexism, people would do well to consider attempting to equally respect all, regardless of their X and possibly Y chromosomes.
The essay I chose to embellish on was “... And the Young Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, authored by Walter Kerr. I was intrigued by this passage because it was influenced by the broadway show and I am very involved in the fine arts here at Brandon Valley. The basis of this essay was actually a reflection on the broadway show of this novel. Walter Kerr clearly enjoys the novel more, as he sees the book the way he likes to see it (and which he sees is fit). When he watches the show, he notices not just what is happening on stage, but the audience around him. he notices they are all young high school grads and perhaps freshman in the New York fine arts school around the corner. He doesn’t understand why they reacted the way they do. They seem entertained, find the show laughable. They don’t pick up on the underlying message and what we should take back from the story that is One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. He then breaks down how the characters are meant to be simplified and how they follow the plot. Kerr states that Nurse Ratched is, “Not human. She is entirely malevolent, without any saving softness or familiar margins for error.” The fact that McMurphy is a planned death is something we should feel was bound to happen. I agree that many an audience can lose themselves in the entertainment atmosphere and not take away the message. This is what me and Kerr both agree on. Although I believe us as pre-adults do connect with works, especially something so powerful as this canon. I also do not agree that Nurse Ratched is simply a computer. I think she is somewhat characterized as someone so inhumane it's impossible someone could be so inhumane. I do think she is humanized in a big way. I think it is certainly amazing how authors can create characters that are not so boring and have some depth. Me and Kerr also disagree on this statement.
1 Wardlow
I am examining the criticism that was written by Harold Clurman. Harold Clurman was a drama critic, stage director, and a distinguished actor. By reading the description of Harold Clurman he appears to me to be a very artsy fellow and I am excited to read what he writes about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. I was unaware that this book was even performed in a theatrical manner. I think it would be very interesting to watch the performance, it would be fascinating. Clurman writes that the performance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that he attended was sold out. I find that interesting since the book is so hard to read because of the way the men were treated in the asylum I think it would be even harder to watch. Nurse Ratched is not much of a character, but rather a stand in representing external power. I like the how Clurman describes Nurse Ratched. She definitely represents power. As I continue to read I now understand that she is more of a symbol than a character in the novel. She symbolizes the police, the external power of the Outside. Nurse Ratched in a sense is the police of the Inside. Clurman writes that McMurphy left an impact on the play going audience and I believe McMurphy also leaves an impact on the audience of the novel. McMurphy is a strong character and fights the external authority. The whole novel, and play, represent the concept that there is an ideal society. Society will wreck you if you hinder the chances of societies success. The play displayed the mindlessness and heartlessness of revolution. The novel does this too in the way that Chief Bromden describes many aspects of the ward and people as machines. Machines have no mind or heart. Overall I find it interesting that Clurman did not read the novel only attended a theatrical performance of the story however he was still able to analyze the story line brilliantly. I agree with many of the points that Clurman made when he was analyzing the novel. I really enjoyed his point about Nurse Ratched being more of a symbol than an actual character. I will keep that thought in my mind as I continue to read the novel and view it through different lenses.
I read Harold Clurman's review of the play produced of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He had no prior knowledge of this story before he went to the production. He summarized how the crowd was full of young viewers rather than the typical older crowd and how they would cheer when something entertaining happened. Certainly, a different theater environment than the typical performance. He criticized the characters and their portrayal of the characters. He obviously did not know about this story because he merely grazed over Chief, the narrator in the book, and called him a half Indian who could not hear or speak. Being an essential part to understand the story Harold did not get Chief's full character and the effect he has on the novel. He then talked about Billy and how his stutter was brought on at a young age by his mother. Explaining how Billy had his first encounter with a woman and his stutter was clear for a little while. One part he got correct however is how cold Nurse Ratched is to the patients, she is portrayed as the villain and is disproving. I connected with this critics opinion of Billy. He seemed to have sympathy for him and how his stutter shunned him from having a normal life, because other than confidence issues he does not have a mental illness like most of the other patients. He is a character that the audience roots for and can relate to. When he meets the girl and starts connecting the audience and even McMurphy starts to feel a sense of joy for him that he is starting to live a normal life. I did not agree however with the theory that Herold used by only judging the play of the book instead of actually reading the novel itself. This takes out the factors of if the play is accurate and if the characters are accurately portrayed. There is no way to criticize if they brought the whole effect of the novel to the stage other wise.
I chose to read the essay by Harold Clurman. Clurman had attended a play of the book,”One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” He had not read the book or see any other form of dramatization of the book but he said what the audience, attending the same play he did, provided a much memorable reaction for him. As a drama critic, he was very impressed with how well the play was written, he wrote, “One would think the audiences had written them” because it was theatrically pleasurable and tasteful to the public's palate; not just for the author alone. Clurman said that the audience around him had been emotionally involved such as cheering when something heroic happened or going silent when something bad had occurred. Mr. Clurman had summarized some key points of the play that stood out to him such as main characters and major plot points. What Mr. Clurman had pointed out, I agree with. He has picked out some majorly interesting and exciting characters and some of the riveting events that drove their personas to change and develop. I personally was not aware that it was performed not only in the form of a movie, but also as a play. I think that it would be interesting to see in live action how they would portray some of the insane thought processes the patients had such as Chief Bromden. However, it must have been brilliantly displayed to the point where an individual who has no prior insight could pick out the main story and comprehend it well. I noticed that Clurman had mentioned McMurphy a lot in his analysis as being a rebel and the one who changes things up. I agree with Clurman in this sense because McMurphy truly is the one that, once he enters and becomes part of the story, things begin to change in the daily lives of all the characters and at that point, we find out much about the background stories of these people. I think Clurman did a brilliant job analyzing the play, even after not know what to expect.
1 Gloege
The literary criticism over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that I chose to read was written by Walter Kerr. It is said that Kerr was The New York Times drama critic for many years, and he was also a writer of plays and books about American theater. In his review, he is telling us about the play version he went to. His very first observation was that the audience that came to watch the play was made up of mostly teenagers, and not the age of the author or the man who wrote the play version. This was interesting to me because it does not seem like a story that young teens would be interested in, or going to a play would be an activity that teenagers enjoy doing. Kerr makes a comment when explaining the plot of the story about Nurse Ratched being “sweetly solicitous”. This seems ironic to me because Nurse Ratched is anything but sweet throughout the book. She is constantly nagging the men, and always has to have things her way. He also tells us that for him, Nurse Ratched’s evilness was exposed too soon. I also disagree with this because that is basically what the whole story is about. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched have a major conflict with each other, and I have yet to read about a resolution between them. If Kesey had waited any longer, it would have left the reader confused and bored. Kerr goes on into detail his feelings about Nurse Ratched, and who she is as a person. “Nurse Ratched isn’t human,” says Kerr, “She is herself a computer. And she is all-powerful.” I agree with this statement completely. To me, it seems impossible to have such disregard for other humans feelings and well being. She does not show any compassion for the real diseases the men are plagued with, or has no motivation to do anything that will actually help them. Kerr summed up the book very well, and many of his opinions matched mine.
I read many of the literary criticisms from various critics, but the one that stood out to me was Walter Kerr’s. His opinion on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest spoke to me. He states that when he went to a show about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the audience was composed of mostly teenagers and people in their early 20’s. This is shocking to me because I do not believe that all teenagers and 20 to 25-year-olds would understand the vast knowledge in the book, including me. I have to re-read some pages sometimes because of how in depth and brilliant the book is. I would also conclude that people in the older generations would attend this type of play more than 20-year-olds because of the time period it took place in. I assume people in their 70s would make up the majority of the audience since they were alive during this time period and they were fully capable of understanding what was going on in the hospital wards.
Kerr suggests that people have this assumption of what society believes is “right.” If someone is slightly different than “normal,” they are considered weird, strange, or freaky. However, in my generation I think a lot of people are less likely to conform to society. Everyone wants to be different and not feel as controlled. I see this more in the college-aged people than high school. High school is always cliquey and judgey, but college everyone seems to expand their horizons and open up into the person they truly are. No one wants to be the same as someone else and conform themselves into what society believes is “right.” The men in this book are in the ward because they don’t fit to society’s idea of “normal.” Kerr states that society should meet in the middle. No one should be forced to conform to society, but they should also be able to coexist with others in society and I completely agree.
I read “Shock and Other Physical Therapies” by Arthur P. Noyes, M.D., and Lawrence C. Kolb, M.D. about insight about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I agree on the fact that physical examinations should be conducted before the patient receives the electric convulsive therapy. I am not extremely fond of the electric convulsive therapy myself pertaining to how it is used. From research given, it tends to help patients. To my connection with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and this article, electric convulsive therapy was a way of treatment for patients that suffered with schizophrenia. The patients would be given a physical examination to determine when they will receive treatment based on their case of schizophrenia. The aftermath of the treatment may be life threatening to most patients. Some complications one might receive are impairment of memory, fractures and dislocations, and apnea. Deaths after electric convulsive therapy are highly uncommon. Age does play a role in the electric convulsive therapy. The older you are the easier it is for your cardiovascular system to get damaged resulting in having a thorough physical examination done on older patients. According to McMurphy, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, once you received the electric convulsive therapy you never wanted to have to deal with it again. The shock therapy happened so fast that is was painless to the patients. You would do anything possible to obey Nurse Ratched to not get into any trouble. The electric convulsive shock therapy acted the same way as the sleeping pills the patients were given in the evening to go to bed. According to the Ken Kesey, the novelist of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, electric convulsive shock therapy was inhumane and dangerous. Ken Kesey’s novel came out in 1962, about twenty-four years after electric convulsive therapy was first introduced.
I chose to reflect on James E. Miller, Jr.’s “The Humor in Horror.” Many times authors put serious subjects in but lighten it up with humor. This article shows many instances in which this was used. He also shows instances where one person goes against the norm to make a change. He begins with talking about Kesey’s story and goes on to explain that how those put in this mental institution are completely dehumanized and live in constant fear. They are not “normal” and are never given the chance to be normal. They are put through awful procedures and different types of therapies. Most do no good only harm them more. The chronics are a sense of fear for the acutes. None would want to end up that way. As a reader, you can almost feel the hopelessness many of these men must have felt. Kesey inflicts feeling into you that almost make you, the reader, feel like you're going crazy in the book. Although they are trying to dehumanize everyone within the hospital, it can not change those who do not want to be changed. In many instances I think McMurphy is defying the idea of conforming. He will not be who the big nurse wants him to be. He will be the one to change the story and break the ways of the big nurse. I fully think the idea Miller holds is correct. Most patients that have been brought to this hospital conform and change to what someone else wants them to be. Yet, McMurphy goes against the norm and what is wrong. Although he many never get out of the hospital he is still trying to change it. I agree with the idea that one person has a lot of power in changing something and so does Mr. Miller.
I chose Leslie Horsts theory as one to read. In summery Horst is explaining the sex roles in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He says Nurse Ratched is a perversion of femininity, he refers to her as mother Ratched because she symbolizes the forces of socialization and civilization and it is her duty to calm the inmates and change them into civilized people just like mothers work hard to civilize and taming their own kids when they throw tantrums and are a risk of messing up social order. He also insists that Nurse Ratched would be the type of lady who would scare men especially because she has a sexual invulnerability. He mentions Harding’s wife, Mrs. Bibbit, and Mrs. Bromden, they are all more powerful than the men they deal with which makes them come across as mean. These four ladies are the biggest women in the novel yet they are talked about so negatively. But later on he mentions Candy, the prostitute, and Sandy who are kind, vulnerable, and who seek protection from men. The last role of the women is displayed by the Japanese nurse in the disturbed ward. She tends to the men’s wounds and is patient and caring towards them but yet she carries the same view of anti-women in the ward. Horst also finds Kesey’s view of women in this book to be very negative. I completely agree with Horst, Kesey portrays the women that are strong and independent to all be mean and only wanting power over the men. I believe that when men see a women who is strong, independent, and could care less about what people think of her, that they are intimidated by her. Yet there are some exceptions to this but I still see and agree with Horst.
I chose to read Marcia L. Falk’s Letter to the editor of The New York Times. Throughout the reading, I noticed that she is criticizing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” play as blatant sexism. Falk went through parts that stuck out to her while watching the play that appeared to be strongly sexism. She noticed that the women are all portrayed to be the strong, will powered and the demonic bunch of out the ward, especially Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched has a distinct and obvious role that makes her as powerful as she is. Another example of a powering woman is Chief Bromden’s mother. Falk says that the mother has made the father small and that she is twice the size. Racism is also obvious throughout the play. The majority of the ward is white besides Chief Bromden, who is an Indian man. Chief is known throughout the book anyway, to be “dumb and deaf”. By him portraying himself as this, it shows racism because none of the other patients are known to be deaf and dumb. There are three other blacks in the play that are known to be “stupid and malicious hospital orderlies”. That is another sign of racism. After reading Falk’s letter, I do agree that she has obvious points. She has made connections for why she thinks that the book/ play has sexism and racism. When I was reading the book, I did happen to notice that there is racism and sexism in the book but it became more clear after reading this letter. There are some points though that Falk has discussed that maybe have been overlooked and that some of her opinions are not the way that Kesey meant for them to be, but I could be wrong.The one thing I do agree with 100% is how Nurse Ratched is one of the most dominating person in the ward, and no it is not a coincidence. I chose this source of criticism to read because I found that it would be interesting and informational.
I decided to share my personal opinions on the essay titled, “Bitches, Twitches, & Eunuch’s: Sex-Role Failure & Caricature” by Leslie Horst. The essay meticulously reflects on the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey by discussing the roles of the women in the book. Horst believes that women are either castrators like Nurse Ratched, twitches like Sandy, and a good woman like the Japanese nurse who dislikes other women. I agree with Horst when he says that the portrayal of the women in this novel was sufficiently negative pretty much due to the fact that that was simply just the American way. Obviously now, women have more rights than ever before so we have learned to evolve the way we perceive and write these novels; however, back when this novel was written, women were treated with disrespect and it was a common everyday occurrence. Horst describes the eunuchs as the patients of the ward. He describes their developmental change as a metamorphosis from scared rabbits into men. This change between the men occurs when McMurphy interferes with Nurse Ratched’s domineerance. Horst made a great point when he explained how Kesey made the men in the novel suffer humiliation that is usually reserved for women: rape. I never thought about that. Horst’s symbols and other important details were very thorough and well thought out. I am greatly appreciative for this opportunity to have read this essay that gave me a great amount of new incite on this novel.
7 Nelson
The critic that caught my attention was Jack F. McComb. Maybe it was the title or the way he wrote his thoughts in the same format of the Bible, but either way I was highly intrigued. McComb’s article is called “Old Testicle: The Book of Genitals.” Immediately I think of McMurphy calling Ratched a “ball-cutter” and the chapter containing only the story of Old Rawler in disturbed ward cutting off his own genitals and bleeding to death. Reading the introduction, Jack McComb wrote this as student in the Air Force Academy. As I read I realize that McMurphy is the Godly figure of the asylum. Everything came from McMurphy and everything was him too. I agree with the angle McComb took on the book because there would be no story without McMurphy coming to the ward to shake things up. McMurphy is referred to as “Mac” throughout the whole reading as if McComb knew him on a personal level. Mac reigned over everybody except the nurse who is the combine trying to tear him down. My favorite line is “And all the asylum was without happiness and all was fear and order. No laughter or love to be found. The Spirit of Mac moved into the scene. Mac said ‘Let there be love and laughter,’ and the Big Nurse said ‘No.’” I feel as if these few sentences could summarize the whole book. McComb’s criticism was more of a summary that was straightforward. What I mean is that he would straight up say the Cheswick killed himself and that the girls that partied with Mac and the other residents where whores. I somewhat appreciated how he did not let the news out lightly. Although reading to the very end gave away some of the plot, I am excited to continue reading and see what I can infer for myself. This book would not have come about without the fictional character, McMurphy and a hippie with a message, Kesey.
I chose to analyze James E. Miller, Jr.’s literary criticism over the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In his literary criticism, he heavily refers to the humor throughout the book. “Though all the ingredients to modern fiction look like the ingredients of stark tragedy, they turn out most frequently...to be the ingredients of a kind of comedy of outrage, often hilarious.” I think that Miller is correct with his statement, especially regarding One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. McMurphy is laughing incessantly throughout the entire novel. His way of facing his problems and reality is to laugh, maybe in hopes that it will makes his problems seem easier.
He also commented that one reading the book would “find the entire world as a nuthouse, with Big Nurse in her stiff, starched white, imposing her power through the use of all her gleaming, glittering, and flashing machinery.” This is absolutely true--as I read the book I began asking myself what the 60’s were truly like. Even though the book is fiction, I began asking myself if that is what mental institutions were like at that time...were they really that inhumane and cruel? In that regard, I cringe when I read some sections of the book because it makes me so appalled and sad.
Miller’s last sentence of his literary criticism leaves me wondering. “...the defiant assertion of one’s humanity in the face of overwhelming forces that dehumanize and destroy….” He used that sentence to show that there is a “frail line of hope” found in the novel. I have yet to finish the book completely, but I am wondering what hope he referring to. Is he talking about the way the presence and arrival of McMurphy made Chief Bromden overcome his condition as a deaf and mute? Or is it something else? From what I’ve read, there isn’t much hope to be found within the mental institution.
I read James E. Miller Jr.’s criticism titled, “The Humor in the Horror.” He started off by explaining his view on post-World War II literacy. Miller has seen a trend in books of this time period with comic relief in the midst of doomsday settings. He names this humor “black humor.” He uses Cuckoo’s Nest as an aid to his opinion. You can clearly see in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that it is a serious place, but Kesey chooses to add a dash of humor here and there in order to relax the tension that one can build from reading. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is described as a total nut house; therefore, the perfect doomsday setting. The big nurse's power dehumanizes all of the patients. He describes Ellis as a symbol for a modern man: hopeless, helpless, and self crucified. He states that American fiction is characterized by these four traits: nightmare world, alienation and nausea, quest for identity, and comic doomsday vision. Miller believes that a fifth trait should be added, this trait being a thin frail line of hope. This element, he believes, emerges from the aspect of the doomsday setting being present in literacy. He also went on to elaborate how he viewed the Acutes and Chronics. He summed them up as the Acutes being hopeful and the Chronics as hopeless. For me, it was quite simple to sink my mind into his thoughts and concur with them. Everything he wrote, I could connect to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I believe that in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the thin line of hope would be best symbolized towards McMurphy. He comes into the “cuckoo’s nest” when everything is going wrong. He brings change and hope to the patient’s lives. Although highly frowned upon in the book, McMurphy breaks away from conformity in order to set an example to all of the conformed patients.
Walter Kerr, former New York Times drama critic, wrote “...And the Young Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in response to his observation of the multitudes of young people who came to watch the play version of the popular book. The audience, in contrast to aged Ken Kesey or Dale Wasserman (who wrote the play version), were youthful and young. The play does not seem as though it would be appealing to the younger, juvenile generation who sat attentively in the audience; however, as Kerr noted, the youth took great meaning from the play adapted from the captivating novel written by the great Ken Kesey. I found it quite interesting, Kerr’s interpretation of the control of the women in the novel. He suggests that the women are the “they” that is always out to get us. Wondering about Nurse Ratched’s motives, Kerr writes, “Why does she wish to condition all living things to her will?”. Is he sensing that Nurse Ratched is symbolic of something much more than humans lust for power and control? Or would she be symbolic of a iniquitous dictator? In my opinion, Kerr is accurate about his thoughts on Nurse Ratched and the other women, most certainly, seem to mimic her strangulating, controlling ways; however, they do not exhibit the same thirsting need to be in absolute power, they simple demoralize the men. I wholly agree with Kerr’s observations, and I find his insightful entries both intriguing and relevant to the novel.
While I have read most of the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” there are still things that are yet to be learned in the next few pages in this novel. So, after reading multiple articles I chose Walter Kerr’s “...And the Young Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and read about how young boys and girls were very intrigued with the play of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Shockingly I never would have guessed that it was adolescents that would be more intrigued in the play of the novel. As I read this novel it sometimes can be hard for me to comprehend and I feel as if it is more of an adult level reading.You have to truly focus on the novel and what you are reading so that you know what they are talking about and what they mean by it. I struggle at times when reading this book to completely understand what has all happened and what it all means. Therefore, I have to repeat pages and sometimes big sections of the book so i can fully comprehend what Kesey is meaning to portray. Kerr then explains the simplicity of each character in the story. He states that Ms. Ratched is not human and is all-powerful. To me that is frightening and overbearing. I would feel so weak and afraid but Kerr states that they (young teens) are not paranoid by Ms. Ratched and the play but more amused by it. Which I would completely agree with. Kerr also shows that he likes the novel better. I can understand why the youth of our society is amused by the play, and why adults like Kerr would like the novel better. It is an intriguing story but to see it in person and actually feel and see the emotions are what us young readers like more.
I read a criticism by Robert Boyers who evaluated One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through a porno-politics lense. Boyers is an English professor at Skidmore College and is an expert in evaluating American works. He discusses the human complex of sexuality phenomenon. In the novel, McMurphy is put into the ward because he has, in blunt words, a sex addiction. Porno-politics is the idea that comes in multiple steps. First, a young person with new ideas sees a way that they believe they can perfect society by becoming involved with it politically. Unfortunately, their ideas can almost never find a way to come to be and this becomes extremely frustrating for this young person. Now this young person feels the need to channel their anger about change not happening and takes it out with their sexuality.
This idea could easily line up with McMurphy’s actions because of how he wants to change the way that the ward runs and treats people. He obviously makes many of the nurses very nervous because of the sexual oroa he has about him. He feels that sexuality is the only way to change the system. He often refers to the Big Nurse as a “ball cutter.” In other words, he does not want to be controlled by a woman in any way and wants to keep his testicles in order to keep his sexuality.
Another example of porno-politics could be president John F. Kennedy. His years in office were very stressful for him as the leader of a country in the middle of a cold war with a country across the world. He also had one of his children die while he was president. These events, along with a life filled with power and wealth, could have easily led him into his habit of sexual relations outside of his marriage.
I chose to read Walter Kerr’s literary criticism titled “And the Young Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Kerr discussed how when he went to go see the play on Broadway, he was surprised as to what he had seen. The audience was filled with young people in their late teens/ early twenties. However, there were no older people. But why? I agree with Walter Kerr in the fact that it is quite strange that the audience was in fact all young people. Kerr believes that they come to seek out what they fear in life itself, which is being confined and losing their identity. I think McMurphy is having this problem. He realizes halfway through the book that in order to be released from the institute, he needs to behave properly and abide by the rules that Nurse Ratched lays out for them. However, I believe that McMurphy displays the same fear that the young audience might have. He does not want to conform to Nurse Ratched’s rules. They are also probably afraid of conformity. Kerr talks about not liking Nurse Ratched’s character. He believes that she is not human and she is what some fear to become. Walter Kerr also discusses what happens to McMurphy later on in the novel. He gets electroshock therapy and a frontal lobotomy. Perhaps this shows that in the end, no matter how much or how hard you fight for what you believe or who you are, everyone will conform in the end, whether they like it or not. Another thing Kerr discusses or perhaps questions why the audience likes Nurse Ratched so much? She is power thirsty and manipulates the men in such a way that makes them unable to leave the institute. Aren’t the young people at the play afraid of those kinds of people? Like Walter Kerr, I do not understand this.
I chose to read Robert Boyers’ “Porno-Politics” article. Boyers discusses the fact that Kesey made no attempt to discuss human sexuality as a complex phenomenon, and instead chose to focus his book on the repressive mechanisms that individuals build to help out in daily lives. Kesey’s champion in the novel is Randle McMurphy, who is psychopathic because of his overzealous nature in sexual relations. McMurphy, as well as the other patients in the ward, feel that they are the victims of matriarchy. Kesey does focus on powerful women in his story based on his view of society which was a society dominated by women. Kesey views “ball cutters” everywhere, and he is somewhat paranoid over this issue according to Boyers’ analysis of the book. I disagree with Boyers’ view on Kesey because I do not think that Kesey was extremely paranoid about women who wanted to usurp power.
Boyers states that porno-politics is an idea that is thought of by a few thousand people—most of them--smart and young. According to Boyers, advocates for porno-politics are generally utopian socialists who do not realize what they exactly want, and they are frustrated with the current method of obtaining power and influence in politics which is why they want change. When that utopian realizes that they can not contribute to political and social institutions, they transfer the burden of their harmonies society to sex. Boyers notes that it is repressed sexuality that is behind every psychosis, and this causes the men to agree with the confinements of Western society. Boyers believes that Kesey thinks that the terror and passiveness in the world are stems of sexual energies being pent up. I do not agree with Kesey on the issue. I think that the terror and passiveness in the world can be attributed to a lot more things than just pent up sexual energies. In the novel there is a particular session where the patients are told to confess to the group of past sins. They confess things that the nurse wanted to hear, not things that they actually did. The patients do all of this to please the nurse, and this is what is wrong with the hearings. Truths that are not true are told and it affects the men in a malicious ways by turning them against each other and ultimately making them feel worse about themselves. When I first read this in the novel, I immediately was frustrated with the men turning against each other. I then realized that it was not the men’s fault; it was Nurse Ratched’s fault. After finishing this article written by Robert Boyers, I have a different view on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and what Ken Kesey was trying to accomplish.
Using broad strokes, James E. Miller, Jr. classifies “modern fiction” into several groups on the basis of setting/theme summary: “the nightmare world, alienation and nausea, the quest for identity, and the comic doomsday vision.” Yet he believes these categories are not strictly exclusive--for example, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest falls into all of them. The “nightmare world” element is readily apparent: Chief Bromden’s feared Combine, representative of the Establishment, is portrayed as a hostile entity that dehumanizes all it can and “destroys what it cannot.” This is a harsh reality! In perhaps his largest point, Miller argues the dark-tragedy fiction so prevalent at the time is inherently accompanied by a certain tinge of comedy, or at the very least, tongue-in-cheek satire. As such, Miller would also label the Combine a “comic doomsday vision” (comic undertones form the crux of Miller’s thesis, after all). Here I must disagree. Of course there are instances of humor in the book--heavily centered around McMurphy’s rambunctious personality--but I do not believe Kesey consciously intended to underline the Combine with hints of satire or comedy. Many of the themes in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are stone-cold, gritty examinations of the dysfunctional mental-institution system--where Kesey worked the graveyard shift while writing the book. Miller’s thesis reminds me of the film “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” in which U.S. military leaders flippantly contemplate nuclear holocaust, the countries of the world engage in a ludicrous arms race (uncannily similar to that of the real world, at the time), and the world is ultimately destroyed, on-screen. The film takes an anti-Cold War stance through satire. It was meant to be a satire. One might argue Kesey’s work holds a similar comic condemnation (of the Establishment instead of the nuclear arms-race), but I do not think so. Rather, Kesey decries the Establishment through horror--through the Combine. Kesey’s comedy just tags along for the ride.
6 Bender
I chose the Porno-Politics as the article to read. This has many different insights that I have never thought of before with in the battle of the sexes. Boyer shows a deeper insights to the ongoing conflict of the genders inside the mental hospital. The section that states that the myth of men seeing themselves as “intrinsically better than women in terms of dynamism and strength” can be found in many people’s thoughts even today. Kesey in One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is trying to tackle this social issue. While it is something that is true--men will always be stronger in the physical way due to their anatomy--women still work hard and need respect. Kesey puts Big Nurse as an extreme and the sluts/whores as the other extreme. Ratchet is the “ball-cutter” and the whores are only there is please men. Boyers idea of Mcmurphy bringing in the whores into the hospital to restore the vitality of the other patients makes a lot of sense due to the fact that all of the men loved seeing a girl not wearing starched white uniform. Billy turns into a true gentleman to the whore and offers her his jacket in the end and asks her on a date. Boyer expresses his confusing view/idea that Kesey’s Mcmurphy is not trying to have the topic of sex be the focus of the book but an underlying political and social context. Boyer states that the sex talk is not just passionate talk but rather a symbol. But over all the sexual talk is mainly comic relief. I understand that novel is trying to bring light to some of the very important issues in society in this time frame and highlight females. Boyer actually writes that this sex humor is directed towards the middle class audience which is extremely interesting and confuses me as to why. The only way to actually get the boys to think for themselves seem to be for masculine activities--crude talk of women included. The funny thing is that Big Nurse is the main feminine figure but is destroying their mental state at the same time. The solution (in some sense) also the problem.
Out of the vast options of literary criticism of One Flew Over and Cuckoo’s Nest, I chose to read Robert Boyers “Porno-Politics” article. Boyer is an English professor at the Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. Being the impressive analyst he is ,he discussed the point that Ken Kesey did not discuss human sexuality as a complex phenomenon. Randle Patrick McMurphy is sent to the ward because of his passion with sexual relations and therefore pronounced psychopathic. Boyer states that no mature reader will be convinced that McMurphy's techniques of defiance will realistically accomplish what Kesey's claims for them at the end of that novel which is the reclamation of numerous human beings who had grown passive and torbid before McMurphy's arrival. I agree but also somewhat disagree with Boyer’s opinion on this topic. I believe that McMurphy does accomplish this up to what I have read but as far as the end result I agree that it is unrealistic for McMurphy to fully accomplish this. McMurphy seeing there are very few ways to change the rules and treatment of patients uses sexuality as one of his methods for change. He often refers to the Big Nurse as a “ball cutter.” In other words, he does not want to be controlled by a woman in any way and wants to keep his testicles in order to keep his sexuality. The nurse during the therapeutic meetings dehumanizes the men through their sexuality. She also gets the other patients to somewhat unknowingly help her in this process. She makes the men turn against one another making it all the more nontherapeutic causing more conflict. This is what angered me at first but then I realized it was not the men to blame, it was Nurse Ratched and her obsession with control and power.
7 Waldner
I chose a writing from Annette Benert, an associate professor of English at Allentown College of Saint Francis de Sales. She says that in the book, everyone is trying to overcome their fears. Bromden is specifically focused on overcoming his fears of women, blacks, and machines. Everyone in the ward is afraid, and just like the other patients say that Chief Bromden is afraid of his own shadow, Benert says that every man is afraid of his own shadow. She says that even McMurphy has it own fears. I agree, he may have his own fears, but they are not as numerous as the others. She says that when Chief is talking to McMurphy about how is his bigger than him, he is not talking about stature, he is talking about confidence. In reality, Chief is bigger and taller than McMurphy. But inside, the only part that Chief sees, McMurphy is a giant. I think that this is a very revealing analysis because just like everything else McMurphy sees in his head(fog, combine), he brings it out into the real world as it is truly there. When McMurphy and Chief were at the pool, they were standing in the deep end and Chief was so surprised that McMurphy was treading water while he himself was just standing because he truly thought that McMurphy was bigger and taller than him. He told himself that McMurphy must have just been standing in a hole at the bottom of the pool. Benert also points out how big Chief’s descriptions of Nurse Ratched are. He describes her as “too big to be beaten. She covers one whole side of the room like a Jap statue.” But later, McMurphy describes her as “just a bitter, icy-hearted old woman.” This shows who is more afraid of Nurse Ratched, obviously Chief. Nurse Ratched is the spawn of Satan according to Chief. Along with Nurse Ratched being enormous in Chief’s descriptions, he also describes her as being in control of everything - meaning she has power over him. I think that when Chief was talking to McMurphy about how he used to be big, he is talking about how he used to be confident, not physically large. Now Chief isn’t large anymore, and Nurse Ratched is as she towers over everyone with her controlling personality.
7 Hammond
I chose to read Jack F. McComb’s article, “The RPM: Old Testicle, The Book of Genitals”. The title was immediately interesting to me as its play on words involving the title of the most sold book in the entire world, The Bible, was both humorous and yet still vague enough to catch any persons eye at a glance. I enjoyed the short summary style that emulated the Bible’s own writings yet left nothing out of the summary of Cuckoo’s nest. It immediately opens and our titular character remains as McMurphy, yet the author address’s him by the familiar and almost friendly nickname of Mac. I found it interesting that Mac is God and created everything, including the asylum. “Mac reigned over all except the Combine. The Combine was the Big Nurse and all her niggers and machines and arch-niggers and arch-machines in the bowels of the asylum and everywhere”. It was nice that McComb recognized the Combine and the rule of the nurse. I found it enlightening that he held nothing back, openly using the N-word and even more language later on. His plays on words throughout the article and his honesty was refreshing, and made reading his criticism enjoyable and interesting. It was interesting how McComb described the other characters as well, “Bromden begat Ellis and Ellis begat Col. Matterson and Matterson begat Ruckly and Old Pete. From the son of Pete came all the Wheelers and Walker and Vegetables…. Harding, the father, begat Bibbit and Cheswik. Bibbit begat Martini, etc.” Each of the characters made each other and each is from one another. Taber is a soothsayer, Pete is “of the Railroad”, and Cheswick is a saint. The way the chapters were divided and even had verses just like the Bible was a great use of formatting by the author. The chapter names are also appropriate and good. I found the whole article interesting and well written overall and I felt good connections with the author’s style.
The first essay I read was “Ken Kesey: The Hero in Modern Dress” by John A. Barsness. He wrote about how Kesey wrote with an old type of hero in a modern contemporary novel and he blended them to perfection. American hero’s were adored in literature all the way through the 19th century until in the 20th century with the huge movement to the urban area’s this kind of rugged frontiersman was much less relatable than previously. This change is what makes Ken Kesey success with McMurphy as this kind of rugged, frontiersman hero more astonishing. He perfectly blended his western type hero with a very relevant anti-conformity novel for the time in which he lived. Kesey’s still doesn’t have McMurphy perfectly reflect a old time hero where the good guys win. He has McMurphy become a vegetable and die however he still wins in the sense that McMurphy freed Chief from the institution by making him big again and showing how to escape to get to the outside world. He also has McMurphy be a little rough on the edges with all of his swearing and crude talk about women and his gambling. But I can see why Professor Barsness makes the case that McMurphy is a old time Hero that we all see common in old novels like Huckleberry Finn and so on. He stands up for what is right in the book. He battles back against the conforming pressure of the Big Nurse and the black boys. he battles for the individual and even against unbeatable odds inspires the men of the ward that they to can make it in the world if they would have the guts and try. He can also been seen as a hero of types because he sacrifices himself to show the other patients that Nurse Ratched is not as powerful and unbeatable as they think. He knows full well that by keeping up his act and rebelling against Nurse Ratched will get him a longer sentence there but he wants to make a point to the Nurse that she is not going to go unopposed and give the patients hope.
2 Oren
The written work by Jack F. McComb was the first essay that I had read. His essay takes One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and summarizes the book as if it were the bible. McComb paints McMurphy as the God figure in the story. The twelve men who go fishing with McMurphy are like his twelve disciples. Chief Bromden becomes McMurphy's main follower, Chief follows him to the end when they both receive EST together. McComb's biblical allusions make an insane amount of sense. McMurphy is a sign of hope and light for the patients much like Jesus was a sign for humanity. McMurphy is crucified at the end of the novel through his lobotomy. He dies so that others may be free Jesus did the same thing. Jesus actual met a couple of his disciples when he helped them fish. This makes it ironic that McMurphy got to know some of his friends on the fishing trip. Jack F McComb provides a comedic and insightful view on Ken Kesey's novel. I also read the essay by Harold Clurman. The perspective that Clurman provides is from that of an audience member who has never read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Instead of going into detail about what happens in the play, Clurman discusses the audience reaction to a few of the scenes. For example, the crowd went wild when Billy Bibbit babbled no more. They were stunned into silence when the devilish Nurse Ratched makes Billy feel small by threatening him with his mother. This scene plays out like a roller coaster because next McMurphy attempts to strangle the nurse for taking Billy's manhood from him. Ending this string of excitement with cheers of joy from the viewers. Although Harold Clurman provides and interesting viewpoint, I must scold him for not having read Kesey's novel.
2 Brett Hoffman
I chose to read Jack F. McComb, a combat pilot and jet fighter instructor. Reading the title alone made me quite curious yet interested in what he had to say. "Old Testicle, The Book of Genitals", this just seems quite far fetched and funny to me as to what he could possibly write about? In the beginning Max was the heaven and the asylum, he was everything from Mac to Mac. He then goes into connections with Chief Brombden, a chronic, to then Ellis, Matterson, Ruckly and Old Pete. The Combine was the Big Nurse and all of her followers and machines. Mac had options for laying and a time for loving, a time for fighting and a time for conning, but he chose the wrong time which lead himself to be in the cooler. They later went out to the ocean where they drank and learned to laugh. They came back to a great time with crabs, the nurse didn't enjoy that due to sanitation. They got back and learned to have a better time, laugh, and be themselves. They hear the Combine's machinery will be drowned out by laughter and all will be free from fear within and love and disorder shall reign. I agree completely with what McComb is saying, the Combine would be the hospital in which they are not aloud to do a thing that they want to do and are stuck there it seems like. I thought he did a fantastic job with summarizing the book into the main parts in which he threw phenomenal analogies and visualization in his little writing. Although I am very uncertain as to why he chose the title that he did, I still am unsure as to what he is getting at with portraying an old testicle? Also, I believe that when he brings up Mac, that is suppose to be Chief Brombden in which Mac saw no color except black and white and created another house. This must be alike with the fog in which Chief sees and is stuck in with his imagination. I did enjoy reading and enjoyed his analogies to which he summarized the book's main points in just a few pages of reading.
1 Klumpp
I chose to read the article called "...And the young flew over the cuckoo's nest." Walter Kerr speaks about a time when he attended the Broadway production of One flew over the Cuckoo's nest. He was very surprised to see that the audience was a majority of young people. Kerr also focuses heavily on McMurphy and his influence in the novel. He speaks about his influence on all the other patients on the ward and how he started to change everything. Kerr believe all the young people have attended the play to face the image of what they fear the most. They fear the "combine" and conformity and the automatic responses they have made to everyday life. He also speaks about Tony Tanner’s City of Words. Kerr connects it to the Cuckoo’s nest because they both talk about the balance between freedom and social form. Ker says, “We are already beyond choice, beyond the tension of options. Somebody has got hold of the machinery and no matter how much we rebel or struggle or defy or cry out we can always be conditioned a little further.” I found this statement terrifying but also true. From a young age we are taught to not talk until we’re called on, always wait your turn, and countless other rules that became habits by the age of 7. We have been taught that social rankings should be by looks and athleticism, and not intelligence or kindness. If you do not follow the rules or social norms, you are considered a bad seed or an outcast. The novel delves into what strict discipline can do to a person and how ruling out of fear can get drastic results. Kerr speaks about how we are all already manipulated by some unidentifiable source the “system” and it’s a hard thing to rebel from.
1 Beck
Looking through the list of options of critiques, I really could not decide which one to do, so I went with the next best way to decide. Which was randomly clicking on one and hoping for the best. The critique I ended up clicking was Harold Clurman, Review of the Play. Reading it I found out that the man that went to the play had never seen, or read anything that involved “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. I believe that by doing this, Clurman had a completely open mind walking into the theatre to watch the play for the first time. Yet at the same time not having any knowledge of the story changed his knowing of important details of the story. Such as Chief Bromden, to Clurman he is just a half indian that is deaf and mute. He does not see that Chief is the narrator of this story and plays a key role in this entire thing. By not knowing the book, and just seeing a play, you see things that people changed just to get good ratings. Seeing that the theatre was packed with more younger people than old could have changed the perspective for Clurman. The maturity levels of the people could have changed when people laughed at certain things, making him believe that those things were funny. With going to the play you do not get to get into all the details the book gives you, you do not see how really smart Chief is. You seem to not get as involved in the play because compared to the book this is only an hour or two of your life. But with the book you can get into it, you can dig deep into it, figure out what Kesey was really trying to do. Realize he just wants to get into your head. Be the mastermind that is Nurse Ratched in the book. Be the “big boss” of it all.
In a letter to the editor of The New York Times, Marcia Falk speaks strongly and passionately about the blatant sexism, as well as racism, within the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Falk states within her article that every woman is portrayed as such a demonic figure and looking completely at my own views I would fully agree with this statement. As early as the first few pages of the book, the context is filled with negative connotations fueled from women, such as that of Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is depicted as a malicious and conniving woman who is set out to perform malicious acts towards the patients, when reality she is simply carrying out her duties in the ward and keeping proper order. Several other instances throughout the novel the author of the book, Ken Kesey, makes it know women are to be seen as inferior. Each woman presented is characterized as dumb and silly as the next. Women as a whole are not shone in a positive light throughout the reading, and instead they are seen as being the instigators for psychological mutation upon men. The instigating assumption is taken when Harding’s wife’s ample bosom gives him a feeling of inferiority and yet again when it is stated Chief Bromden’s mother had made his father small. Racism is identified throughout the book, as Falk provides “the only blacks in the play are stupid and malicious hospital orderlies.” Marcia Falk’s article shines light to the major feminist issues illustrated within the novel. Based on the underlying meaning of characterization throughout the novel, I stand full force with Falk’s opinion against Ken Kesey. The book’s plot does not provide with any positive female characters able to be identified with, which in return there are no sign of healthy, strong male figures. For many, the way in which Kesey wrote and portrayed females in his novel, it is safe to say he hates and fears women.
After reading about two-thirds of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I have picked up small hints of feminist traits in male characters. Along with feminist actions, the characters display sexist connotation towards each other without too much criticism. If one male may act a bit like a women he is made fun of but if any women enters the scene the male feminist are forgotten and the main goal switches to belittling the women. I skimmed through a handful of articles until one stood out. By chance the first article in the folder by Marcia L. Falk stood out the most for me. In my table groups first forum we talked about how Nurse Ratched was a strong leader in the institution. Considering this novel was written in a male dominated society, Nurse has an outstanding amount of control over all the patients. Marcia Falk talks about how each women in the book is beaten down a bit. Big Nurse brings across a violent vibe by be in control and shutting down some of the men. Another smaller nurse becomes a living stereotype when she is scared by McMurphy. A more appalling stereotype is Mr. Harding’s wife, Vera, who likes to show off her assets. By doing so she is taken for a whore. Towards the end of the novel, McMurphy tells his deep-fishing group that his two aunts coming to pick them are actually two whores from a small town. At the end of Falk’s article, she explains that Kesey believes women are fearful and hateful things. Nurse Ratched is the way she is because she is a women; Kesey hates and fears women. The whole purpose of the novel (according to Falk) is talking about basic sexist taboos of society--a psychic disease ingrained in the minds of every generation--that are going without being questioned.
I read Noyes and Kolb’s “Shock & Other Physical Therapies”. In their article, they discussed the benefits of shock therapies. The more I read the article the more biased the article seemed. It discussed the side affects moderately. It did shed positive light on treatments in the hospitals. It had statistics that supported using electroshock therapy on those who are depressed. They saw 80% increase in those and the patients became “socially acceptable”. I disagree with this article because shock therapy has been removed from all medical use. It was removed because it was inhumane and must of had effects on the patient’s that were not mentioned in the article. The article was written to sway those in favor of the article. It did mention that the patients should start out being shocked every three days. After the shock the patients will be asleep for 24 hours. The patients will only go only one day being normal. They are shocked one day into unconsciousness and then they sleep the next day away. How does someone function being restricted to only having one normal day as themselves? The article discussed side effects to the patient’s that I had not heard of such as fractures. The fractures come the patient being restrained while put into unconsciousness. The most common fracture was to the vertebrae, legs if not restrained correctly, and the jaw because the nurse did not hold the mouth shut on the patient. The nurse has to hold the jaw so tightly together so the patient will keep the gauze in its mouth to keep from biting off its tongue. If there are this many risks with shock therapy then there should be research to find another cure that is much safer for the patients. Another common side effects such as the loss of their memory. Once someone loses their memories they lose themselves. It is one of the worst side effects possible. I disagree with the article in how it only supports shock therapy. For the article to be valid by my terms in swaying me towards or away from the shock therapy is to display both sides to a topic.
Schwint 1
I chose to read the essay titles, “Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, composed by Irving Malin. In this essay, Irving Malin discusses the different aspects of New American Gothics. Malin states that New American Gothics typically take place in microcosms, or small sections of society, since the tensions throughout society as a whole can be witnessed in even the smallest of societal groups. In this document, Malin touches on how Ken Kesey took his Gothic in a new direction. Kesey is an interesting man himself and that is why I believe he chose to implore the themes and main ideas of a Gothic yet he skipped the big haunted houses that are normally associated with Gothics. Since Kesey made his Gothic more realistic and lifelike, it makes the story more connectable to the reader and it helps the reader to truly understand what Kesey was attempting to portray. In this literary criticism of Kesey’s novel I enjoy how Malin compares Nurse Ratched to Frankenstein’s monster. In, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched is definitely the main antagonist who is constantly terrorising all the patients at the asylum much like how Frankenstein’s monster terrorised the townspeople. I also believe that Nurse Ratched is a lot like the main villain Ursula in The Little Mermaid. Nurse Ratched and Ursula are both manipulative in their own ways. A great example of Nurse Ratched manipulation is when McMurphy is extremely angry about the music and is trying to get her to turn the volume down and she states that some of the older patients would not be able to hear if she turned it down. After the Nurse brings this point up she makes McMurphy seem like he is a bad person and just by the Nurse’s calm demeanor she makes him give up and walk away. Ursula manipulates people into signing certain contracts so that they can get what they want but they usually break the complicated contracts and Ursula reaps all of the benefits.
1 Peterson
The title “The Humor in the Horror”—written by James E. Miller, Jr.-- is the one that stood out the most to me, so of course that is the one I chose to read. Connections that I made before reading the article was the way the men are portrayed in the story. When reading you can almost find it humorous the way they are described and things they do, yet the truth is this is reality. People in real life go through these situations—hopefully they do not have a nurse like Nurse Ratchet—these people cannot do anything about the mental disabilities that are placed on them…but they can work hard to overcome the situation they are placed with.
In Kesey’s book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the black men in the story—at the beginning—are not given a name; they are simply just called “the black boys”. Racism is distinctive in his book, I believe Kesey is trying to show the horror that is faced not only because of the color of your skin but also because of the things that make you “normal”. The guys in Kesey’s book are out-of-the-loop, they have complications and mannerisms that make them different from everyone else, but don’t we all? We all have something that makes us “crazy”. Everyone has thoughts in their mind that could put them into a ward just like the guys… but are we accepted as normal because we know not to say that aloud? The guys are dehumanized and treated like children, but they are adults and should be treated as what they are. Bromden often sees things that we do not see—the fog—to us that seems quite silly, but they truth is he is just trying to cope with the situations he has been placed with. I agree that the story can be taken as humorous but I can guarantee that is not the point Kesey was trying to put across to his readers.
Jacobson 1
Ken Kesey: The Hero In Modern Dress, by John Barsness, states how it has been virtually impossible to distinguish between the serious and popular hero in current day American literature. The American hero can take on many different shapes and forms and can always be interchangeable. The American hero has been adored for over a hundred years, however he has had less success in the twentieth century. The twentieth century put the hero in his best-known form as the cowboy, where he lingers on in literature taking on multiple versions of the Virginian. John Barsness states the Randle McMurphy serves as the hero in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. This seems hard to agree with at first, simply because McMurphy commits himself into a state mental hospital in order to avoid the labor of a prison farm. Despite this, we can recognize him as the hero right away. Chief describes McMurphy's voice as loud and full of hell showing he is there for a purpose. I agree with Barsness. McMurphy indeed is the hero in this novel. He shows the men a new part of themselves and shows that they can do anything. Barsness also states that Kesey's heroes seem to carry out the old-fashioned dream within an atmosphere of contemporary confusion does not lessen the traditional and romantic structure underlying it. I wholly agree with Barsness. Kesey does a great job of depicting an everyday American hero within McMurphy. Billy Bibbit being driven to suicide by the incomprehension designed to "cure" him also shows that he serves as a hero. His death is ironic but serves as essential to the plot because this shows that the hero, though he may not survive, will for sure triumph. That is one of the biggest traits a hero could have... the willingness to never give up and always strive for the best.
I read Leslie Horst’s “Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs: Sex Role Failure and Caricature”. Her insight on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest intrigued me first by the title of the critic. In this literary criticism, Leslie discusses how this novel is very male oriented. Leslie believes that Miss Ratched is a skewed representation of feminism and I would have to agree with her. In the novel, Miss Ratched is the antagonist and even cause a cold drift when she walks into the room. Nurse Ratched is described as being mechanical and machine-like. Leslie states that the females in this novel are far less developed characters and that they are just reflections of what men’s fantasies about women. This novel makes me think that Kesey was in fact terrified and threatened of women rising to power. Kesey is showing his opinion of what would happen if a woman rose to power. Leslie also explains how McMurphy is trying to bring her down by pointing out the more feminine qualities Miss Ratched posses. When McMurphy feels threatened he bring up Miss Ratched sexuality such as her bra size or making other remarks and gestures. All the women that Kesey describes in his novel are shown to being (as Leslie states) bitches. All the women have one thing in common however, they are all powerful. I believe Kesey is trying to portray powerful women as dangerous and terrible. Candy, the prostitute, is the only female character that is portrayed of having a heart of gold. Candy, however, is different than the rest of the females. Candy is sexually available and serves men. The novel is portraying that only “good” women are suppressed and are not powerful. I agree with Leslie’s criticisms of the novel and I will refer to her work in my own critical lens essay.
I read Harold Clurman’s review over One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and agreed with many different points. After perusing this review, I found myself connecting with Clurman’s point of views a few different times, but also disagreed. He attended a play of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and had not read the book. I did not agree with him criticizing and judging the book based off watching the play and not reading the book. You can not fully understand key parts of the books or important parts to a character by watching the play. In order to fully understand what a character is thinking and going through is to read the novel. Although he did mention that the play was well performed and that he was very amused. He also mentioned how the crowd around him was also into the play and would cheer during exciting parts of the play. One thing that Harold mentioned that I connected with was his opinion on Nurse Ratched. He thought she was harsh and cruel to her patients. Clurman in his review brought up McMurphy and how he was sort of like a rebel and that he would always be the one to stand up or oppose to things. I agree with Clurman because that is exactly what McMurphy would do at different parts of the book and that was his role. He also said, “McMurphy’s insubordination helps Chief Bromden overcome his condition as a deaf mute.” I also agree with this statement because McMurphy is the first person Chief talks to at the hospital and truly does help him overcome his condition. Harold, towards the end of the review, talked about Billy and some of the bad things that happened to him. He mentions how the crowd cheers when McMurphy strangles the Nurse for her cruel actions against Billy. I connected with this review several times, but still believe reading the novel helps with understanding the characters more in depth rather than just watching the play.
I read the letter to the editor of The New York Times, by Marcia L Falk. In this letter Marcia Falk gives good insight to some of the racism, as well as the cut and dry sexism that is found in the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. The sexism in this book is everywhere, it is found on the first few pages all the way to the end. Falk says that every woman in the background of the play is a demonic figure and the book is full of false, yet dangerous cliches about the power women have over men. This is something that everyone who has read the book should be able to agree with it is too obvious in the book for people not to notice it the only reason they would not mention it would be because they are thoroughly conditioned by the basic assumption of our society that they never cared to notice. An example of sexism in the novel leads me to a question that was asked in the beginning of the letter. Why is Nurse Ratched the omnipotent, omni-malevolent villain of the book? The answer is quite obvious, she is as woman who has power over the men in the ward because it is her job not because she enjoys being mean and cruel. She does her job everyday to keep order in the ward and the men in the institution act as if she is trying to kill them. Another girl that is introduced in the novel is the whore and she is only their to give confidence to the men in the ward and she is dumb and silly, not able to be strong or independent. The other big thing found in the novel is the racism. Why are the only black people in the novel dumb and malicious workers in the institution. They are dominated by the white Nurse Ratched.
I have learned and understood the usage of a feminist lens when analyzing this book. I looked over the critic’s articles and I found one that stood out to me by a girl with the name of Marcia Falk. In the beginning of this book I discussed in my groups forum discussion how the Big Nurse, Mrs. Ratched, is built up into a disgustingly cruel version of a women. Mrs. Ratched is seen as a over-powering, up-tight, and mean person...in other words a villain. Also Chief Bromden’s father has been said to have taken his wife’s name, showing another sign of women way too over-powering. His wife said to have been much more manly and large, foreshadowing the threatening rise of female power. After reading through Falk’s critic over this book I still agree with the sexism. Falk discussed the way each and every women in this book was demeaned in some way. The big nurse was a jerk and made the institution corrupt. One of the small Nurses in the book was actually terrified of McMurphy. this showed how dumb and silly women are stereotyped to be, when in actually McMurphy was overstepping his boundaries. The other viewpoint of women in this book was actually being a whore. Vera, Harding’s ‘“wife,” was actually used to demean women in a sexual way. She was seen to have a big butt but with no actual self respect, besides her looks, from all the men in the institution.
At the end of her reading, she came to the conclusion that Ken Kesey was actually terrified of the women race and the thought of them overpowering men. If this actual assumption was correct, the book would make much more sense. The other people who helped create this book are so brainwashed by the assumption that men are of greater power, refuse to seek any other viewpoints from others.
Annette Benert wrote literary criticism about the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She talks about how the book compels the audience to think about important issues—fear of woman, fear of the machine, etc. She made me ponder after she restated the quote, “If they don’t exist, how can a man see them?” pg. 87. Chief is a very interesting narrator. At times we find him unreliable, but he is one of the best listeners. I believe when he was scared from talking and stopped, he was able to listen instead of thinking about what he was going to say. This allows the reader to see into the situation with great depth. I agree with Annette Benert when she says that McMurphy’s downfall is his fear. He is able to take a stand when a force is upon him, but he does not show us how to stand up against it. He can tell us the way out, but not show us. The system of fear destroys him. It is interesting to dig deep into Chief’s youth like Annette Benert does. Chief inherited his fear. Once he saw his Father start to get scared of things, he too got scared. His muteness was not something he decided, but what others decided for him. They would never listen anyways, so he thought there was no point. Annette Benert brings up an interesting point. Until close to the end, we are introduced to women who are absolute evils. We find out through the Japanese nurse that not all women are totalitarian sadistic. I believe that Kesey at this point was trying to either save his reputation or keep a woman that he is close to. If all women in the book were evil, I believe a women’s point of view on the book would change.
The literary criticism I found myself most interested in was titled, "Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs: Sex-Role Failure and Caricature" composed by Leslie Horst. This piece of work not only caught my eye by the daunting title but by the text inside. While reading the outstanding novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I have noticed numerous sexist remarks towards the female gender. While making note of this, I have used the feminist lens while analyzing the novel carefully. In Leslie Horst's work, she states that the women are portrayed in a manner that men fantasize them. I disagree with this statement to some degree. I disagree because there are several instances where the women are portrayed as overpowering and evil; men rarely fantasize about women controlling their lives I would assume. The only time the women are portrayed as a fantasy is when describing their womanly assets. "The implicit statement seems to be that women who violate our deeply ingrained social expectation that they occupy an inferior social status are freaks of nature. The results of their violation of the order of things are clearly disastrous. They are unnatural, and even their nurturing is destructive for men." This quote by Leslie Horst states everything I believe is happening in the novel. If you are a woman of power, you are a "freak of nature." When did it become the end of the world for women to hold power over men? Are they not just as capable as men to control things in life? Horst's analogy of men to eunuchs meaning they are all overpowered by a woman is very accurate in my eyes. Kesey makes it seem like all of these women with any slight amount of power a.re the root of all evil. Overall, I enjoyed Leslie Horst's view on the novel and believe it was rather accurate from a feminist lens
Truan Litt Pd 2
The fascinating article called “Shock and Other Physical Therapies,” is an exemplary article about the use of shock treatments and other types of therapy on people that have been deemed mentally unstable. It is written by two men, Arthur Noyes and Lawrence Kolb. They go into heavy detail on the treatments and it is interesting to see just how the patients in mental institutions were treated by the doctors. In the article the first thing that it does is explain the way shock therapies are performed. This, when explained in basic terms seems like one of the most barbaric and inhumane ways to treat someone who is mentally ill. The way that they use seventy to one hundred thirty volts of electricity to try to induce a seizure in patients with schizophrenia sounds more like a punishment than a treatment. These treatments are recommended to be given three different times throughout a week. The article states that one of the most successful applications of electroshock therapy is in the treatment of depression. One of the main side effects of this treatment is the impairment of memory. It is very common for patients to start to forget things. It can range from forgetting people's names to more severe cases where people forget large portions of their lives. Another is the dislocations and fractures that can occur within a patient. The treatment is known to produce many fractures all over the body's skeletal structure and the patient has to be excessively restrained when the procedure is occurring. However it has been known in some cases to have an amazing effect on curing some mental illnesses. In my opinion the risks of this procedure definitely outweigh the very small amount of successful procedures. It is too detrimental to the physical health of the patient to continue with these barbaric treatments.
After looking over the many essays written about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I had come across one that captured my interest. “The Humor in the Horror” by James E. Miller, Jr. “Though all the ingredients of modern fiction look like the ingredients of stark tragedy, they turn out most frequently, when mixed with heavy dashes of comedy of outrage, often hilarious.” This essay appealed to me because it can relate to not only the novel but also my life in general. I was raised in a house hold that had taught me great usage of timing. Being an immature child as everyone once went through; there were times when I needed to keep quiet because it was the polite thing to do. When there is someone who is struggling, or possibly has a mental disorder or anything of that nature, your job is to help and understand. Your job is to not sit around and laugh and stare. There was a girl with Down syndrome in my third grade church class who knew no better than everyone else. I specifically remember one Wednesday night when she was chewing on chalk because someone had told her it was candy, good to eat. As other girls were watching, laughing and making fun of her, it sincerely pained me to witness such a thing. I too was young and did not know better but I knew that it was not right to lie to an innocent girl who simply did not understand that the chalk was not actually food. As laughter arose so did my anger. It is here too in parts of the novel were things are supposed to be hilarious in the midst of outrage and insanity. I can relate to Miller’s essay because I find it unsettling that this book is often found humorous to those who do not understand that it is not to be laughed at. I feel as if the book depicts what it is actually made out to be.
Leslie Horst has written a criticism article back in the late 70s on the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The article was titled “Bitches, Twitches, & Eunuchs: Sex-Role Failure and Caricature”. In her article she discussed many points on how the women in the book are just objects to men most of the time and how the book itself with its “view in a male-oriented novel seems to be as American as apple pie”. She went on to explain, with many examples, how the male characters were much more complex in the storyline. Afterwards she went on the discuss the synopsis of the story. The one part of her article which I absolutely did not care for (even though I would have found out by next Tuesday anyway) was that she had mentioned what happens to McMurphy at the end of the book. Not happy with that. However, for the most part I agreed with her. She made some points that I had not noticed in the book. For example, she had mentioned “Chief Bromden’s mother, a white woman who clearly felt superior to her Indian husband. Together with the forces of white society, she gradually wore down the elder Chief’s self-esteem”. From when I was reading the book, I had not picked up that his mother felt superior, I just thought that she just enjoyed the finer things (nice dresses and such). Another part that I agreed with her on was that Kesey made the female characters very one-sided, meanwhile the males were much more complex. The woman in the book were all evil in some way just because they had some form of power over men. One aspect that I found interesting was that an article criticising the book for being too sexist was in fact written by a woman (not that this matters).
Kyle Horner
When analyzing of the literary criticism by Leslie Horst. Some interesting aspects that he states throughout is the analysis of Nurse Ratched. Saying that she is a perversion of femininity. Citing statements such as, “no compact or lipstick or women stuff,” only gears and mechanical things. Though there was a one attribute mistake made by placing those large womanly breasts on an otherwise perfect body. In the book you can clearly tell that she expresses aspects of socialism by saying you can take an impulse/expressive kid and make him into a conforming and deadened adult. I personally can see that she represents this character well. Her role in the book is to take them from the condition they come in with and deaden it so they are able to go back out into society. This just shows how society was during this time, this was not living though that is for sure. Leslie makes a lot of great points throughout his critique and one that I would like to agree with would be how women play a dominant role in this book. The women having power shows a great deal of struggle that men have in society. This struggle causes conflicts within society. You may have even noticed this yourself. From CEO’s to the front lines, women are still not equal on many standards. The one thing that is super interesting about this critique is the idea of having a beautifully neutral society with equal power for both sexes.
Polasky 6
I read the theory by James E. Miller Jr. This article gave a view from a reader himself. His article was called “The Humor In The Horror.” He mentioned how when you read an article or novel there is always a topic that makes one think but it is done in a humorous way. In a magazine they talked about if you have any sore in your mouth for a long time, it is probably cancerous. He starts to wonder if the symptoms that were described in this article was the same thing he was experiencing.There are multiple examples like this that creates one to think or possibly worry. Authors use this technique to talk about serious and grotesque topics but in a lighter manner to make one think while enjoying. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest has many examples of this. Such as Ellis who used to be an Acute but turned Chronic. The humor comes in when they talk about him peeing himself. In all seriousness, this is a deep and scary thing to have a grown man turn so bad that he cannot even use the restroom himself. However, things like this happened during Kesey’s life and he was able to talk about it and describe what he actually saw in person in a lighter manner. I think that writing with humor when talking about a serious topic may sometimes stray away from the real meaning or convey the information correctly. The reader may not understand it fully or it might not be taken as serious as it should be. However, if one wants to talk about something serious, the best way might be by talking about it in a not so serious way. With all the seriousness or the truth, the reader might become scared or it might be too heavy and they will not be able to get through it or understand that it really happens.
I read an article from Leslie Horst, on viewing the Cuckoo's Nest as a very anti-feminist novel. I agree with that, considering most of the women characters in the novel are not developed as the men characters. You never see how Mrs. Ratched really is; only in the work environment. Also, not a lot of the women are described in any nice or feminine way. Horst states, "Big Nurse appears to be a perversion of femininity. A 'gust of cold' (p. 3) enters a room with her: in her purse she has 'no compact or lipstick or woman stuff' but only mechanical objects like 'wheels and gears' (pg. 4)." I connected with this statement, because I never truly realized how they described the women on the ward until I read her opinion on the novel. She also talks about how McMurphy's ideal woman is someone who does everything for a man (including sex) as he views Candy and Sandy, as great gals. While he views the one Catholic nurse with the birthmark as useless; because she wouldn't do anything with her. Horst states, "A good woman cannot be threatening or powerful. If she's not sexually available, then she must at least be frightened by male sexuality." It really brings out the point I made recently about Candy and Sandy. Mrs. Ratched is powerful, and slightly threatening, so McMurphy sees her as evil. Horst also mentions about how Kesey makes a greater point of anti-feminism in his novel by the men in the novel suffering from rape; which is what the women usually suffer from. I thought that was really interesting, because Kesey does make a point of rape from the beginning of the book with the black boys. Leslie's view on this book really opened up some thoughts and changed my perspective of the novel as a whole and McMurphy.
Eric Hanson 6
Upon this lovely Thursday afternoon, I read Walter Kerr's thoughts and opinions about the movie version of One who Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest. He sets the mood with speculation he has made about the younger generation of students. They oddly are enjoying comedy's that one would not suspect to see in the large theaters meant for mature adults. After this, he discusses the movie and how the film was empowering. He describes Ms. Ratchet as the ultimate symbol. He does not think the character is human, as many of us do not believe. What he believes her to represent is the paranoid's ultimate fear of "they". "They" are coming to get you, the Soviets are going to come, the government is out to get me! That is the "they" Kurr speaks of. He still inquires as to why is this symbol a women? That is a question I wonder myself. A question that I do not think can be answered, but only assumed. He then reflects upon the audience he first watched the film, the younger generation. He notices how they are not paranoid of the they that he fears, they do not even acknowledge. to me it almost thinks that they are ignorant. It almost seems like he thinks they are ignorant, or perhaps he believes Kim Keasy thinks they are ignorant.
I analyzed Leslie Horst’s “Bitches, Twitches & Eunuchs: Sex-role Failure Caricature”. Her perspective of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest was about the difference between men and women throughout the novel. The title was an interesting attention grabber. The text itself was intriguing point of view throughout the feminist lens. The novel is male oriented, there is no female patients in the institution. Not only is there man as patients but they have no power and the female nurses have the power. This causes some sexual remarks and some portraying to Miss Ratched’s body in particular. There is multiple sexual remarks towards the female point of view. The feminist lens is what I used throughout the novel to analyze. The way Kesey describes Miss Ratched is an interesting lens. Miss Ratched is an antagonist and causes a “gust of cold” whenever she is present throughout the novel (pg. 3). Miss Ratched is commonly described as a machine or mechanical robot; wheels and gears commonly described. Miss Ratched is like a machine part. Miss Ratched is not the only female figure but there is other female figures; Leslie states that these women are the bitches. The women all have some sort of power over the patient's. Kesey is trying to portray women as a bad figure with power and that women can over use the power that is given. The fear of women with power that is higher than the man is present throughout some characters. According to Horst, Medusa started that when women have power, they become terrifying. Mcmurphy tries to stripe the power from Miss Ratched but she does not give in. The prostituate, Candy, is the only “good woman” present in the novel. The good woman can not be threatening or powerful according to Leslie. Leslie Horst's criticisms I agree with; I will most likely use this feminist lens when writing my essay.
Kribell 6
James E. Miller, Jr.’s literary criticism of the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest depicts the piece of literature as a dark humor. I can not tell if he is criticizing the book or if he is complimenting its seemingly sick and twisted hidden hilarity. Either or, I agree with his reasoning that is truly a dark humor. The connections he makes to the real outside world describe the sad patheticness of our society. His “doomsday vision” is one that I agree with wholeheartedly.
Marsha McCreadie composed an article comparing the book to the film itself, stating that for the most part the movie followed the book verbatim. Except for the point of view being shifted and the characters slightly off. She explains how about 900 people auditioned for the film but they only accepted those who best matched the physical and psychological outlook of the characters in the book. It is interesting how well the movie follows the book and how they chose the actors and actresses.
Mary Frances Robinson and Walter Freeman’s article on “The Glimpses of Post-lobotomy Personalities” was honestly a little disturbing. The cases they elaborated on seemed creepy and sad at the same time. I connect this to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because of the different ways they go about psychosurgery. Such as how the articles patients typically want to have a lobotomy while the characters in the book dread it because it is used as a form of ultimate punishment. And how the after-effects in real life alter from what the book illustrates. But overall it was an extremely eye opening article.
6 Mullet
“Shock and Other Physical Therapies” by Noyes and Kolb is a chapter in a book discussing the process of physical shock therapy. It goes through how it works, when to use it, and the effects of physical shock therapy. There are many precautions to shocking someone, such as making sure they did not eat. The nurse must take their blood pressure, make sure their chest and spine are not damaged, and take out possible dentures. If someone has a weak cardiovascular system, it is not recommended that they go through electroshock convulsion therapy. If someone has aneurysms, electroshock convulsion therapy is discarded as an option. Tuberculosis also discludes electroshock convulsion therapy as an option. Electroshock convulsion therapy begins by holding the patient down with sheets and placing a rag in their mouth so that their jaw does not become dislocated. Slight pressure is applied to the jaw, and some jelly is applied to the temples. The machine is hooked up to the patient's head and turned on, giving anywhere from 70-130 Volts for .1-.5 seconds. For me, it is difficult to see how doctors came up with this idea. It is comparable to hot wiring or jump starting a car, just with the human body. If doctors were willing to try this on humans, then what else were they willing to do? What if they had killed someone when they first tried it? They had no idea what applying high amounts of electricity would do to the patients, but they tried anyways. I also wonder if the first patients volunteered to try it or if they forced them to. The doctors that wrote this seem completely fine with the treatment, but just do not want to see any dead patients as a result of the treatment. The big words in the chapter must mean the target audience was other doctors and nurses, so I wonder how society found out about the process and how they responded to it. I personally would be appalled, as I am now. Unless the patients volunteered for the treatment, knowing the short history and complications, I will always find experimenting with live, unwilling humans very disturbing and along the lines of the Holocaust experiments.
I read Marcia L. Falk’s “Letter to the Editor of the New York Times.” Falk made many assumptions about Kesey that she backed up with evidence from the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. For example, Falk accused Kesey of being a sexist. While analyzing this novel through a feminist lens I also saw many sexist elements. Kesey’s character Miss Ratched is portrayed as a brutal dictator trying to rid the men in the institution of their masculinity. Falk made an insightful point when she discussed how the only “good” women in the novel were “mindless whores”. Falk also added input that strength in the book was determined by having male parts. Miss Ratched was a “ball cutter” and that is how she took away the men’s power. Also, every man in the novel was humiliated or psychologically mutilated by a female. People like Falk assume that because Kesey’s villains in the novel were all women that he is a sexist. But, if we look through the psychoanalytic lens, Kesey may have had issues with women in his past. Kesey’s history with women could have contributed to his decision to make the women in the novel evil. One thing that was very evident and that Falk pointed out in this novel is racism. The only African Americans in the novel are ruthless, stupid orderlies who harass the patients. But it is important to keep in mind that at this point in history racism was common and not seen as wrong. African Americans did not have many rights and were still fighting against inequality. Also, Bromden’s mother was too ashamed to take on her Native American husband’s last name. Bromden’s mother was also an example of the sexism in the book. She became “larger” than her husband and overpowered him--contributing to the point that every man in the novel was overpowered by a woman. Falk made many insightful points about the novel and her views have increased my knowledge and enthusiasm about the book.
For this blog task assignment, I chose to read an essay written by Annette Benert, an associate professor of English at Allentown College of Saint Francis de Sales, titled “The Forces of Fear: Kesey’s Anatomy of Insanity.” Benert writes in her essay that all of the members of the ward, especially Bromden, are trying to overcome their fears. Bromden specifically tries to target his fear of women(Big Nurse), blacks(the aides on the ward), and machines(the Combine). Much like Chief Bromden, though, all of the members of the ward have a fear of their “shadow.” McMurphy, for example is seen as this figure that everyone looks up to, a Savior in Benert’s words, but he has his own fears that in the end he is not able to overcome. Benert also makes comments on the fact that Bromden is not able to “distinguish between literal and symbolic reality, empirical and psychic truth,” the cause for his hallucinations and nightmares. These hallucinations and nightmares seem quite bizarre to us, the reader, but are normal for him because he is not able to tell the difference between reality and what is going on in his head. It is only through these hallucinations and nightmares can the reader learn about what is occurring in his mind and understand and live in the world Bromden is living in and understand his fears. In addition to Bromden overcoming his fears, Benert also states that the novel is also about Bromden’s struggle to “transcend into what he looked like.” Chief feels a sort of need to fit in, not only in the ward but with society as well. We learn in the novel that Bromden is a smart and intellectual man who has gone to college, opposite of what most people think of when they think of Native Americans, sadly. This is shown when the group of two men and a woman show up to his reservation to talk to his father and they assume that Bromden can not understand what they are saying. This may be the start of his struggle of wanting to fit in and aspiring to how others think he should be, though this clearly is not in his best interest with the intelligence he has. He is an Indian, people assume he is dumb, so he acts/becomes that way in an effort to fit in and be the social norm.
I agree with a large majority of what Benert has written in her essay. It was a great read that furthered my understanding of Chief Bromden and some of the other patients on the ward. By reading this essay, I was able to look at the book from a more psychoanalytical point of view.
I read the essay titled “Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs: Sex-role Failure and Caricature” by Leslie Horst. Before I even started reading the essay I was able to tell that is would be mainly about the female roles in the book, and shown with a feminist lens. The essay starts with Horst’s first impression on the book. I myself, share many of the same views as Horst. Much like Horst I enjoyed reading about McMurphy’s struggle to overcome the authority of the Big Nurse and the Combine. I admired his outgoingness and ways he opened everyone's mind in the house. Although McMurphy is confident in himself, there is one person who holds him back… the big nurse Ratched. Although Ratched is very feminine in appearance her actions rarely reflect on that. Horst says “Big Nurse is an expression of what I see as a fundamental male error of women who have power”. Through this McMurphy views her as a castrator. Through much of the novel Kesey makes the men suffer a humiliation usually reserved for women (such as rape). The intrusiveness of the hospital environment, and the administration of injections, electroshock, and lobotomies, all reinforce the continuous them of violation of internal space. Although it may first appear that the black aids hold quite a lot of power; however in all reality they are still enslaved under big nurse Ratched. The black boys are stereotyped by being given the traits of strong, dumb and full of hatred towards whites. In this book it is almost as if all of the gender roles are flipped around. A ward full of strong black boys, and “crazy” men all under the control of a white lady.
I read Bernerts “Forces of Fear” criticism on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and there are options are very relatable. I agree with his opinion that the book is mainly about Chief Bromden's inner struggle of seeing himself for how powerful and big he actually is. In the book Chief is so use to being ignored and under looked that he thinks of himself as small and powerless when that is not the case. His main struggle is getting past how society viewed him, to have the confidence in himself to view himself the way he should, the powerful smart Native American. Thinking about that a quote in Bernerts writing from Mcmurphy “let what he looked like run his life” really speaks to you in your own life. There are a lot of lessons to take out of this book from society, you should never let what you look like affect how you feel or think about yourself or let it run your everyday life. Even though Chief let this happen to him Mcmurphy really helps him throughout the book. I really like and relate to when Bernert talks about while reading the book we in a way get to live within Chiefs mind and see what he is thinking. I think it was brilliant narrating the book through Chiefs mind and what he is thinking and feeling. Even though through half the book he does not get to express what he is thinking and feeling to the people in the book we as the readers get to experience what he is actually thinking. We learn while the other characters do not know till later that Chief is actually a very brilliant man who in fact is not crazy just does not hold the confidence to live in the real world. Bernerts criticism also states that Chiefs qualities and insist become our own in the book. Which is really enjoy because living and reading through a man that gets a lot of insist in the ward really helps you understand what is going on. Even though Chief does have hallucinations it keeps the book interesting when you get to question the book and yourself if you believe what is going on or not. My thought on Chief is that when he grew up he saw a lot of things taken away from his tribe and his family from people who thought they were higher up in society then they were. I think Chief learns to trust in the hospital by living with someone like Mcmurphy who sees the real him.
While reading Cuckoo's nest i notice that while Chief tells the story it gets less hard to understand as the beginning of the book with the fog and certain strange hallucinations happening to patients without the introduction of those patients yet. During the first part of the book i had to use a lot of deconstruction to try and comprehend what Ken was trying to show us readers into what chief was trying to understand. Later on using deconstruction to analyse this book was becoming harder for the fact that chief's fog and hallucinations were getting better with less time trying to comprehend what was going on with the book. Now on the second part of the book I had to use a more Feminist view point because the rise of McMurphy versus nurse Ratchet. Which is a broken man versus a woman in charge which at this time period was weird because women were not the type to get huge lead role jobs or even take care of the man it was for sure the other way around but now ken flips that portrail of women around in the book.The plays in Broadway are very descriptive and show exactly what Chief is viewing and its almost like a movie on how well it is acted out. The rest of the book i'm hoping will make me use a different lens for a new view point of the subject.
I chose to write about Walter Kerr’s essay called ...And the Young Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In this essay he speculates why some many young people are at the play version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, put on by Dale Wasserman. He believes that the reason for all these young people being at the play is that they can relate to the idea of the combine. The young people can see how the Nurse is trying to control all the patients and they relate it to their own world. They see it as society trying to take their self identity and uniqueness aways from them. I would have to agree with Kerr’s theory. The fear for the combine is very much so held by young people rather than older people. Older people, for the most part, have gotten past the combine and have established themselves as themselves already. But, most young people have yet to do so and this seems a daunting task to most. Many young people may have started the process and can recognize the path that they are on is the very same one as the one that the characters in the play are on. They can also recognize the ever present oppressor in the form of Nurse Ratched, the seemingly unstoppable force of assimilation and control. The author also makes clear that Kesey was not the first to address the subject. He cites Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Sirens of Titan, a book that contains a similar construct of all powerful machines that make our every move, to the combine of The One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This goes to show that the desire to preserve one’s identity and uniqueness is very apparent in society in the past and in the present.
Schroeder pd. 6
I read Walter Kerr’s insight, “..And The Young Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”. Kerr makes it evident that the audience that attends the play are composed of early teens, and early twenties at the eldest. Kesey who wrote the book and Wasserman who wrote the play did not intend for audience to be that young. Kerr made a point to me while reading that the con of having a younger audience is that they take away points from the play that were not intended by the author. He agrees about Nurse Ratched not wanting to heal the patients but the therapy was to determine whether they are permanent or not. The audience of the play act differently to Randle McMurphy’s reactions to Nurse Ratched then they would have liked them to react. He notices that they are laughing at the play and that they do not realize the underlying messages within the “comedy” of the film. Kerr prefers the Kesey written version over the Wasserman version of a play. Kerr and I both agree on this theory because some of the people that attend the plays get caught up in the atmosphere and humor and the younger audience do not get the main point of the play or what the actors are saying. Lastly, when Kerr goes into detail about Nurse Ratched he says; “Nurse Ratched isn’t human,” and “She is herself a computer. And she is all-powerful.” I agree with Kerr here with the quotes he had in the article I read because it is not human like to not care about other humans well being. In this case her own patients and their mental state. A lot of Walter Kerr’s opinions in “.. And The Young Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” were very similar to my own about the book, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
Jacob Meyer Pd.2
In Irving Malin’s essay KEN KESEY: ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, the author discusses looking at this book by Kesey with idea of New American Gothic lens in mind. This lens at Malin says “disrupts our ‘rational’ world view...it gives us violent juxtapositions, distorted vision, even prophecy”. This style of literature also shows “‘unnatural’ self-love and a disintegration of order.” Gothic is also poetic with its imagery to create the grim fashion that is gothic.
Malin says one of the themes is compulsive design. Nurse Ratched as described by is Chief Bromden is an authoritarian. To combat the nurse, the author brings in McMurphy. This man totally disrupts Nurse Ratched’s system. He irritates the Nurse Ratched’s order by not doing his job, breaking a window, having outrageous demands, and “corrupting” the other patients. Unfortunately, the combine-the thing that created the order by pushing people through a “mold” to make everyone uniform-gets a hold of McMurphy.
Malin also states that in traditional gothic stories there are normally haunted houses, violent journeys, and distorted reflections; in Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey choose not to elaborate to greatly on these elements. There was no “monster” which makes this novel more realistic, allowing readers to connect more. Gothic literature is normally in microcosm, little world, which Kesey says true by having this story take place in the hospital.
Kesey embodied Gothic literature in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. He created a storied that has the creepiness of a gothic writing while adding his own creative twist to it. It makes perfect sense that gothic literature shows “disintegration of order” because Cuckoo’s Nest embodies it with McMurphy’s fight against Nurse Ratched and the Combine. Cuckoo’s Nest disrupts our “rational” view of the world and shows us an insane asylum filled with Nurse Ratched’s corruption.
I chose to read the “Glimpses of Postlobotomy Personalities” by Mary Frances Robinson and Walter Freeman I was intrigued by the similar ways each of these patients came out of their lobotomy surgery. Patients seemed to have similar problems when they were introduced back into what they were used to doing. A lack of motivation was something that each had trouble with so much so that most could not go back to their previous job and the person who did return to their job now did their work with less articulation and work that was below average and they seemed content with these results. The way that these people who were so different before their surgery and now could be nearly the same reminded me of the combine that Chief Bromden sees the people being run through it and not being able to leave until the people are the same. In the book the chronics would be the ones that would be targeted for a lobotomy due to not being changed by the therapies in the hospital. When reading the book time seems to almost stop or not exist other than when they are woken up and put to sleep and the TV incident. Patients who went through a lobotomy did not keep on time due to a lack of awareness to it. Those in the hospital seem to know they are there for treatment and still, for the most part, live the way they want to. This sense of detachment was also seen in the lobotomy patients, after their surgery they felt no need to please their employers or when they failed something they had been working on they showed no disappointment. McMurphy, though not crazy, is similar to a lobotomy patient because he enjoys arguing as do lobotomy patients neither feel remorse about what they say either.
In the “Letter to the Editor of The New York Times”, Marcia L. Falk wrote about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through a feminist lens. Falk tells us about how shocked she was at the show, claiming she was never warned about the “blatant sexism I was to witness onstage”. She finally raised the question “Why is Nurse Ratched, the omnipotent, omni-malevolent villain of the play, a woman?” Every woman is the play is portrayed as a “demonic figure” and they display a false pretense of their power over men. The idea was to challenge institutions such as prisons, mental hospitals, and the Federal Government, but never does it challenge racist and sexist stereotypes. In fact, “if a woman is not totally mindless, she is a direct threat to (male) life”. Falk says the best example of this is with Chief Bromden’s mother. She has grown to twice Chief’s size and has made him and his father small. Chief's mother is a symbol of white racism and destruction. In all, there are no positive female figures because they are either cruel or mindless. Strong, positive male figures are lacking as well because the one hero in the story (McMurphy) is essentially a bully. Falk also tells us how much this play would affect a young girl, since she views only two ways in which she can grow up to be: cruel or mindless. In conclusion, Ken Kesey hats and fears women.
I agree with what Falk says about her view through a feminist lens on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Every woman in this book is viewed negatively, whether they are heartless or mindless. Kesey does a good job challenging conformity and the institutions, but he does not challenge racism and sexism, rather he promotes it. Other than the females crushing males, especially of color, the males are not viewed positively as well. Their lack of strength makes them less capable and in McMurphy’s case, his bullying causes a negative view for the reader as well.
In their article, Noyes and Kolb describe the benefits, possible side effects, and proper procedure for Electroconvulsive Therapy. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Electroconvulsive Therapy was administered to the Acutes in Nurse Ratched’s ward occasionally and to Disturbed patients on a regular basis. For people like Harding, the therapy was relatively painless and did seem to benefit his behavior, but for McMurphy and Chief Bromden, the procedure proved to be of little use. The article also claimed that patients with prolonged schizophrenia receive little benefit from treatment and also that the treatment can be given 25 to 30 times after the five to ten treatments that have the best results. In the novel, Harding claimed that Chief Bromden has had to undergo 200 sessions of Electroconvulsive Therapy, far beyond what should be administered to any person, let alone an individual who is virtually immune to the treatment. The shock therapy if anything put more stress onto Chief Bromden, which explains his comparison of the bird in the window to an air raid (I believe that the book should better depict just what he went through in World War II) and that the technician already knew that the aides would have to forcibly put Chief into the restraints. The article brings insight as to whom the treatment is most effective on and how frequently an individual should be put into an induced seizure; the hospital clearly did not follow the advice of this paper, for Noyes and Kolb dictate that if patients appear to be unchanged after the first five to ten sessions, further treatment is not to be administered. McMurphy was given shock therapy three times while Chief Bromden was in Disturbed, and the number of times McMurphy was shocked after he left is unknown to the audience, but he was shocked more than what was necessary. In conclusion, I believe that the staff’s authority to administer Electroconvulsive Therapy went unchecked in the hospital. The staff were giving the ‘treatment’ too frequently and to the wrong patients. Fortunately, this technique is now obsolete. It is a shame that so many people had to suffer from this therapy, but doctors have learned from their mistakes, and administer better treatment.
Nick Rise Pd 2
The literary critic I chose to read about was named James E. Miller, JR. He is an American scholar who served as chairman of the English department at the University of Chicago. He has written some of his own works, but it would seem a lot of his work has to do with literary theory and analyzing honorable authors and their novels. Miller mentions that in a book about a serious topic, usually a topic that is hard to be discussed, that it is important to sprinkle in bits and pieces of comic relief. He used the words "to be the ingredients of a kind of comedy of outrage, often hilarious." Specifically he mentions the Catcher in the Rye. Now I have not read this book so I can neither attest nor detest this point, but from I gather of this reading the book seems to be pretty dark so moments in the story that make you laugh can take the strain off these malevolent situations and add moments of relief, comic relief, for the reader. He also mentions The Field of Vision and Ceremony in Lone Tree along with many other novels and stories. He first mentions One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest towards the end.
(My favorite sentence in this is "we read Kesey's Cuckoo's Nest as a paradigm of the predicament of modern man, we find the world a nuthouse." I just really love that sentence and thought I would mention it.)
He says that the patients in the ward tell jokes and make light of certain situations, but in my opinion this is not necessarily "comic relief." The story has dark undertones, but it is not a dark story. The characters are subjugated and believe in macabre scenes and thoughts, but it is very generally an upbeat story. Maybe the jokes made by the characters just give that illusion, or maybe I am the only one who has these thoughts about this novel. The story of course does have moments of extreme seriousness where jokes and lightheartedness are quite needed to relieve the reader, so in that sense I do agree with Miller's claims.
I really enjoyed reading this, Miller is a very intelligent man.
Hannah Paauw Pd 6
Reading and analyzing John A. Barsness literary criticism over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest entitled “Ken Kesey:The Hero In Modern Dress”, made me think deeply about parts of the book I previously skimmed over. In Barsness’s paper he analyzes Kesey’s writing style and characters more than just a single novel. Barsness also focused on Sometimes a Great Notion. I believe that Barsness uses the archetypal lens solely to delineate Kesey’s “heroes” from what one expects when the word hero is mentioned. Focusing on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy is seen as the hero figure. Instead of being tall, muscular, and having the physique that could easily distinguish him as the hero of the story, he is short, has red hair, and many tattoos. Even with these non-commonly heroic features, the readers can identify McMurphy as the hero of the novel with little difficulty right away. In Kesey's other novels using unconventional heroes is common as well. Kesey’s heroes are instead, typical Americans following the American dream. McMurphy is a blue collar man and works hard to get where he is in life. Kesey attempts to break between “European heroes” and American ones. McMurphy has strong beliefs in democracy and his ambition is close to that of Henry Ford or John Rockefeller. He is a more believable and relatable than figures such as Robin Hood. Barsness relates Kesey’s writings to America breaking off from Europe. At the conclusion of Barsness paper he goes into an interesting piece about John Steinbeck's separation of characters with colored hats: white, the hero's; black, the villains; and grey, the people who change sides and aren’t overly loyal to either. Barsness states that Chief is a white hat, the black boys are obviously black hats, and characters such as Dr. Spivey are grey hats and swing depending on influences.
I thought it was very interesting how Barsness related McMurphy to an American hero. The more I thought about it the more it makes sense. He has a strong belief in capitalism and loves gaining money. McMurphy also calls many votes and wants democracy. He did not come from a rich background and does not have typical hero qualities, but he has gone far in life. This shows the mobility of Americans. I also really liked the connection to the differing hat colors. I believe it can help many people better understand not only this book but many others, including novels such as Lord of the Flies.
The brilliant literary criticism written about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that I chose to read was the spectacular one written by Leslie Horst called, “Bitches, Twitches, Eunuchs: Sex-Role Failure and Caricature”. In Horst’s perception of the book, she explains how it appears as if the female characters in the book are represented as lesser figures and gives examples how Kesey compares them to have a womanly look, but none of them contain any woman characteristics. When Nurse Ratched is first introduced in the book, it says how there is “a gust of cold” that enters the room with her. This is basically saying that she is almost a perversion of femininity. Also, Kesey gives more reasons to believe that she is less of a feminine figure by saying she has no possessions that most women would have. For example, on page 4 he says in her purse she has “no compact or lipstick or woman stuff” but only mechanical stuff like “wheels and gears”. After reading most of this literary criticism that Leslie Horst had written about the book, it allowed me to relate to most of the things in the book I was thinking of in my head but may have not said them out loud to anyone. I completely agree with her and it makes a large amount more sense that this book contains multiple examples of feminist or sexist language. When Horst pointed out examples of them like that Nurse Ratched did not contain anything in her purse but items like wheels and gears instead of things “normal” women would carry around such as lipstick or compact. Although, I do not know if I completely wholeheartedly agree with Horst about most of the book containing feminism in it. After all, the entire hospital is run by a woman who also has younger nurses running it with and has the men, if you will, “Imprisoned” at this mental hospital and controls them. Even though there are some things I disagreed with about Horst’s literary criticism she wrote, I do believe it was highly insightful and made me think harder about certain aspects of the book.
Discussion Question Document: Does Kesey suggest that the psychiatric ward is in some ways a reduced image of the world outside the asylum? Should the reader attach some value-- if only in a metaphorical tone-- to Chief Bromden’s notion that both the ward and world are ruled by “The Combine”? I completely agree to the thought of Kesey relating the asylum to the actual “outside” world; it is ludicrous to disagree. Nurse Ratched is a link to what the outside world refers to as the top guns in society: government officials, slimy businessmen. They represent robots who do not think for themselves, just as Nurse Ratched demands the patients on the ard become. She wants them completely under control, just as society wants their citizens manipulates, much like a puppet. Government, according to Kesey, wants people to think they are making their own decisions, but really, the government is just limiting their choices. It reminds me of the famous quote by Ford regarding his new lines of automobiles: “You can have any color of car you want, as long as it is black!”. This is humorous, but when knifed to the ward, it becomes a serious topic. Nurse Ratched controls inmates like Billy Bibbit by slipping in remarks to get them to say the things she wants them to say, such as tattling on other inmates, or spilling personal details about themselves. When people are resistant to such manipulation, they are cast off, just as the inmates were from the normal world,]. They are forgotten, left to be under the abuse of others who are :mentally stronger”, such as the black boys and nurse. I think KEsey actually had a point: today's world is too robotic, and there seems to be less room for creativity the more our society “progresses”.
Clurman wrote about his experience at the play performance of Kesey’s novel. Clurman is blown away by the performance, and rant and raves about the great experience. During the play, the audience laughed, applauded, and even shouted their approvals. Clurman had not previously experienced the story of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest in any form prior to seeing the play, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. This speaks volumes for the narrative being told that even in a play, the story is compelling enough to evoke such strong emotions in the audience. Plays cannot show the inner mental workings of characters, and even with such restrictions, the play was received positively.
Clurman noted a few points of analysis that I missed when finishing the book last night. Billy Bibbit was emotionally attached to his mother, and his self-consciousness associated with wanting to please his mother made him have a permanent stutter. Bibbit was intimidated by his mother and was still a virgin, so McMurphy wants to help Billy. McMurphy has a whore break into the hospital to give Billy his first experience. Nurse Ratched discovers Billy with the whore and scolds him. Billy then replies to the nurse that he is pleased by what happened, without stuttering, He had overcome his stutter, a true show of his increase in confidence. Nurse Ratched says she is given no choice but to tell his mother, whom she is close friends with. Billy retrogressed into stuttering his way through begging the nurse to refrain from telling his mother. In the play, Billy rushed off the stage, and the audience was informed of his suicide. Billy would rather kill himself than live through his mother’s disappointment.
The audience roared with approval in Clurman’s theatre at this positive change in Billy, but is soon saddened by Billy’s death. The audience then cheered soon after Billy’s death when McMurphy attempts to strangle Nurse Ratched; a true roller coaster of emotion. In my initial reading, I missed that Billy did not stutter in saying that he was happy with fornicating with the whore, a turning point in his character.
I found the literary criticism that Walter Kerr wrote on the revised performance of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest intriguing. It was interesting that the crowd was full of younger adults. My preconceived thought would be the crowd would be full of people closer to the age of Kesey himself. The view Kerr had on the book was very similar to mine. He states that the characters in the book were forced to conform. Since they did not conform they were put inside of the mental hospital. While in the hospital the Nurse realized that the people that were supposed to have mental disabilities were in actuality not mentally ill at all or not ill enough to have to be in the hospital. However they were still different so the Nurse forced ideas upon them to make them seem as if they were mentally ill. Even after the patients came to the conclusion that they were ill, they conformed to all of the things the Nurse forced upon them in fear of being turned into a vegetable. I completely agree with Kerr’s view. As a society we are forced to conform to everyone else’s ideas. If we do not conform we are considered weird and a social outcast. We are then forced to conform to other people's ideas of what they should be. When I read this book it reminds me in a way of what Adolf Hitler did to the Jews. Adolf Hitler is Nurse Ratched and the Jews are the patients. Hitler created the false idea that everything was the Jews false. He created problems and blamed them on the Jews when in all actuality they did nothing wrong. He then was trying to force them to conform to be the perfect race and if he did not succeed he killed them. In the same way Nurse Ratched was turning people into vegetables for being different.
I chose to read “Bitches, Twitches, Eunuchs: Sex-Role Failure and Caricature” by Leslie Horst. The author talked about the role of women in the novel and how they were negatively portrayed. Like the author, I also found myself rooting for McMurphy and disliking the nurse until I took a step back and realized how absurd the female character seemed to behave. The author makes it easy for the reader to identify with the male characters, while shunning any female characters or similar traits. The novel is truly a piece of art, but it is important for one to realize the message the book is trying to convey to its audience. This novel is meant to spread the distrust of women and deny them any sense of power or belonging. I fully agree with the author of this article. The women of the novel are not to be trusted, especially the women in positions of power. I think it would be interesting to find out more about the Ken Kesey and why he seems to have a grudge against women. Obviously Ken Kesey was not a fan of the feminist movement.
The roles of women and men almost seem to be switched throughout the novel. Whereas men normally control the positions of power, women are put the mens’ place. It is important to realize that men are not normally criticized for holding powerful jobs, while women seem to receive criticism for holding any sort of power. The characters of the novel force the readers to think deeper about the application of the novel to present day. I do not think that many guys in my literature class would notice that the powerful women of the novel are not portrayed in a positive light. It might seem less obvious to them, since they are not women and haven’t faced the same amount of discrimination. Many believe that the feminist movement should have ended long ago, but I think there is still quite a bit of work to be done.
Mixell 7
I chose to analyze Leslie Horst's "Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs: Sex-role Failure and Caricature", for obvious reasons. The first thing that she mentions as we begins the article is the overcoming of authority that McMurphy accomplishes during the novel. Of course, he pays for the success of overcoming the authority, but I guess you win some you lose some. She also mentions sex-role standards, which this novel does a good "flipping" of. In most examples in today's society, we see women receiving the short end of the stick per say. It seems as if women have to fight men for the equality that each and every one of us deserve. That is why this novel is so interesting when you pick it apart using a feminist lens. Kesey sets up the novel in such a way that it seems perfectly logical that a woman would be in charge. When I think of nurses, I usually think of women having that career. When I picture mental patients, I usually picture men being the ones in that sort of institution. The flip in sex-roles seems perfectly "legal", and unforced. Not to mention Nurse Ratched seems completely devoid of any life that would involve relationship characters. Horst also talks about the role of Bromden's mother in the book. Yet again, we see a completely unforced woman in a role of power. Not only is his mother white, she was the one who had her last name taken from her husband. And her husband is the chief of a tribe. We see such powerful ways in which a woman has taken complete control in the novel and to be honest it is sort of refreshing reading a book in which things are mixed up and flipped about. There is nothing "ordinary" about this book, and it would seem that Kesey is very intricate with how this book was written.
As I examined a few articles written by different theorists, I saw Marcia Falk’s and was excited to see how a woman viewed this novel. She wrote to the editor of The New York Times with much to express. Offended was an underestimation of her reaction to the novel. The amount of sexism hidden in the context is jaw-dropping. Women are obviously the oppressed. They are all depicted as evil and dangerous in every possible way. The only female that isn’t categorized in this group is the Japanese nurse; she isn’t depicted negatively because of her looks and sexual acts that she is supposedly capable of.
I strongly support in Falk’s beliefs about the effects of how women are portrayed in this novel. When she stated how a young girl might feel towards this type of portrayal of women, it made me imagine how different the world would be. I agree with the author that I would not want to allow for a daughter of mine to see this oppression on women. It will only give the girl an idea and belief that all women are furious and disturbing such as all of the women in the novel. This will set the standards low for women, allowing for men to treat them unfairly or however they please. Falk also mentioned how blatantly obvious Ken Kesey’s sexism is. I would say the easier it is to spot it within the context, the more passion they have towards the sexism. Kesey wrote about the wickedness of mothers and the inferiority of wives, which adds to the list of women oppressed in the book. The only other males in the book are the three black boys. And of course it is easy to assume that Kesey is racist with this selection of race.
Peltier 1
I chose to read Horst “Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs: Sex-Role Failure and Caricature.” After reading this I totally agree that this is a male dominant book, without a doubt, but they also as horst states, “Kesey conveys a truncated concept of masculinity.” The evidence that this book is male dominated appeared to me right from the beginning, because all the patients were men the only women in the book was the Nurses. Which leads us to believe that the women are less developed characters, which Horst mentions. Men are usually the ones used to having the most power when we compared the amount of power between males and females. You do not see the United States having a female president in the past years, which could be for the reason that men do not feel comfortable when women have all the power. This relates completely to the men of the ward and their relationship with the Big Nurse. In the book Kesey displays the Big Nurse as containing a lot or most of the power in the ward, which could be why the men in the ward fear her. They have a slight terror of women who have power. Another thing that I notice while reading the book was that when the any of the Nurse’s do anything to stand up for themselves the men automatically classify them as evil. An example of this is when McMurphy tries to attack the Big Nurse. He does this by trying to make her feel vulnerable. He does this by asking very personal questions and making her feel uncomfortable, like asking her bra size, making comments about her size and making crude remarks. Instead of giving in and allowing McMurphy to feel more inpower of her she stands up for herself and treats him like a bad boy in order to regain the power. While reading this I related it to how we all stereotype construction workers as having almost the same characteristics of McMurphy at their job sites. We see this when we good looking woman walks by and they all whistle as her in order to get her attention but when she does not acknowledge them or give them what they want they do a complete 180 and start saying rude comments. How Kesey writes about women could be a bit worrisome for the reason that it could plant the wrong idea in some people's heads. By this I mean after somebody finishes reading the book they might actually agree with all the viewpoints that are displayed, such as women are evil and should not contain more power than men. Rather I believe that all sexes should be equal and that one is not more powerful and that both are capable of performing the same tasks at the same level. These reasons are why I do not agree on the way Kesey chooses to display both sexes in the book.
I decided to read the article by McComb titled “The RPM: Old Testicle, the Book of Genitals” This article was written in the style of the bible, and compared the story of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to the bible. The article starts with McComb comparing the creation story in Genesis to McMurphy creating the asylum. He creates everything from the chronics to Mrs. Ratched. His presence sweeps over everything and creates the setting we know in the book. It then transitions to McMurphy entering the asylum and it describes how he fights against Mrs. Ratched. It tells the story of how they fight back and forth, until it describes how Ratched gives McMurphy a lobotomy and ends his mind. Then it describes how the patients smother him and send his soul back to the void. From there it describes McMurphy returning to his omniscient form and wandering the void.
This is an interesting article because it takes the text of the bible, which is supposed to be this holy and perfect book, to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which is everything but that. It is interesting that McComb picked McMurphy as the God character, since McMurphy is anything but holy. He gets into fights, ‘raped’ a girl, and started the rebellion in the ward, these are things that Jesus (who McMurphy represents in his physical form) would never be seen doing. It offers a pretty cool juxtaposition which makes this a really interesting read. Also the idea of McMurphy creating everything and then coming in later to try and restore order is a cool connection to how some people may view Christianity. It’s saying that God created everything a certain way, but then realized he had screwed up and came to earth is the form of Jesus to fix everything. But in this story, instead of dying for our sins and causing people to be saved, McMurphy died for everyone’s sins but didn’t accomplish anything in the end. Not much changes, and in this story Jesus had died to no end, but he at least tried to. It’s a very interesting take on the book and a very unique way to think about everything.
7 Ullom
I read Walter Kerr’s criticism of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He focused on the “machine” aspect of the novel. Kerr went to watch a play of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and there happened to be many young men and women in the audience. Young meaning teens and early twenties. They seemed to really enjoy the play. They were amused and applauded cheerfully when it concluded. This stirred Walter. He did not understand why they could be so jolly. He reflects on the premise of the book. Nurse Ratched is using her power in the institution to make patients believe they have problems in which they really do not. When McMurphy comes into the institution, he starts to change the way patients think. He in a way helps them to see who they really are. Nurse Ratched then gives him shock therapy to stop his endeavors. When that did not help, she had a lobotomy done on him. This put him in a catatonic state--which is exactly what she wanted of him. Kerr sees Nurse Ratched as somewhat of a robot--not human. She is a powerful character that controls all that happens in the institution. Kerr explains his theory more. McMurphy helps to uncondition the other patients. He does this because Nurse Ratched has been “conditioning” them to believe they need to be institutionalized. By unconditioning the others, McMurphy is helping them to see their identities, which are being taken away by Nurse Ratched. Kerr explains that this could be us. Everyone in society could be susceptible to conditioning, losing their own identities with each passing day. He mentioned this could be why the young people at the play were so amused. Maybe they believe they are already manipulated. That they do not know what the system is capable of so they do not want to fight it. I find Kerr’s ideas interesting. While reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, these thoughts never crossed my mind. It makes me think about the world around me. Are we being manipulated by some force of society that could be taking away our identities?
There were plenty of brilliant literary criticism written about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Out of the many, I chose to read The Forces of Fear: Kesey Anatomy of insanity by Annette Benert. This literary criticism is based upon the topic of fear. Fear is a word not talked about among the patients at the ward, but strongly showed through Chief Bromden point of view. The Forces of Fear: Kesey Anatomy of Insanity shows the human nature of fear. Everyone fears something at one point; It is human nature. It is when people prey on the fear of others that problems begin to occur. Nurse Ratched uses her dominance and hatred to fear on the patients at the ward. Everyone in this novel fears something, and that is what got them to where they are. “Every man among them is scared of his own shadow.” Chief Bromden comes to conclusion of his own fears- fear of blacks, fear of whites, fear of women, and fear of machines. Annette Benert talks about the many fears of Chief Bromden, and that his biggest fear of them all is fear of machines. His fear of machine has to do with his childhood, and the way he lost his childhood due to machines. He had everything he ever wanted: a great dad, a happy place to stay, and great fishing trips, until the whites took everything away from them with their need for machines. It also talks about the other characters fears, Harding with his fear of sexuality, and Billy with his fear of his mother. Everyone fears something, including McMurphy, but everyone has a different ways of conquering their fears. As well as everyone may need a bump to conquer their fears. McMurphy does that for all the other patients at the ward. Because of McMurphy; Chief Bromden, Billy, Harding, and others have gained confidence and conquered their fears. That is the main topic in the book as well as in Annette Benert brilliant criticism.
While reading Annette Benert’s “The Forces of Fear: Kesey’s Anatomy of Insanity”, the first paragraph of her insights intrigued me. She begins by discussing dragons, American psychic life, and ancient mythology and how they seem to relate to this widely discussed novel. Annette says dragons are a special American breed and their lairs are in our own heads, which deals greatly with the novel because of everything going on in the patient’s heads. Benert continues to say how American psychic life is at play as well with the fear of women, fear of machine, and glorification of the hero who conquers them all---which has to be McMurphy. Written in this article, Annette touches on how we, the audience, are given the complete reckoning only of Chief Bromden’s private misery. We see everything through Bromden’s point of view. And being he has paranoid schizophrenia, it is difficult to decipher if everything is what it seems during the novel. “It was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see anything at all” (198). When Chief says this, it’s sad to hear someone say something of that magnitude. To feel so small and insignificant compared to the world around you, would be close to unbearable. Staying in a ward for close to a decade and pretending to be “deaf and dumb”, makes one really wonder what he must have went through. Madame Benert puts numerous intellectual quotes in her criticism writing. While she talks about the conversation between McMurphy and Chief Bromden discussing size and how Chief used to be big, but not no more. Benert puts Bromden’s thoughts of Miss Ratched in her writing and says to Bromden, Miss Ratched is the incarnate fusion of all of all his fears of women and machines. She seems a machine impervious to others, destructive in her force, omnipotent in her control.
Rasmussen 2
In Walter Kerr’s literary criticism of the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kerr takes the perspective on the way the teenage people took the novel, or in his case the play. He thought that the teenage members that were watching the play took more of a comic effect away from the play. When really, the whole novel/play is very sad and has more meaning to it then what the teenagers could take from the play. Coming from being a teenager in this day and age I think that his look at that is completely true, you cannot deny that fact. Teenagers tend to look at things in more of a funny way simply because they are teenagers, and either they do not want to think hard at what a novel/play is really meaning, or they do not have the intellectual capabilities yet. Being literature is a class that is available for high school students, the belief that more teenagers are looking deeper and deeper into the true meaning of books, movies, poetry, plays, and music is becoming beloved and prominent. That is mainly for those students though, that want to open up their minds to see what is really underneath the words they read or the lights off the screen. Teenagers need to learn that they should want to find the deeper meaning of things, to help them see the novels and movies in a different light, but also their life in general. I agree completely that teenagers should pay more attention to the true meaning of things so they can feel more, be more, and do more. I felt that Kerr meant the same thing in his criticism of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Kerr also saw that way before the time we are in now and it really has not changed too much from when he mentioned it in his criticism.
After finally completing the book "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", I now have a complete understanding of why Marcia L. Falk calls this book sexist. She is a feminist theorist and has explained to me in her excerpt of why the book is overly sexist indeed. The only women in this novel are either the overbearing mother, the easy prostitute, the timid assisting nurse, or the insanely domineering nurse. These types of women are positively not the only types of women on this Earth. These are negative, stereotypical ideas of what women are like, when it is extremely arrogant to use only these types of women to say the least. Of course there are women out there who are like this, but there are also men who are just as bad or behave even worse than these women do. Plus there is McMurphy who dominates the crowd of men because he can be with any women he wants. This gives the 'rabbits' something to look forward to when they leave the insane asylum; McMurphy turned all the rabbits into men by degrading women and their bodies. Not all women will go around and have sex with whatever men is available. Ken Kesey must have been afraid of women when he wrote this book, because it shows how he thinks about them. There were no female patients or any role played by a female that was showing positivity at all. Falk discussed the way each and every women in this book was demeaned in some way. The big nurse was a bully and made the institution corrupt. One of the small Nurses in the book was actually terrified of McMurphy, thus showing how dumb and silly women are stereotyped to be, when in actually McMurphy was overstepping his boundaries. Also, Chief Bromden's mother was a sexist symbol in the novel because she wouldn't take a last name by Chief's father, and she grew twice his size because she was white, and the power of the government didn't shrink her size down like his fathers due to the simple fact of skin color. This book was completely sexist now that I read Falk's excerpt and it becomes obvious after retaining her thoughts. I believe with almost everything Falk had to say and I respect her opinions and am surprised I didn't realize how sexist it truly was beforehand.
I read the Letter to the Editor written by Marcia L. Falk. This letter was very interesting to read. I saw the points the author was making and she had very valid points. The question itself was one which I never really asked myself. I suppose It seemed like the main antagonist nurse had to be a female to rationale the emasculation which is done through the entire book. A male just wouldn’t have the same impact to the reader. There are in fact two kinds of women in the book (and play in the case of the letter). There is the evil and dominating female like Mrs. Ratched, some of the other patients’ mothers, and Bromden’s mother. Then there are the stereotypically female women who are scared of everything, and lack intelligence. This category includes the young nurse who is afraid of McMurphy, as well as the prostitutes who come into the novel. I am not sure if I agree that this is an unforgivable offense by Kerr. He did seem to have a problem with women based off of this. However, he was trying to add humor to the novel to drive the point that the novel itself is turning very scary topics into jokes. The main characters need to be dominated and emasculating men is an effective main theme to use since it is such a socially unacceptable thing. The extra women are added to be giggly, silly females to break tension. Adding men instead wouldn’t have been as effective a choice since they could have been paralleled to the main characters themselves and taken from the message as a whole. The final message given by Falk that the message the play is giving to young women is wholly negative is a mute point in my mind. To see the underlying message and wholly understand it would take quite a bit of free thinking. Anyone who is capable of that is also capable of making decisions for themselves. They don’t need to take the message as truth. They should be able to see the way women were used as opposites for the men and not that they are entirely stupid or evil.
I read the article by Marcia L Falk. She goes into detail about how much sexism is displayed throughout the entire novel and throughout the play. She explains that the play displays a greater amount than the novel does. She also explains the racism within the novel. I didn’t notice these small, yet important details until she brought them to my attention. I agree with her views on how sexist the book is. Throughout the entire novel, women are viewed as evil, or nothing. They are never viewed as necessary or important, but instead as power holders in an evil way. They are used as torture and as objects to the men. Many men fear women throughout the novel, because they are not seen or portrayed as good. The women are basically viewed as demonic figures, holding their power over the men. Chief’s mother is a good example of this: she has turned his father into a small, fragile, and scared man. She has grown to twice his size. Every man in the book and play has been psychologically hurt by a woman. Towards the end of her article, she says that Nurse Ratched is a woman because Kesey hates and fears women. This was quite interesting to me, the more I thought about it, the more sense that made. Racism throughout the book is also prevalent. The only “good” people in the novel were non-white folks in a way. The Mexican who picks up Chief, the Japanese nurse, and Chief’s father. Although society views them as nothing, Kesey doesn’t He does degrade the black aides throughout the novel. They come across as uneducated and unimportant. Nurse Ratched uses them and makes them feel needed in order to manipulate them into doing what she wants. She is the only one who gives them a chance during the time period. I enjoyed reading what Falk had to say about the novel and play because of how much insight she gave me.
Rohrbach 1
Jack F. McComb wrote about McMurphy as though he was God and the book was the Bible. He uses puns, such as using Genitals instead of Genesis, as though Mac is obsessed with sexuality. Since McComb seems to acknowledge McMurphy’s most sinful trait, I wonder why he chose to keep McMurphy as the God-like figure. At first he says that Mac was heaven, the asylum, and all was Mac and came from Mac. Mac had control on all but the Combine, which was controlled by the Big Nurse. McComb writes about the major plot of the book with biblical style text, comparing every character to some aspect of the Bible. Tabor is like John the Baptist. The Big Nurse is like the Devil with her many workers, who are like demons. The twelve people from the asylum, who went with Mac on the fishing trip, are like the twelve disciples that followed Jesus Christ and were considered “fishers of men”.
I find it interesting that McComb was able to find several similarities between this book and the Bible. Obvious connections were not written down, like the silver crown of thorns, while most other ones were written. I cannot understand what McComb’s point was, but it seems clear to me that he wanted to show the book as a twisted version of the Bible. It is possible that he wanted to show that society has skewered and twisted everything, even something considered holy and pure. I think this is the most appealing thought I can form about why McComb wrote this, since this would have been an amazing and creative way to express this thought. It is a thought that I think even Kesey would have enjoyed, since his novel seems to be completely against society and how it negatively impacts people.
Blok 7
The article that I read was about a man named Walter Kerr who attended a One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest play. When he walked into the play he noticed that all who were attending were about his age. He began to watch the play, and was drawn in by it along with the thrall of younger adults sitting with him. They all were drawn in by the play because they all began to relate to what was occurring in the play. Every one of them realized that in this play the characters were viewed as robots with programmed responses. This young group of teenagers realized that they too were too robotic, and started to applaud with more passion and pride when they realized the characters were challenging the robotic ways they were forced into. I can’t help but sort of understand what they must have been feeling. Even now we live in a society that tries to mold us a certain way, that wants us to conform and be “normal”. Normal is completely objective to me and I feel as though normal is boring and variety is what people begin to crave, especially the younger community. They feel the need to break out, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest seemed to grab these inner feelings of the young adults and bring them to the surface where they felt the energy of challenging the system. They all felt the fear and exhilaration of challenging the status quot. They began to see what was possible instead of what they had been taught. They felt together. Like one big family, a group fighting for a cause, a group that could change the world. I almost begin to feel the need just thinking about what these young adults had experienced. They experienced a life altering phenomena by viewing this one play. This is what Kesey meant to have happen, and is the reason I personally think he decided to write this novel.
Finch 1
Looking at the list, I chose to read "Bitches, Twitches, and Eunuchs." The name stood out to me and I'm glad I read it. In the article, Leslie Horst describes the sexuality, masculinity, and femininity of the novel, as well as explore some of the underlying themes portrayed in Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Immediately, by her eye catching title, it was clear to me what her intentions were to be in the article. She would undoubtedly be describing the sexism that takes place in the writing of the novel. Honestly, I really can not blame her. The novel is incredibly sexist in the favor of men. Upon reading the book, this was almost instantly instilled within me. All of the patients were male, and the only female that was told of was the most undesirable despicably evil woman you could imagine. Worse yet, that woman felt the need to suppress her sexuality and gender in the form of covering her large breasts with clothing; Kesey made it look as though the fact that she was a woman made her the antagonist. In the article, Horst brings up knowledgeable, valid points. Literally except for one friendly nurse, every female portrayed in the book appear to have a negative aspect in one way or another. Two are prostitutes (whom Horst does not feel acted in a realistic manner), for starters. That is hardly noble or admirable. And then of course there is Nurse Ratched, the controlling, cruel head nurse with an overwhelming lust for power over the men. Leslie confirms these views and observations when she notes, delicately, "The portraits of the four women just discussed are almost uniformly negative, for these women are all bitches." The one female in this book who is not either inherently evil or a prostitute is the Japanese nurse in the Disturbed ward, who is featured in the novel for maybe about three pages at most. Furthermore, even she displays the slightly sexist role of caretaker of the men. The sad part about this is that although it may be less prevalent than it was, this veriety of typical good ol' American sexism is rather common in literature, movies and other forms of media. As I finished the novel, I could only hope Kesey wrote it in the manner he did in an attempt to get his audience thinking about how sexist it was, rather than it being simply how he believed it would actually have happened.
Walter Kerr begins his criticism by asking himself why the young generation is so enthralled by this book, which he says is as conventional as Butterflies Are Free, a romantic comedy. After attending several plays Walter Kerr notices that the audience for one flew over the cuckoos nest is almost entirely composed of the very young, teenagers, and people in their early 20s-- not people from the same age group as Ken Kesey, who wrote the novel, or Dale Wasserman, who made a play of it.
Being in an auditorium surrounded by young kids Kerr could not help notice everyone's overall impression of nurse ratched, the main oppressor in the novel. While Kerr is asking himself questions about her such as “where did she get her power” and “what is her main motive”, no one else is. It seemed that everyone felt oppressed by nurse Ratched because they were on Mcmurphey’s side. He pointed out the the younger people tend to side with the underdogs, not the authority, simply because they are not the authority.
I mostly agree with Walter Kerr’s ideas on young minds. I think that just like the patients in the novel, kids will always feel misunderstood and mistreated. This is probably because at a young age our brains are not completely developed and often filled with emotion and angst. On another note, I think that Ken Kesey and Dale Wasserman (play writer), were in fact writing to target young people specifically, and that is where I disagree with Walter Kerr. In my opinion, the most interesting and uplifting books and plays are targeted towards young people.
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