What would have been nice right after that sentence is an extra line break. It took me a page to understand that at that moment, I had entered a flashback. The flashback gave an excellent characterization of John and mostly dealt with his tragic background. There are two primary observations that I made.
First, as I was reading, I noticed a lot of stress on how much of an outcast John was during his childhood, and it reminded me of how Bernard is also an outsider in "the Other Place" (127). I was going to make a really impressive connection between the two characters in this blog, but then it got less impressive when Bernard commented about how similar they are -- "terribly alone" (137). So that's disappointing, but I suppose it's good that I caught on to their connection before that moment.
Also, I mentioned in my last post that I thought the theme would concern individualism, and I'm sticking with that, but I have another idea. This quote is back from chapter four:
"'Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly -- they'll go through anything'" (70).
I held on to that quote because I liked it, and now I think it resonates well with John's past. Whenever John read something, he was in total awe by the "magic" (132) of words. I think the fashioning of words could also be an integral theme; additionally, words are a powerful way to express individualism, so that's pretty great.
I need . . . a picture . . . hmm . . . words are like X-rays.
I liiiike that quote! And the flashback. Me too. Editors... should have fixed that.
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