by george chavez

Created on: July 07, 2008

There are several intimidating female characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. It is interesting to note that he made them key to the center plot of this book. Why would he do so and was it really necessary?

Of course Nurse Ratched was integral to the main theme and denouement of the entire story. She was a symbol of control by a person in a position of power. She eventually made a square peg fit into a round hole. If the person in this role had been made a male would that have changed the flavor of this story?

There are other female characters in the story that were also intimidating. The underling nurse was compliant with the tyranny and control of Nurse Ratched. She was complicit in carrying out the passive/aggressive treatment the suffering patients were literally forced to undergo. And there was the controlling manipulative wife of one of the patients. It was hinted that she had been the cause of his hospitalization by systematically destroying his maleness and confidence. She also made him feel guilty about it.

One suffering patient had mother issues. Apparently she made him so helpless and defenseless that he could not cope with life in society. It was intimated that she was a powerful, controlling, intimidating mother who dominated his way of thinking and feeling.

Nurse Ratched battled the free-spirited McMurphy for control of their little patch of the universe. He was a brightly burning candle in the dark world she had created. She bore down on him like a slow moving heavy bulldozer until she ultimately ground him out. He fought her every inch of the way with all the weapons he had but in the end she had more firepower.

Ken Kesey must have had some reason for portraying these female characters in such a negative way. The way he depicted them made them seem truly despicable and caught up in an evil that was their own creation and not foist upon them. There was no way out for either Ratched or McMurphy. Neither could quit because they had anted too much of themselves into this 'game'. Kesey masterfully wove this confrontation toward an ultimate ending. He could have let McMurphy win but the point of his story would have been weakened.

There were no redeeming values associated with Nurse Ratched except perhaps that she was married to her need to control. She believed in its necessity despite any situation which may have contrived to control it.
Maybe Kesey meant that the good guy does not always win but that the battle is sometimes glorious to wage.

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