The Final Straw: Journeys of Desperation in Bastard out of Carolina and one Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines desperation as "a loss of hope and surrender to despair." Bastard Out of Carolina (1992), a novel by Dorothy Allison, and the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) each follow a protagonist who is stuck in a state of desperation. Abused physically and mentally, the characters are similar in their struggles - oppressed by the opposite sex and deprived of the means of identity and individuality. It is this abuse and state of hopelessness that erodes each characters' respective maturation and recovery; Neither text awards its sufferers with redemption or self-knowledge.

Bastard Out of Carolina gives readers a child's perspective on being a victim of abuse in Ruth Anne "Bone" Boatwright's narration. Her step-father, "Daddy Glen," beats and molests her in attempt to fill a void of insecurity left by his psychologically abusive father. Bone's mother, Anney, does not spare her from the abuse and actually coddles Glen like a child when he apologizes after each beating. She attempts to legitimize the abuse in her mind by placing blame on Bone, telling her "let's be careful for a while" (207). Anney, preoccupied with the social stigma of poverty and having a bastard child (Bone) as a teen, cannot or will not remove Bone or herself from the comfort of her middle-class marriage. Bone, however, would rather stay and take the beatings for the assurance of her mother's safety.

Randle McMurphy, the main character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, suffers at the hands of staff at a mental hospital he is transferred to from a jail system. McMurphy, unlike Bone, challenges his abuser almost relentlessly. Within his ward, Nurse Hatched is a matriarchal villain who dehumanizes and manipulates the patients until they cleave to her authority. She takes advantage of the patients' mental states and intimidates them, often tactfully turning them on each other in group sessions. Hatched does not believe that McMurphy needs to be in a mental institution, however she keeps him there in her need for power and control over her most defiant patient (One Flew).

Both Bone and McMurphy feel "stuck" in their respective situations, Bone by a patriarchal rule and McMurphy by matriarchal. They both fight through their desperate situations largely to protect others. Bone wants to spare her mother and sister from Glen's abuse, and McMurphy wants to defend the vulnerable men in the ward. Each situation also has its enablers. Just as Anney is an enabler for Glen's abuse, the absenteeism of the doctors at the hospital allow the nurses to rule.

The ultimate response to desperation for each protagonist has a great price. Bone chooses to live with her aunt, and