On Masculinity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

The thesis studies One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the masterpiece ofKen·Kesey who was a popular American writer in the hippy era. The novel waspublished in1962. There appeared the counter-cultural movement in the1960s. Thosesupporters of counter-cultural movement resisted the traditional political power. Theyconducted some rebelling behaviors to present their dissatisfaction with the traditionalauthority. The movement had great influence on American literature. During thisperiod, a group of writers created a lot of literary works on counter-culture movement.Kesey was one of them. His work One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was the typicalone that described the American society in the1960s. The novel subverted the imageof Indians, the black, traditional women and especially rascal. Mcmurphy is therepresentative of anti-traditional protagonist. The novel clearly presents the reactionof different groups of men under the suppression of social authority and themasculinity that they show. Kesey advocated the Mcmurphy’s behavior and thehegemonic masculinity he displayed. He implied in the novel that the other types ofmasculinity except hegemonic masculinity could not fight against the traditionalauthority and the oppression of human nature. The men urgently need develophegemonic masculinity to contend against the fetter of traditional culture anddictatorship.The thesis tries to reveal the different group of men and the masculinity that theyembody from the perspective of R.W. Connell’s theory of masculinity. According tothe contrast and analysis, the thesis conveys that Ken·Kesey concerned about thepopular masculinity in America society, and his dissatisfaction with social policy andauthority.The thesis falls into four chapters in the general. The first chapter explains therelative concepts of masculinity, such as, sex, gender and gender relation and definesthe masculinity. Then the author gives a brief introduction to the development of masculinity, and the research status of masculinity. And it is quite necessary tointroduce the writer and the novel and the research value of the novel.The second chapter, the author studies the hegemonic masculinity that isembodied by certain groups of characters in the novel by the way of intensive readingof the text, and comparative analysis approach, and elaborates the hegemonicmasculinity from the views of Connell’s theory of masculinity.The third chapter studies the other three types of masculinity according to thetheory of Connell’s masculinity. And author exemplifies these masculinities.The fourth chapter, according to the study of theory of masculinity and theanalysis of the four types of masculinity: hegemonic, subordinated, complicit andmarginalized masculinity, reflects Kesey’s consciousness of masculinity. In Cuckoo’sNest, it is quite obvious that Ken·Kesey resisted feminism. Feminism and themasculinity that gay man and those with inferior social status present have an effecton hegemonic masculinity. While, the counter-culture movement, on the other side,also impacts on the reconstruction of the masculinity. Therefore, Kesey advocated inthe novel that the hegemonic masculinity that Mcmurphy displayed could saveAmerican society.Of course, it is, to the point, one-sided to analyze the masculinity presented inthe Kesey’s Cuckoo’s Nest through Connell’s theory of masculinity for the reason thatthe study of masculinity in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest in China is still in apreliminary state, although, there are a lot scholars who study the novel from thevarious views, but there’s no study from the perspective of masculinity, therefore, thedepth and the breadth of the study on masculinity in Cuckoo’s Nest still need to beexplored.