Human Robots

Machinery. Fear.  Pain. Control. Those words are used to describe how pathetically powerless we are against society. We live in a machine-like world, we are controlled by it and have to be just as machine-like as the rest, perfect. We cannot break that balance or perfection, but what happens if we do break it? Do we become outsiders like chief, McMuprhy, or Harding and sent to be fixed? 

The use of machine imagery in Chief's dreams is used to further exploit the true meaning behind the ward for the "insane". What are machines? They are perfect, that's what they are. They are robots that can be modified and changed; given a set of rules to follow very cautiously. Machines do whatever they are programmed to do, and never do the opposite. We are machines. Chief is a machine. Everyone is one, and there is nothing we can do to change that. "The worker takes the scalpel and slices up the front of old Blastic...There's no blood or innards falling out like I was looking to see--just a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece of wire or glass." (Pg. 79) When we do not conform society, or "The Combine"-as Chief likes to call the outside world-we have to be repaired. That's the point for the medical hospital for the insane. "You men are in this hospital, because of your proven inability to adjust to society." (Pg. 144) It is a place where mistakes end up, in order to be mended and then sent back into the world.

The constant use of machines and their abundance in Chief's narrative highlights how the modern world really is. There is no individuality, everyone is the same, and everyone must be the same. We only see until now into the book something that says contrary, and that is McMurphy. By rebelling Miss Ratched imposed power in the ward, and going against it, he tries to keep his individuality, but in the end he will be up just like everyone else. Another identical machine.