Nobody Knows You Well Enough

       In this next portion of the book, I found it very interesting to see how Brent’s attitude changed in a negative way, even when they told him that his recuperation was going very good and that he was even going to go to his House for the weekend. I would expect Brent being worried about seeing the incident site again. But, he only reflects upon this a little bit. When his parents come, the tone of the story immediately changes to indignant, since he could not believe the accusations his parents were saying. Brent thinks: “Jesus, who do these people think I am? Some kind of Satan worshipper? Jesus, leave me alone” (p. 192). For the first time throughout the book, his parents begin to act as the psychologists do. Brent always found himself in a comfortable situation when his parents visited him. But, now, they started questioning him and implying that he was some kind of creature who worshipped Satan. It is understandable that they were concerned since they found the knife and the piece of paper with the word death written on it. In anyway, this was not the best way to approach Brent and get him to speak to them. What this attempt resulted in was in a lack of trust and a moment of extreme disgust on Brent’s behalf. At this moment, he feels that nobody understands him and not even his parents, whom he though were going to support him all the time, try to comprehend that he was living a moment of despair and desperation. It is very interesting to see how no one was able to break into Brent’s head. This means that actually no one knows him well enough in order to try to understand why he did what he did. This is very true. The only person who is able to comprehend everything you do and the reasons why you did it is yourself. Even psychologists cannot go into a person’s head and retrieve that information.

       When Brent arrives at his house and then at his bedroom, the anxiety builds up for the reader. Since Runyon starts being very descriptive with Brent’s feelings and thoughts about arriving at the site where it had all happened. Surprisingly, the story seems to shift and take on a confident tone, exemplified when Brent reflects: “You would think I would be thinking about those things, but I’m not” (p. 197). He is referring to the emotions he had while burning. Certainly Brent began to feel more comfortable in his house than what he had been in the hospital. Even though one receives very good attention at a hospital, the feeling of being there instantly makes you think that you are very sick. Seeing all the injured people around you is not very encouraging since you begin to associate with them and feel like them. Brent has finally returned home and confronted reality. How will Brent react when going back to the institute? When will he be discharged? Now, Brent has another objective in mind: return home.