The Hardships of Women’s Authority Throughout time, issues regarding sexism have been prominent within each and every small town, city, state, and country as a whole. There has always been a significant gender-divide between men and women due to the history of women being considered inferior to their male counterparts. Women have not always had an equal place in the society that Americans and other nations claim they were given. There have been few laws, rights, and amendments that have been ratified in aid of benefitting women in the past that were effective enough to make a substantive change. During the 1960s, when feminism was a prominent and controversial movement fighting for equality for all women, a well known and greatly admired author …show more content…
Despite the fact that she is a flat character by remaining manipulative and scheming throughout the entire novel, she is also known for her convoluted nature. Ratched’s superficial layers are her name and her immediate traits because they are her most obvious characteristics, yet are critical to her character. In early scenes of the novel, McMurphy pronounces her name as "Rat-shed," indicating that she has rodent-like qualities, such as working quietly, quickly, and to the disadvantage of her victims (87). This alludes to the Black Plague during the Middle Ages, and how the rats were the ones that carried disease. This correlates to Ratched because she infects the hospital's nurses, patients, and others with her irrational desire for order. Nurse Ratched's name and characteristics also resemble those of a Judas and a Pontius Pilate. This concept is built upon by Van when he states, "Both the movie and the novel make Ratched a Judas and a Pontius Pilate who leads an obnoxious male messiah to the lobotomy table" (Van 13). Both of these men mistreated Jesus, just as Nurse Ratched mistreated and harmed her patients. Another characteristic revealed within Ratched is her machine-like qualities. Chief Bromden describes her as “…big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside…” and includes descriptions that relate to machinery such as her face being “…calculated, and precision-made…” (Kesey 11). As the novel progresses, it is discovered that Ratched’s machine-like qualities impact the combine as a whole, “The Combine, committed as it is to the supremacy of technology over humanity, extends its influence by dehumanizing men and making them machines” (Leeds 68). Nurse Ratched’s superficial layers reveal that the simplest inklings, in this case her characteristics, can be
To begin with, there are many events in United States history that have shaped our general understanding of women’s involvement in economics, politics, the debates of gender and sexuality, and so forth. Women for many centuries have not been seen as a significant part of history, however under thorough analyzation of certain events, there are many women and woman-based events responsible for the progressiveness we experience in our daily lives as men, women, children, and individuals altogether. Many of these events aid people today to reflect on the treatment of current individuals today and to raise awareness to significant issues that were not resolved or acknowledged in the past.
Nurse Ratched is portrayed as the authority figure in the hospital. The patients see no choice but to follow her regulations that she had laid down for them. Nurse Ratched's appearance is strong and cold. She has womanly features, but hides them “Her Face is smooth, calculated, and precision-made, like an expensive… A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing putting those big, womanly breasts on what would have otherwise been a prefect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it.” (11) She kept control over the ward without weakness, until McMurphy came. When McMurphy is introduced into the novel he is laughing a lot, and talking with the patients in the ward, he does not seem intimidated by Miss Ratched. McMurphy constantly challenges the control of Nurse Ratched, while she tries to show she remains in control, He succeeds in some ways and lo...
I hated Nurse Ratched before and I sure do now. Her sneaky little schemes to turn the patients on each other make’s me furious. I’m glad McMurphy broke down the window; it’ll remind the patients that her power is limited and changeable. Although, she made McMurphy stronger than ever, even with the countless electroshock treatments. Proving his desire to remain strong in the face of tyranny. “And he'd swell up, aware that every one of those faces on Disturbed had turned toward him and was waiting, and he'd tell the nurse he regretted that he had but one life to give for his country and she could kiss his rosy red ass before he'd give up the goddam ship. Yeh!” (Kesey, 187) I agree to some extent, that without her there wouldn’t be a book, she makes the book exciting even if her methods are all but pure. Her character stands as a symbol of the oppression woman received during that time and in a way, the society in which these characters live are flipped. While on the outside woman have no rights, in the ward they are the all mighty, all knowing, powerful, controllable force. So yah, we need Nurse Ratched but I still hate her. During the course of the short novel she destroyed three men, two of which died and the other was lobotomised. “What worries me, Billy," she said - I could hear the change in her voice - "is how your mother is going to take this.” (Kesey, 231) I can’t say I enjoyed Nurse Ratched being strangled by McMurphy, but I do think she deserved it. Although, it was the end to the battle since the Nurse had won the war. By infuriating McMurphy to that point and her ability to remain calm throughout it all, she proved that McMurphy’s action didn’t faze her. She proved that rebelling is feeblish and by lobot...
Mcmurphy's true character was lost in the writing of the screenplay, his. intelligence and cunning is lowered greatly by changes made by the screen. writers. The.. & nbsp; Ms. Ratched is a powerful woman in both the book and the movie. She knows how to play with people's minds and manipulate groups. She keeps a tight grip on the ward using subtle methods which cannot be ignored.
Nurse Ratched uses her voice throughout the novel to intimidate the patients. She is the antagonist of the novel. The patients obsequiously follow Ratched’s command, until McMurphy comes along. They all fear that she will send them for shock therapy if they don’t obey her. Nurse Ratched is the most daunting persona of the novel, due in large part to the use of her voice.
The need for women’s rights began back in colonial America where women were referred to as “inferior beings”. This era, though it is not particularly noted for it’s feminist movements, did hold such people as Margaret Brent, who was a wealthy holder of land in Maryland and was a strong, but unsuccessful voice in securing a place for women in the legislature of the colony. It was also a period where Quakers, and many other individuals, such as famous American patriot, Thomas Paine supported the rights of women, but at the time it was not enough to make a significant difference and it wasn’t until the 19th century that women would get the real chance to make a difference.
Nurse Ratched gains much of her power through the manipulation of the patients on the
“Throughout most of history women generally have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men…women in most nations won the right to vote and increased their educational and job opportunities.” Women’s Rights Movement in 1700s until present. Shirley Chisholm, Betty Friedan, and Gloria Steinem were some leaders and followers. Shirley Chisholm wrote “For the Equal Rights Amendment” on 10 August 1970 in Washington, DC., therefore, women can do anything a man can do. In Shirley Chisholm’s “For the Equal Rights Amendment” speech, she motivates her intended audience during the Women’s Rights Movement by using rhetorical devices of antithesis and ethos.
Nurse Ratched was head nurse of the ward. She needed to have control over everything. All of the patients feared Nurse Ratched, or as they sometimes call her, “Big Nurse.” That is everyone feared her until McMurphy. Because he refused to listen to Nurse Ratched, the “ruler” of the ward, it showed that there will be dismay between the two throughout the story.
Nurse Ratched represents the dictatorial dehumanization, emasculation, and mechanization of society or, in Chief Bromden’s words, the “Combine”. The narrator, Chief Bromden, states that nurse Ratched comes into the ward with tools such as “wheels and gears, cogs polished to a hard glitter, tiny pills that gleam like porcelain, needles, forceps, watchmaker 's pliers, rolls of copper wire…” (P.4) with the intention of adjusting and fixing what society thinks is broken. Nurse Ratched’s name, similar to the tool ratchet, suggests that she is an “instrument of control” that is used to “ensure motion in one direction only” (Foley p.36). Through abuse (psychological and physical) and drugs, Nurse Ratched creates a mechanical or robotic feeling to
But when the “Women’s Movement,” is referred to, one would most likely think about the strides taken during the 1960’s for equal treatment of women. The sixties started off with a bang for women, as the Food and Drug Administration approved birth control pills, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman, and Betty Friedan published her famous and groundbreaking book, “The Feminine Mystique” (Imbornoni). The Women’s Movement of the 1960’s was a ground-breaking part of American history because along with African-Americans another minority group stood up for equality, women were finished with being complacent, and it changed women’s lives today.
One thousand years go by and an abundant amount of people still view women in a stereotypical type of way. On the opposing view, if women did not overstretch the slightest of things, this wouldn’t be such an enormous issue. Women may be overreacting to what the media has to say about them. It is not affecting everybody but a vast majority of successful women from continuing to moving forward said Marianne Schnall. Important to realize, women are capable of doing jobs men can do. Such jobs as being an engineer, physician, mechanic, lawyer and even top notch business women! Up to the present time there is an ongoing public debate on women suffering from double standards. If it makes a female feel threatened or belittled than it may be sexist. A very interesting article this came to be because the writer had numerous accountants to keep her argument steady. A worthy writer brings up present time activities, statistics, and people being affected by the scenario and provides the reader some closure. With a devastatingly crucial issue such as women being shunned by the media, it’s not okay to have the ideas of other people in your work. In the article, “Controversial Hillary Cover of Time Illuminates Sexism in the Media” by Marianne Schnall, implies that the media is negatively affecting the chances of women becoming successful with all the sexism it is portraying. Marianne Schnall is a published writer and professional interviewer with many influential credentials that she in not afraid to use.
In “Women in the Twentieth Century and Beyond”, Kimberly M. Radek discusses the struggling events that occurred throughout history in order for gender discrimination to be eliminated.
In “Declarations of Sentiments and Resolutions”, Elizabeth Cady Stanton describes a“history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman” to explain how women are treated unequally in society (Stanton). A few of the injuries she mentions includes women not being able to vote, not being held to same legal or moral standards as men, and being limited to subordinate roles in almost all aspects of everyday life including religion and civil life.
Throughout history, women have remained subordinate to men. Subjected to the patriarchal system that favored male perspectives, women struggled against having considerably less freedom, rights, and having the burdens society placed on them that had been so ingrained the culture. This is the standpoint the feminists took, and for almost 160 years they have been challenging the “unjust distribution of power in all human relations” starting with the struggle for equality between men and women, and linking that to “struggles for social, racial, political, environmental, and economic justice”(Besel 530 and 531). Feminism, as a complex movement with many different branches, has and will continue to be incredibly influential in changing lives.