Escaping From Reality

page 131/ August 4,2010

Quote #9

Quote:“When they first used that fog machine in the ward, one they bought from Army Surplus and hid in the vents in the new place before we moved in, I kept looking at anything that appeared out of the fog as long and hard as I could , to keep track of it, just like I used to do when they fogged the airfields in Europe. Nobody’s be blowing a horn to show the way, there was no rope to hold to, so fixing my eyes on something was the only way I kept from getting lost. Sometimes I got lost in it anyway, got in too deep, trying to hide, and every time I did, it seemed like I always turned up at that same place, at that same metal door with the row of rivets like eyes and no number, just like the room behind the door drew me to it, no matter how hard I tried to stay away, just like the current generated by the fiends in that room was conducted in a beam long the fog and pulled me back along it like a robot. I’d wander for days in the fog, scared I’d never see another thing, then there’d be that door, opening to show me the mattress padding on the other side to stop out the sounds, the men standing in a line like zombies among shiny copper wires and tubes pulsing light, and the bright scrape of arcing electricity. I’d take my place in the line and wait my turn at the table. The table shaped like a cross, with shadows of a thousand murdered men printed on it, silhouette wrists and ankles running under leather straps sweated green with use, a silhouette neck and head running up to a silver band goes across the forehead. And a technician at the controls beside the table looking up from his dials and down the line and pointing at me with a rubber glove. ‘Wait, I know that big bastard there- batter rabbit-punch him or call for some more help or something. He’s an awful case for thrashing around’”


Chief Bromden continuously mentions this state of fog that he experiences during his time at the hospital. This quote helps to explain the paranoia that Bromden constantly has through the novel. During the beginning, Bromden goes into this foggy state because he is scared of reality and wants to hide from it as much as he can. He believes that he is weak, though he is much stronger than most men at this ward are, and the fog keeps him from having to confront them. Near the end, he breaks away from this because he has realized that he can stick up for himself and there is nothing left to be scared of. Bromden has figured out how to beat the Combine at their own games and does not have to go into the fog again to escape from reality.