She doesn't do the cutting, she just hands them the knife

We know that Nurse Ratched is for immasculating the men on the ward, and I think it's fair to say that she is almost a-sexual. I say this because it's mentioned multiple times that she wants to be this cold, stile person, and someone who is not connected to her sexuality (ie she is ashamed of her breasts). However, until the last reading I was not under the impression that she hated the opposite sex, but now I am not so sure. On 149 she says, "He is simply a man and no more, and is subject to all the fears and all the cowardice and all the timidity that any other man is subjected to," making it quite clear that to her Mac is not extradordinrary, but simply a man. She also makes the claim that all men are like Mac, in that they all want to manipulate and use sex to their advantage. In this same speach Nurse Ratched also says that "our redheaded hero will cut himself down to something the patients will all recognize and lose respect for." I bring this quote up because it made me think that perhaps, in her oppinion, all men must be taken down, or rather cut down. We've talked about her being a ball cutter and how that affects the men on the ward, but this quote says more than just that: instead of her her doing the cutting, the men themselves will do it. This is significant because it shows once again her cleverness, knack for insinuataion, and desire to see men powerless. I wonder how she got this way and what made her "hate enough"?

Masculinity

I think that a lot of this book, especially up untill now has, going along with the power struggle, is all about being masculine. This is hard for them seeing as the only women they are ever in contact with are the nurses. It is no surprise that when around them, they instantly feel nervous or even intimidated. since McMurphy has not been in the ward long, he does not seem to apply to this statement yet. He is not shy around Nurse Ratched like everyone else, he stands up for himself and others. When is is going around to find one more vote to get a majority, the nurse tells him to stop, but does he? NO. He tries and tries until he eventually gets one, interestingly from Chief. Back to the point, when everyone is in favor of watching the world series, they are not juts voting for that. They are voting to stay in tuned with their masculine side, to not let the women control them. It is fitting that they want to watch baseball, a man sport.

To add on to Ryan's post on the Power Struggle there is definitely a competition for the power on the Ward. McMurphy gained many points throughout the whole session with his interruptions about the dream he had the night before and about whether the radio should be played louder. What really impressed me about McMurphy was his ability to find a way to connect with the Doctor throughout the session. Most likely Mac did not go to the same high school as the doc, but the creativity to be able to connect with the doctor in this way to really make Big Nurse mad was impressive. However, as Chief states near the end of the section that Big Nurse had just lost a small battle and that she will still win, and keep on winning. I feel that when Chief says, "We musn't let McMurphy get our hopes up any different, lure us into making some kind of dumb play,"(109) is important because Chief knows the ward all too well and if McMurphy is not careful, Big Nurse will remain in control of the ward and have all the power.

POWER STRUGGLE

In this section of the book there seems to be a lot of power struggle between men and women. Nurse Retched, Doctor, and McMurphy seems to be fighting for the power. It seems that most of the meeting that happend before nurse Retched took over the meeting controlling the conversations, but this meeting Doctor was able to take over the meeting getting help from McMurphy. When the meeting starts, nurse Retched has everything planned rather than Doctor he doesn't have anything planned. It also seems that from this section nurse Retched had led the discussion all along. Power struggle between men and women happend before but this clearly shows that within the ward there is more power struggle between men and women. Also from this passage nurse Retched has power over many aspects in the ward.

Raising a hand

On page 114, we see McMurphy getting really worked up over trying to get the guys to gang up and vote to watch the world series. He tries to sway people, and Cheswick stays on his side, but "...some of the other guys look around to see if there's any other fools. McMurphy can't believe it" (114). For once, McMurphy believes that he has no control, even over the men, and it made me really curious as to why. McMurphy was speechless. Harding would not even raise his hand out of fear for losing masculity or himself becuase he is afraid that Nurse Ratched may cut it off. I am just a little bit confused as to why McMurphy does not fight for what he wants more, and that he ends up dropping it.

Winning vs Losing

Since we seem to be looking at the power struggle white men are having, I think it's important to realize that in Chief's mind the white man can never win against Nurse Ratchet. I say this because on 109 Chief says, "She's lost a little battle here today, but it's a minor battle in a big war that she's been winning and that she'll go on winning...She'll go on winning, just like the Combine, because she has all the power of the Combine behind her. She don't lose on her losses, but she wins on ours. To beat her you don't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as soon as you lose once, she's won for good." This quote caught my attention because when Chief says that she's got "all the power of Combine behind her," I completely agreed with him. Society has never like the idea of different or of a broken person, and so really society is behind Big Nurse for she's the one who fixes these people, or if they can't be fixed, lets them live with her instead of with society. People, just like Big Nurse, like life to run smoothy: they hate when they have to make extra time or see something so unlike the norm, and so in their minds having a place like the ward is completely okay. This thinking that society has is problematic because as Big Nurse treats these men like they are children or machinery, she is supported by society. It is so much easier to let some facility deal with these blemished people than to have them in society, and so poor treatment in the ward goes unnoticed. Big Nurse is not particularily kind, and in fact takes pleasure in the men's failures, and that is what is so twisted about the Combine and the ward. These men are supposed to be cared for and 'fixed,' yet the person doing that fixing takes every opportunity she can to manipulate the men. A while bakc Nurse Ratchet said McMurphy was the manipulator, but I would argue otherwise and say that really, it is she who is the manipulator.

McMurphy and Nurse

  One passage that i thought was worth taking a look at is the one where Mc Murphy is trying to become friends with the smaller nurse but she mistakes him for a very intimidating man. I thought this shows the Influence that the angry white male can have. This is one of the first time a person on the ward has been visually afraid of a white male. '''let me give you a hand, ma'am.' and very hand comes through the station door, scarred and tattooed and the color of raw meat, 'stay back ! there are two aids on the ward with me!' she rolls her eyes for the black boys, but they are off tying Chronics in bed, nowhere close enough to help in a hurry. McMurphy grins and turns the hand over so she can see he isn't holding a knife. all she can see is the light shining off the slick waxy, callused palm.' all i mean to do , miss is to--' 'stay back! Patients aren't allowed to enter the...'"(80). I see this passage is showing how intimidating the white man can be. But you do not see the whit man weld this much for on the ward except for this moment. Thus show how the white man so far is being held down and is not a threat to the female or other races. 

Who is really at the top of the hierarchy?

As I was reading and searching for connotations for the angry white male, I often found the white male in a power struggle. The patients of the Combine often find themselves being belittled by Nurse Ratched, a white female. In the world outside the Combine, the white male usually has dominance over a white woman. In the hospital it is quite different. Harding explains to McMurphy that Nurse Ratched can insinuate anything. "She'll call a man to the door of the Nurses' Station and stand there and ask him about a Kleenex found under his bed. No more, just ask. And he'll feel like he's lying to her, whatever answer he gives, (Kesey, 61)." Most of the men feel too vulnerable to stand up to her, so when McMurphy enters the equation, it is quite interesting. Later in the book, after spending a night sleeping with Chief, McMurphy gets up early and starts walking around in a towel. When Nurse Ratched sees this, instead of blaming him, she blames her co-workers for not giving him new clothes. Does this mean that she is intimidated by him, or is afraid of being demeaning towards him?

Controlling a Mountain

A passage that has been floating around in my head for a while now, is the one on page 68 when McMurphy and Harding debate about Nurse Ratchet. Harding rasises the question "how does one go about showing a woman who's boss...How does he show her who's king of the mountain?" and then goes on to say that a man can't hit a woman, and he can't yell at her, so really what can he do? The solution he comes up with is that "man has but one true effective weapon against the juggernaut of modern matriarchy, but it certainly is not laughter. One weapon, and with every passing year in this hip, motivationally researched society, more and more people are now discovering how to render that weapon useless and conquer those who have hitherto been the conqueres." I think this conversation says a lot about Kesey and his oppions on gender. Since we've been looking into Freud's theories, the mountain Harding refers to could relate to females because landscape is a symbol for them. So now this statement Harding makes becomes much more significant and now means that man is not only the king of the "house", but the conquerer of all women; Kesey also suggests that the only way men can gain this power is with their physical masculinity. The problem in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is that Big Nurse often removes the men's masculinity by speaking down to them or telling them they are homosexual. I think that perhaps Kesey feels the same way in that the only way a man can gain power is by using his sexuality as an advantage. McMurphy is an excellent example; he's the "sex maniac" and the only one the ward doesn't seem to be getting to or being able to break down. The scene where he goes to pick up the small nurse's water can, and she screams telling him that she's catholic and that he dare not touch her, on page 80, shows just how much power he has because of his pysical masculinity. Lastly, I think that because Big Nurse is portrayed as such a powerful and man-crushing woman, and that really she is the only woman discussed frequently, that Kesey feels women have to much power over men, when really it should be the men with the power.

Do you have upset the system in order to rectify it?

So far in Cuckoo's Nest I've noticed that the women have the most power, which doesn't make a lot of sense when you compare it to reality. In addition, if you think of all the different types of characters in Cuckoo's Nest, you have the women, the black boys/other ward guards, and the patients. After the women, the black boys have the most power, and then finally you are left with the predominately white patients (and Cheif). Considering this novel was written in '62, this sequence of power most definately doesn't correspond with the real world when Kesey was writing the novel. The only person that has been upseting this system has been McMurphy: first he resisted the black boys in getting a "shower," then slyly told the Big Nurse he doesn't always follow the rules, and just recently placed a bet that he could offput and upset her. I guess with all of these situations I'm wondering if you have to upset the system in order to make it work. I think this because if the ward is supposed to fix the men, and the people doing the fixing, are people in society are normally beneath them, it would suggest that really the patients have to be put in an enviornment they're not used to, to make any progress. I wouldn't have thought that in order to "fix" a person you would need to put them in a place that is so unlike what they are used to, if ultimately the goal is to create a ward that is like the real world. I can't figure out why Kesey changed the power holder so that it's with the minorities, but it's definately important. So...the question I'm still battleing with is whether you have to upset the system so as to rectify it...especially because the Big Nurse loves the system so much and keeping it as orderly as possible.