What is the meaning of the fog in "one flew over the cuckoo's nest"?

Question

what does it mean/represent..what is its significance?

and does it only happen to the Indian??

o yeah and what is the combine...??

Thanks!

Answer 1

That other answer is not in response to your question... I've been seeing that same response to all kinds of questions.  Didn't realize that there was such thing as Y!A spam!

Anyway, the fog represents the Chief's schizophrenia, which is why it only happens to him.  Whenever his schizophrenia is acting up, he sees the fog, etc.

The combine refers to the system.  A combine is a machine used on farms for cutting/threshing grains.  When it's used in the book, it refers to the system that is operated by Nurse Ratched.  Hope that makes sense--there's a lot of symbolism going on in this book.

edit: I always thought that the fog symbolized the evils of the system (but symbolism is really subjective, so others may or may not agree).  The Chief thinks that the "combine" is emitting the fog... on the literal level, the Chief is paranoid as a result of his condition.  On the symbolic level you might say that the fog represents the evils of the institution.

another edit: maybe you're right about the fog being the medicine.  The chief is definitely a paranoid schizophrenic (check cliffsnotes or sparknotes), so maybe the fog comes when he's in a medicated state.