Chief’s admiration of McMurphy increases, and he notices that the other patients also are gaining respect for him. He marvels that the Combine has gotten to him and the other patients, but not to McMurphy. He recognizes that McMurphy isn’t extraordinary, but simply who he is, which he observes is enough to foil Nurse Ratched. Chief contrasts his impressions of McMurphy with his own reflection in the mirror. He sees a reflection that he refuses to believe is his. The reflection is a large man with chiseled features, but Chief admits that “It wasn’t even me when I was trying to be that face…. It don’t seem like I’ve ever been me. How can McMurphy be what he is?”
When Chief observes the dog from the hospital window, the reader is inclined to believe the dog symbolizes McMurphy. The dog casts a long shadow and lolls on the grass in the moonlight. He recounts that the dog runs toward the road as he hears “a car speed up out of a turn. The headlights loomed over the rise and peered ahead down the highway. I watched the dog and the car making for the same spot of pavement.” The reader can infer that Chief is foreshadowing the fate of McMurphy as a force of nature destined to fail against the forces of mechanization.
