Ken Kesey And One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

3 Pages 829 Words

Ken Kesey had written many books after the classic novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” but is best known for this work. (www.emptymirrorbooks.com) Ken Kesey was born in 1935, a time of racial turmoil and sexual discrimination. This affected the tone of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. There is racism in the ward where McMurphy’s is held. The character in control of the psychiatric ward is Nurse Ratched, who oversees everything and everyone. She is not viewed as a woman sexually by the male patients and, therefore, she holds power over them as a male in charge would. The white male patients, although they cannot live in society, hold power over the Black Boys because they are white. The Black Boys must clean after and take care of the patients, including giving them showers. Down at the bottom of the control is Chief. The Black Boys take their hatred of society and personal frustrations out on Chief Bromden, as he is half Native American and considered beneath them. We see this numerous times in the book, including how Americans could not understand Native American culture, “Can you imagine people wanting to live this way.” (p. 199) Power struggle, due to race and gender, coincides with the culture of Ken Kesey’s time. During the 1930’s, white Americans held power, African Americans were considered lower and Native Americans held the bottom of the totem pole position.
Harmonizing with the time of sexual discrimination, Ken Kesey’s gender played a role on the theme of the book which was the war of the sexes. Women in power, is thus the castration to men and an end to there rule, “If she can’t cut below the belt, she’ll do it above the eyes.” (p. 180) Evidence to this also supported that with Chief’s mother because she was white and “Much Bigger” then his father, which destroyed him. Also, Billy Bibbit’s controlling mother led to his suicide at just the thought of her disappointment. ...