Critical Approaches to Lit Mr. Thornley Matt Tyree May 20, 2001 Sex in the Ward In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest there are many amazing themes. A motif that plays a very important role in this book is sex. A lot of the conflict throughout the book is based on sex. I am not talking about the sexual acts that were performed, but I will be talking about the conflicts that happen, which evolve around …showed first 75 words of 609 total…

…showed last 75 words of 609 total…Ratched, or Liberated Sexuality vs. Repressed Sexuality. In the end, both characters are destroyed by each other. When McMurphy strips the uniform off of Nurse Ratched it sexually liberates her. Nurse Ratched sexually represses McMurphy through lobotomy, or as it was said in the novel, a form of castration. The sexual motif is a big part of the book, and in the end, neither party survives for they are destroyed by the other. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**