Examples Of Machinery In Chief Bromden

Throughout the novel, there is a repeated metaphor of machinery and “The Combine”. Chief Bromden, the narrator, talks a lot about how society is just one big machine. The machine is controlling everyone and everything. The machine eventually turns other people into machines, leaving them with almost no humanity. The Chief installs this idea in the reader’s minds that all of the Chronics in the ward, the ones who are too far gone to fix, have been wired to act certain ways and are no longer human, simply machines. This whole idea of society controlling everyone and becoming machines is referred to as “The Combine” in Chief Bromden’s eyes. The way Bromden sees it, society is one big machine and the Combine will get everyone, eventually. At the beginning of the novel, the Chief is describing the difference between the Chronics and the Acutes. The Chief goes on to say, “Across from the Acutes are the culls of the Combine’s products, the Chronics” (Kesey 19). In this quote, Bromden is describing how the Chronics are already too far gone for fixing and that they are just the results of the “Combine” controlling them and turning them into machines. He then goes

He describes how there are workers working on Old Blastic and how they are about to cut him open. At this point the Chief is scared that he is going to see a bunch of blood and guts. The Chief explains, “I expect to be sick, but there is no blood or innards falling out like I was looking to see---just a shower of rust and ashes, and now again a piece of wire or glass” (81). This quote is significant to the theme of machinery because in Bromden’s eyes all he sees coming out of this man is wires and machinery. No blood. This leads the Chief to become very restless and he feels he needs to go warn the others about The Combine. What is interesting about the Chief’s nightmare is that Blastic actually ends up dying at the end of the