1.) What do you think the fog represented?
I think that the fog was the Chief's mind's way of hiding whatever it was that upset him. For example, in the beginning of the book when he gets pulled into the shaving room, he says that "they start the fog machine again and it's snowing down cold and white all over me like skim milk, so thick I might even be able to hide in it if they didn't have a hold on me." (p. 7) He's panicking because he thinks he's going to be taken to the Shock Shop, so to hide himself away from the horrors that await him there his mind conjures up this thick white fog to cover it all up. As the book goes on, the fog begins to appear less and less until it's gone completely, and by then we know it's because the Chief isn't afraid anymore, and his mind isn't trying to hide the unpleasantness around him.
2.) Who do you think has won in the end, Mack or Big Nurse?
In a sense, one could say that Big Nurse has won, seeing as how she was able to get McMurphy lobotomized, but his spirit still remains. She may have thought that she had won, since she was able to turn him into a Vegetable, thus preventing him from causing any more trouble, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she was able to quell the rebellious spirit he instilled in the men on the ward. To assist in her loss, the Chief killed McMurphy so as to prevent the memory of his boisterous, rambunctious actions from fading and being replaced with a memory of a drooling sack of flesh laying in a bed. In this sense, the Big Nurse hasn't won. Since the majority of McMurphy's time on the ward was spent fighting against her and not being a Vegetable, that is what he'll be remembered for, and as such his spirit will live on. She has not crushed it completely.
3.) Why do you think Kesey chose to have Chief narrate the book instead of Mack?
I think Kesey made Chief the narrator instead of McMurphy so as to provide some perspective on the whole situation. Although the Chief is heavily biased towards McMurphy's side of things, he also gives us insight on the Nurse's side of the fight, which makes for a more interesting read. Thanks to having Chief as the narrator and showing us some of the Big Nurse's side, the reader feels conflict between the two opposing forces and can choose as to who they want to support in the story. The Chief also provides us with a more fleshed out narrative, because he's privy to conversations and events that the other characters don't witness. Since he acts as though he's deaf and dumb, he can get really close to some of the other characters (such as the Big Nurse and the black boys) and hear what they're saying without suspicion. This contributes to our perception of all of the characters, something that couldn't be accomplished if Mack were the narrator.
4.) Based on the portrayal of women in the book, what do you think the perception of women was back when the book was published?
The women in this book aren't exactly the paragon of pleasantness. The Big Nurse is painted as a tyrannical woman who doesn't care about her patients in the slightest - all she wants is rigid order. Harding's wife is a cruel and manipulative woman who makes him feel inadequate and mocks his masculinity or lack thereof. The two prostitutes, Candy and Sandy, are relatively nice women but are still whores, which is certainly something society back when this book was published would look down upon. Based on these portrayals, women obviously weren't particularly valued in society, and each represent some different negative stereotypes of females. For example, the Big Nurse is a nurse, first and foremost, which is the sort of job that would have been seen as 'acceptable' for a woman back in the 50's, which goes to show that people back then believed women could only hold traditionally feminine jobs such as being a nurse. Harding's wife is a manipulative flirt who, despite coming to visit her husband at the hospital, openly shows the men her cleavage and basically acts like a slut, giving off the vibe that women are greedy and cunning and use sex to get what they want. The two prostitutes are pretty nice girls, but as mentioned are still both prostitutes and are not ashamed of it. They also get into some pretty socially unacceptable behavior other than being whores - drinking, for example. All in all, the portrayal of women in this book is awful. What I'm gathering from it is that women are evil, crafty, manipulative sluts who will use cruelty and sex to get what they want, which just goes to show that the opinion of women during the 50's was far from a positive one.
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