“Whoa, Man!”: the Lack of Feminization in Ernest Hemingway’s the Sun Also Rises and Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Blair Shemwell
Mrs. Sandifer
English IV AP / Dual Enrollment
12 Feb. 2010
“Whoa, Man!”:
The Lack of Feminization in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest While Ernest Hemingway and Ken Kesey’s writing style and plot details are often found on opposite ends of the literary spectrum, The Sun Also Rises and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are similar in that the main female characters both share masculine qualities that were strengthened due to war. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway “not only contributes to the body of travel literature that offers an insider’s perspective on the lifestyle of the self-exiled writers, artists, and bon vivants who made Paris in the 1920s legendary, but also mythologizes this historic moment” (Field 36). Lady Brett Ashley is a “symbol of this post-war environment” in that her power comes from “preying on the weakness of a society devalued by the breakdown of pre-war values and ideals” (Wilentz 189). On the other hand, “Nurse Ratched—a sterile, distant, and oppressive force who psychologically castrates [her] male patients—represents Kesey’s fears of a cold war era that fosters an impotent, feminine American masculinity through a climate of fear and conformity” (Meloy 3). Kesey’s criticism of a “cold-war society that he believed fundamentally emasculated men strikes a chord in contemporary America” (4). In both Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, men are not capable of being dominant in their shattered environments; therefore, masculine qualities must ironically be found in the female characters Lady Brett Ashley and Nurse Ratched, which emphasizes the destructive atmospheres of post-war Europe and the Cold War Era. Lady Brett Ashley is one of Hemingway’s “richest” female characters; “her personality gradually emerges as an intriguing mix of femininity and masculinity, strength and vulnerability, morality and dissolution” (Fulton
Mrs. Sandifer
English IV AP / Dual Enrollment
12 Feb. 2010
“Whoa, Man!”:
The Lack of Feminization in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest While Ernest Hemingway and Ken Kesey’s writing style and plot details are often found on opposite ends of the literary spectrum, The Sun Also Rises and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are similar in that the main female characters both share masculine qualities that were strengthened due to war. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway “not only contributes to the body of travel literature that offers an insider’s perspective on the lifestyle of the self-exiled writers, artists, and bon vivants who made Paris in the 1920s legendary, but also mythologizes this historic moment” (Field 36). Lady Brett Ashley is a “symbol of this post-war environment” in that her power comes from “preying on the weakness of a society devalued by the breakdown of pre-war values and ideals” (Wilentz 189). On the other hand, “Nurse Ratched—a sterile, distant, and oppressive force who psychologically castrates [her] male patients—represents Kesey’s fears of a cold war era that fosters an impotent, feminine American masculinity through a climate of fear and conformity” (Meloy 3). Kesey’s criticism of a “cold-war society that he believed fundamentally emasculated men strikes a chord in contemporary America” (4). In both Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, men are not capable of being dominant in their shattered environments; therefore, masculine qualities must ironically be found in the female characters Lady Brett Ashley and Nurse Ratched, which emphasizes the destructive atmospheres of post-war Europe and the Cold War Era. Lady Brett Ashley is one of Hemingway’s “richest” female characters; “her personality gradually emerges as an intriguing mix of femininity and masculinity, strength and vulnerability, morality and dissolution” (Fulton
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