He believes laughter is a defense against society's insanity, and if someone can't laugh, they won't survive. I believe this thought to be very true. If someone is forced not to laugh and be themselves, then it will eventually turn someone bitter and or crazy. Laughter is the best medicine. .
The "fog machine" and "Combine" are the two main concepts in this book. Fog is a "drug" that clouds our vision of the world. Fog symbolizes a lack of insight and escape from reality. When Brodmen starts to slip away from reality because his medication or out of fear, he hallucinates fog drifting into the ward. He believes they have hidden fog machines in the vents and are controlled by the staff members. The fog occurs when Brodmen becomes less stable. He thinks the fog is a safe place and he can ignore reality.I think this is a metaphor on how the government treats us. They "drug" us and we only know what they want us to know, Staff members (Government) control us all. We are lost and we don't seem to realize it. The Government keeps details away from us thinking we are better without them, and this reminds me of Nurse Ratchet. The less we know the better. We know we are being used and lied to but we are too afraid of knowing the truth, sometimes it hurts too badly. People are ignorant and a lot of it is our fault for not asking more questions and wanting to know more. .
The combine is showing how humans are machines. We do what we are told or programmed and the majority of us don't ask questions. We go along with what we have been taught. We are made to believe if something is right or wrong. As we are growing up, if our parents or peers believe something we are more prone to believe the same thing. If they wanted us to do something they asked us or bribed us to do it and if we didn't we knew we were in trouble. .
In this book Brodmen sees society as a big machine. He also sees the same machine at work in the hospital- Nurse Ratchet.