Sunday, October 14, 2012
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The book has received much criticism for its apparent misogyny (the female characters are either castrating nurses or prostitutes) and racism (the African American orderlies are charicatured as cartoonishly sadistic "black boys"). Do you think such criticisms are fair? What challenges does having a narrator who is a paranoid schizophrenic, often divorced from reality, present for the reader?
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I think to us, the book does come off as a little racist and sexist, but it might have just been the norm of the time period. African-Americans may have typically served as workers, while women worked as nurses or housemaids. Therefore, Kesey may have been using real conditions to make the book as realistic as possible.
ReplyDeleteHaving a schizophrenic narrator makes the book challenging to the reader. Some details are easy to pass off as not real, but other things are more obscure and questionable. The chief also adds to the racism and sexism perceived in the book, because his hallucinations negatively portray women and African-Americans.
I feel that the book comes off a little racist. Even though throughout the book sexist and racist is shown I think it’s not a huge issue. I think it’s not as noticeable as books of our age. During this time this is just how people talked towards each other. I feel the book isn’t racist or sexist.
ReplyDeleteAnother class studying One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest made a blog concerning racist and sexist elements in the book. Their comments in regards to the blog's questions were pretty interesting.
ReplyDeletehttp://schools.dcsdk12.org/education/components/board/default.php?sectiondetailid=176945&threadid=28137
Personally, it appears that the book features some sexist and racist remarks and terminology. I can see why people would question the writer's ethics since every character who isn't white is given a condescending name and all female characters are viewed negatively as well. In Kesey's defense, he may have added these elements to give the book some character and to make it fit the time period it was written in, making the book more realistic.
Some of the remarks are quite honestly funny mainly because the narrator has a mental illness; however the remarks are racist and sexist, which is not fair. Why do African-Americans have to be referred to as "black boys", why couldn't they be just referred to as the boys? Why are all the women prostitutes and sluts? All women do not have sexual appeal or do not try to come off sexy and seduce men. I think because the narrator is schizophrenic it makes it hard for readers to understand everything because he is often out of reality so some stuff he says is not true. This can confuse the reader from deciding which stuff is true and which stuff is apart of the narrators imagination.
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