Male, Female, and beyond Gender: An Analysis of One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest - Essay Example

?Male, Female, and Beyond Gender: An Analysis of “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” True to its setting, Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest presents a chaotic portrayal of our society as a world of madness, where gender is stereotyped to assign specific roles and grant us individual characters, such that men and women are expected to adhere to their respective “masculine” and “feminine” nature. In the novel, however, these traditional gender roles are reversed in a male mental ward where women become the power figures who control male patients. With this scenario, emasculation of men is highlighted as a way of maintaining order in the mental institution. As such, this paper aims to present the ongoing transformation of gender roles in our present-day society as characterized in Kesey’s novel. It intends to show that the reverse portrayal of gender roles in the book is a foreseeable possibility based on what is happening in our society, where gender rights movement is currently gaining ground. At the time of its publication in the 1960s, the book serves as a reaction to the civil rights and second wave feminist movement occurring all over America. Alongside these social movements is the propagation of drug culture in the country. According to Prancl (2004), the novel is best understood if comparison will be made between the society’s attitude on sexuality in the 1960s and today. To present this, the traditional roles of both men and women will first be presented, with reference to the characters in the novel. Then, the reversal of these gender roles will be depicted through societal observations of the current gender and sexual liberation movements. Through this depiction, we will be able to understand the predictive ideas that the author is trying to convey in the novel. I. Traditional Gender Role of Women in the Book  Women, as characterized in the novel, are seen in two broad categories: either as cold and manipulating females or dumb and naive ladies. The big nurse, known as Ms. Ratched, represents those who are mean and unsympathetic to the plight of male characters in the ward. On the other hand, the easygoing girls like Candy and Sandy, embodies those who are easily manipulated by men like McMurphy. These types of characters present two extreme views of women – stereotyping them as mean and easy. In the novel, Ms. Ratched, Mrs. Bibbit, and Vera Harding are characterized as “ball cutters” who emasculate men through manipulation of power. Mrs. Harding’s way of belittling her husband’s sexuality reveals his utmost weakness which motivated him to finally submit himself in a mental facility. Mrs. Bibbit exerts her power over his son Billy by preventing him to grow up and eventually turning him over to Ms. Ratched, the head nurse at the Oregon asylum facility. Ultimately, nurse Ratched maintains her authority in the mental ward by suppressing the patient’s laughter and subjecting them to invasive psychiatric therapy whenever her authority is undermined. Interestingly, these negative portrayals of females who control the lives of man are not new. In fact, traditional societies have placed ‘caution’ on the power of women to tempt and trick men into destruction. The most prominent account of this story is the The Fall of Man which heavily influenced the historical shift to patriarchal society where women are placed in subordinate status to men. To pacify the ‘evil’ qualities of women, they are assigned to traditional roles in the house such as cooking, cleaning, sewing, and bearing children. Women are also deprived of their right to vote, to get an education, and participate in politics. In the novel, the dangers of women characters are explicitly personified in the lives of a nurse, mother, and wife. Meanwhile, the other perception of a female character is recognized as naive and easily manipulated by men. These women, who are treated as men’s sexual objects, are embodied in the character of Sandy and Candy who are McMurphy’s ‘girlfriends’. They are often showed as wild, dumb, and easy. Interestingly, while going over the book, it can be noted how these girls can be considered as good girls because they played the role as an accomplice to the sexual liberation of male mental patients, especially that of Billy Bibbit’s. Their roles as whores are celebrated by McMurphy and other sexually deprived characters such as the jail guard Mr. Turkle. Again, the subordination of women in traditional society is rooted on the idea that some girls can be treated lowly as sex objects whose role is only to satisfy men. This portrayal of woman once again contributed to their traditional role of adhering to social conducts where they are expected to be conservative and submissive towards men. II. Traditional Gender Role of Men in the Book  Men, as portrayed in the novel, were clearly deprived from freedom inside a mental institution. However, despite being under women’s control, their depiction as physically strong characters enabled them to assert their bodily power in order to dominate their surroundings. For instance, McMurphy, being the main character, is charged of statutory rape, exerting his dominance over a 15 year old girl. With this, it is no wonder why his attitude towards women at the ward is marred by contempt. All throughout the film, McMurphy resorts to name-calling in identifying women as “ball cutters” and “iron maiden”. He also treats her willing girl friends as sexual objects for the men at the ward. McMurphy’s role in the book is to challenge the status quo in the mental institution through acts of rebellion and spreading the influence of masculinity. It must be noted that the men inside the mental facility turned themselves voluntarily because they are unable to perform their traditional role in the outside world. As such, they are labeled instead as “sly and frightened and elusive” because they failed to perform their traditional manly functions, such as being the dominant husband (Dale Harding) and independent son (Billy Bibbit). To McMurphy, this is an unacceptable scenario and so, he tries his best to bring back the dominance and control of men in his surroundings. Towards the end of the film, McMurphy is finally able to unleash his true strength and power over nurse Ratched by strangling her and exposing her breasts to reveal her as the lesser sex. McMurphy just could not accept how Billy Bibbit gave up on himself because a woman ruled his life. However, the display of physical strength is not only found in McMurphy’s character but also in the narrator, Chief Bromden. The native-American, who pretends to be deaf-mute, once asserted his strength over Washington, one of the African-American aides in the ward. Although Chief claims that he is not as “big” as McMurphy, he achieves his real triumph by showing an ultimate act of friendship when he ends the potential suffering of McMurphy. At the end of the story, Chief symbolically exhibits a male’s physical strength by lifting the hydrotherapy console and launching it into the window to symbolize his freedom and triumph over the control of women inside the mental ward. In this way, Chief Bromden was able to demonstrate an act which McMurphy attempted to accomplish, to which he proudly uttered, “But I tried goddammit. At least I did that". With these acts by male characters in the novel, men are affirmed to have the physical strength and still remain his potential to break free from the subtle domination of women. III. Women are Becoming like Men in Our Society As depicted in the novel, there is the pervading idea of the reversal of gender roles wherein women are playing the part of men in traditional society and vice versa. Interestingly, it is not difficult to entertain this scenario in our modern-day setting. In recent years, in America and some countries around the world, people are witnessing the drastic change in women’s roles through feminist movements that cry for equality and representation of women in different sectors of society. The privileges which were once enjoyed by men are now accorded to women. These include giving them the right to vote, obtain education, and participate in the government. Women are no longer expected to stay at home and do the household chores. They are now expected to work and take jobs which were previously accorded to men. For instance, in the US, majority of the workforce is composed of women and many of them hold now managerial positions (Rosin, 201). This means that women are also capable to bring large paycheck into the family. Moreover, women leaders have already emerged in politics and government. Also, in universities, demographics present a 50% female population in classrooms. More and more women also now opt to delay having kids or simply choose not having to have them at all so that they could focus on their careers. With these changes happening in the society, it is worth noting that male dominance is losing grip in our present set-up. Just like the scenario being portrayed in the book, the unprecedented reversal of role in the society can potentially give rise to total female domination. IV. Men are Becoming like Women in Our Society  With women taking on what is traditionally viewed as a more “masculine” role in society, men are also likely to become women. Having said this, it is important to observe how men have changed overtime. Nowadays, it can be observed how the concepts of “metrosexuality” and “sensitive new age guy” have landed into our vocabulary. It now defined men as acquiring feminine qualities which were once accorded to females or displaying feminine emotions of empathy. For instance, some males are now accustomed to adopt the grooming habits of females. A proof to this is the growing demand for grooming products which are specifically made and marketed for men customers who opt to have softer skin and develop a more polished looks. On the other hand, when it comes to household responsibility, the roles of men have drastically changed compared to what they are in the 1970s. According to Buckingham (2009), nowadays, men have the choice to stay at home even longer and assume the chief caregiver role—this happens in 40 percent of U.S. households, either through choice or circumstance (in 40 percent of U.S. households, the woman is the primary wage earner). This example shows that the people is no longer adhering to the notion that our society is a “man’s world”. In the novel, this reversal of gender roles is depicted in the weaknesses of male characters in the mental ward. For McMurphy, this scenario had been horrendous for him because it leads to reverse domination and power which women nurses are exercising over male patients. In many ways, men are becoming women because the struggle for equality is over and running. V. Reversal of Gender Roles and its Implications Through comparison between the traditional and modern-day society, we are able to look at the reversal of gender assignment as society progresses from industrial to post-industrial setting. This makes Ken Kesey’s novel a predictive assumption of the reverse domination of women over men. The author is well-ahead of his time in noting the possibility of this scenario, when at the time, civil rights and feminist movements were starting to hold ground. Indeed, the endpoint for the struggle for women’s rights and equality has come to an end and so, the unprecedented reversal of gender roles can eventually transform in another form of reverse inequality. The ongoing trend of reversal of gender roles signifies that perhaps the postindustrial is better suited to women and perhaps, in time; we can expect cultural repercussions to this scenario. Ken Kesey was able to have a clear picture of what the reversal of gender role will look like overtime – for him, setting it in the chaotic world of a mental ward is simply the right scenario. Works Cited Buckingham, Marcus: ”Why Men Are Becoming More Like Women”. December 14th 2009. Web. Accessed October 19th 2011. Fischer, Jerilyn & Ellen S. Silber: “Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender”. Connecticut: Greenwood Pulishing Group, 2003. Print Kesey, Ken: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. New York, Viking Press 1962. Penguin Classics, 2005. Print. Rosin, Hanna: ”The End of Men”. Atlantic Magazine July/August 2010. Web October 19th 2011. Read More