Matriarchy Versus Patriarchy

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Often in society, there tends to be a male dominancy over the women. When put in most positions, men are the ones to take control while the women just hold back. The play “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is an example of this. In this play, the main character McMurphy tries to gain control of the power in order to make the mental ward a Matriarchy rather than let Nurse Ratched have control and make it a Patriarchy. Ultimately, in society, men are always more dominant than women. The play “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” proves this theory. McMurphy in the play tries to create a male dominance right when he comes into the mental institution. He does not like the fact that Nurse Ratched tries to run everything that goes on and he wants to take control of all of it. An example of this would be during group therapy while they were discussing the baseball game. McMurphy wanted to change the channels in the ward so that they could all watch the game instead. Nurse Ratched did not like this idea so she tries to fight it. Instead of McMurphy giving up he insists to “take a vote” of “all those in favor” to watch the baseball game instead to “raise your hands” in the air. This shows that McMurphy just wants to change things around the mental ward. He wanted them all to vote to watch the baseball game and to know what it felt like to be in control of situations. McMurphy tried to teach the rest of the patients how to fight for what they want and to not just let people walk all over them. However, McMurphy tends to try to prove this point in many other ways throughout the play. Another example is when Nurse Ratched demanded for McMurphy to “get rid of that towel at once” and McMurphy “whips it off” and “he is wearing black Satin shorts with an imprint of whales with red eyes” underneath (Kesey 34). McMurphy reveals his manly or masculine side in this quote of the play. It

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