is unencumbered by the "wires" of "The Big Nurse" and so he is a threat to the "combine". McMurphy represents the antithesis to the mechanical regularity, therefore he represents nature and it's unregularity. Another key theme in Kesey's novel is the role of women is society and how it contradicts the males. In keeping with the highly contrasting forces of conformity verses creativity Kesey proceeds to compare the male role to spontaneity, sexuality, and nature and the female role to conformity, sexual repression and ultimately the psychological castration of the male. Nurse Ratched was endowed with large breast which threatens her power over the male patients because of her exposing herself sexually and Kesey's view in the novel of male sexual dominance, therefore she try's to hide them the best she can. Nurse Ratched gains her power through her sterility which she does with no makeup and white uniform, as well as her emasculation of the male patients and doctors. " The Big Nurse ' takes the place of the mother role or other over domineering feminine role in a lot of the patients lives, which led them to their psychological castration. To the Chief, the nurse takes on the role of his white mother who orchestrated the downfall and emasculation of his father and the selling of his tribal land to the white people ( also referred to as the combine ) . Another patient Billy Bibbit a thirty one year old man whose mental problems were due to his over domineering mother , who was friends with Nurse Ratched. The downfall of Billy was toward the climax of the novel when "The Big Nurse" brought to the surface Billy's inability to stand up to his mother and her years of psychological castration, and soon after, came his suicide. Kesey incorporates many other sub-themes into " One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest " but all of them represent a larger than simply the battle between "The Big Nurse" and McMurphy. They all center around one centra...
