Going In The Dam...

At the start of a new section, page 82, Chief has a brief hallucination about sinking into a big, factory-esque dam. He describes the wires and brass, but portrays an image that the dam is more powerful than he or any other human:

"...reveals a huge room of endless machines stretching clear out of sight, swarming with sweating, shirtless men running up and down catwalks, faces blank and dreamy in firelight thrown from hundred blast furnaces...like the inside of a tremendous dam. Huge brass tubes disappear upward in the dark. Wires run to transformers out of sight. Grease and cinders catch on everything, staining the couplings and motors and dynamos red and coal black" (83-84).

Aside from the obvious references to his previous work in the factory, I think this brings up several things about Chief as well as some themes from Kesey. Chief did not enjoy his time in the factory, and makes a clear parallel between the fog and "machines stretching out of sight." To me, dam's are powerful, impenetrable. While some may suggest that it hints at the flowing water, or status quo, that can be stopped, I believe it is meant to show the opposite. That water is the most powerful thing on the planet and it is impossible to predict or stop. Finally, I think Kesey adds references to Freud with his use of sweating, shirtless men in the factory. Maybe it is to represent the envy Chief has for these men, or maybe it is to show Chief may be gay or even Kesey may be gay. 

I think there is a lot more to learn about Chief that he won't say, which will probably come out in Freudian symbols.