"Intimidation"

The Big Nurse, is not: your typical soccer mom. Expressed as villain, but seen as a saint by many, Miss Ratched Always gets her way. An authoritarian. Repressive. Undemocratic. Are the perfect parallels to Miss Ratched´s depiction. A woman who has a deeper voice than men. 

"Intimidation" is a word that is used frequently by Chief Bromden. A word that besides existing in the text: it has a deep connotation throughout Miss Ratched´s confrontations. Intimidation is a word that helps the reader visualize what is thought by the characters in the ward. "Just sitting....smiling...she has taken control...making everyone aware she is the force to be dealt with."(133) In a room full of men, such confidence, such finesse, is what turns the tables to Miss Ratched´s favor. Carrying herself as something better, more elegant and smarter: is what separates the woman from the "boys." Using the term "boys" to represent the male staff underlines the colossal figure that Miss Ratched consists of. 

A mother figure. A woman who calls the her superiors out: "You are very-very wrong." Iron-will is the engine. An engine that feeds on "patience-years," fear, and confidence. A stubbornness that "acted like confidence...that worried."(137) The words are hypnotizing, and with absolute composure, even the manipulators are put to sleep: "...only way to lift his commitment is by acting like she wants..."(150) Even McMurphy seems to fall under such intimation exercised by the Big Nurse.

"She couldn't be wearing lipstick," and failing to "conceal her big old breasts" symbolize that such "outsized badges of femininity" are a not an expression of hard effort into intimidation. Such natural aspects on the physical side, complements the simplicity of intimidation coming naturally to the Big Nurse.