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Until
modern times, society advocated that a man's role was at work, while a
woman was required to stay home and assume the role of the main caregiver.
Men were given power and authority, and women, conversely, were expected
to be meek and subservient. These roles extended beyond the family and
out into society, and materialized in areas such as education, politics,
and occupations. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey uses the
reversal of these stereotypical gender roles to demonstrate the chaotic
and sometimes tragically comic world of a mental institution. In the novel
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, the women are the power figures
and are able to significantly manipulate the patients on the ward, as shown
by the characters of Nurse Ratched, Mrs. Bibbit, and Vera Harding.
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