Head Nurse Ratched Essay

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The first of the seemingly unnecessary material is the number of sexual implications in this book. One of these instances is when Head Nurse Ratched has her breasts described as ‘badges of femininity’ with protagonist Ralph McMurphy taunting her about their exact length (Kesey 138). While this appears to be harassment, readers need to contextualize the emasculating themes of this book. According to Manning, defining male behaviors as ‘toxic’ versus ‘healthy’ confuses males on what their expected behavior (Manning). McMurphy degrades Mrs. Ratched because while she is trying to make herself dominate mercilessly, McMurphy is trying to prove that she should not have to effeminate them to treat them with respect. In another instance, Ken Kesey displays patient Harding infantilizing his wife by calling her a “bright little child,” later showing her flirting with the main protagonist (Kesey 159). Undoubtedly, women today would find this offensive, however, in context, it is clear the author was showing how the men were made insecure by Mrs. Ratched’s blaming sessions, stepping on others to gain any sort of power. But the most disturbing example in this book is the …show more content…
For instance, after Billy Bibbit is shamed horrendously after sleeping with a woman, he commits suicide, graphically describing how he did it (Kesey 151). However, it must be clear that Kesey is not glorifying suicide. In truth, he is raising awareness, which in a study done by Cambridge University, actually decreases suicidal idation (Dazzi et al.). In another example, when McMurphy is attempting to lift a control panel off the ground, the author describes his bleeding hands on the handles and cards he’s playing with (Kesey 110-111). While the goryness of the scene is enough to make people look away, it shows students McMurphy’s courageousness and, according to Gillespie and Brown, can even encourage them to be stronger in their ethics (Gillespie and
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