Abuse In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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Normalizing Abuse Sexuality and power play important roles in both sanity and insanity. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey demonstrates this complicated relationship through the development of his characters. Chief Bromden, a schizophrenic patient, narrates life in a mental institution with a power hungry Nurse controlling every move. Readers are then introduced to Randle McMurphy who challenges the ward’s organization leading to a power struggle and cycle of abuse between him and Nurse Ratched. The power struggle, abuse, and absurd systems mirror many aspects of rape culture in current society. The normalization of rape culture ostracizes victims of assault, teaches women and young girls that their choices about their bodies are …show more content…
Society teaches males that their only way to be “a real man” is to be overly masculine and dominate over women. Men who don’t feel powerful enough in their own lives often resort to rape to restore masculinity. Nicholas Groth described this trend in disclosing that "careful clinical study of offenders reveals that rape is in fact serving primarily nonsexual needs. It is the sexual expression of power and anger" (2). By forcing men to be symbols of power in order to feel validated, we are inadvertently giving them motivations to rape. This need for power is very similar to the power struggle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched in the novel. The power struggle had been building up between the two when finally McMurphy “grabbed for her and ripped her uniform all the way down the front” until eventually, it ended with “doctors and supervisors and nurses prying those heavy red fingers out of the white of her throat” (Kesey 318-319). This exemplifies the trend mentioned above; McMurphy felt undermined and his way to restore his ego was dominating over and sexualizing the female figure in his life. Men are taught to be powerful and masculine “within a culture that, in essence, includes rape as part of what some call a "macho value system" (“Truth Behind” par. 11). Men need to get involved in the fight of rape culture. Future generations need to know that power and dominance are not a necessary part of their identity. Fighting rape culture is a task that benefits both
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