Keenan described himself as ‘a bag of flesh and scrape, a heap of offal tossed unwanted in the corner of this filthy room.’ This portrayal of himself, of ‘flesh’ and ‘heap of offal’ is dehumanizing as it reduces him to something repulsive and purely physical, thus overlooking the details that makes him human, such as feelings, mind and judgement. He is ‘tossed in the corner’, therefore not valuable for anyone. The fact that he is thrown in a ‘filthy’ corner further emphasise his lack of value and significance. All these show how Keenan’s self esteem and dignity was crushed, and he as a person was reduced to nothing more than a worthless and abhorrent body. This conveys the extreme human degradation though which he goes.
Keenan’s lack of stimuli and life are described throughout the chapter, which gives the reader and idea of the feeling of endless emptiness though which the hostages go.
Referring to his urine and drinking water going ‘From bottle to bottle, through me, this fluid will daily run’, Keenan uses these endless cycles of life to symbolise the monotonous days of his captivity. The phase ‘from bottle to bottle’ and ‘though me’ suggest a continuous flow, while the word ‘daily’ informs us of the length of one standard cycle. Keenan seems to live the same tedious days over and over again, making him feel lifeless and purposeless.
The syntax of his writing implies dullness, repetition and lack of life as well. The phase ‘No sound, no noise, nothing. Yet I try to force this scream. Why can I not scream? But no noise comes from me. Not even a faint echo of cry. I am full with nothing.’ is a very good example for this point. His sentences are very short, implying the lack of thing and stimuli to talk about. ‘Why can I not scream?’ is almost a rhetoric question as he has no one to get an answer from. This highlights the lack of stuff to think about. And there are some sentences which are just an enumeration of words, like ‘No sound, no noise, nothing.’ The repetition of ‘no’ and ‘nothing’ throughout this chapter father emphasise the lack of stimuli, as there are no objects, persons or phenomena to ponder about. In the end the narrator expresses his despair by confessing that he is ‘full with nothing’, implying his frantic need of ‘something’ that he can ‘think about’, that can occupy his brain.
Due to this prolonged lack of stimuli, Keenan becomes temporarily mentally unbalanced, with his senses going out of control.
When Keenan is given a bowl of fruits his ‘eyes are almost burned by what they see’. This suggests that due to his the repetitive, dull and lifeless days his senses became “thirsty” for a stimulus, and when they get it, they overact. This is suggested by the word ‘burned’, as the colours seem to go through his eyes, harming his retina, just as if he was kept in a dark place and then suddenly exposed to light, blinding him. His chaotic reaction is further emphasised by the extreme, seemingly almost exaggerated verbs or adjective for their nouns. Such examples include ‘ecstatic embrace’, ‘torrents of tears’, ‘great rage’ and tears that seem to ‘tear the skin’. These powerful adjectives and verbs suggest his intense experience of the world. He seems to be flooded by these feelings and senses driving him into confusion and madness. This is also proven by his rapidly changing moods, from ecstasy to raging weeping. Keenan claims that ‘the fruits, the colours, mesmerize me in a quiet rapture and spins through my head.’ ‘Mesmerize’ and ‘rapture’ suggest that he is a prisoner of his senses, almost as if his raging senses rule over his logic and healthy judgement. This makes him go insane and have no control over his thoughts.
Keenan seems to be particularly enthralled by an orange. He keeps repeating the colour of an orange: ‘The colour orange, the colour, the colour, my God the colour orange.’ emphasising the force of his trance. It can also imply that he misses the Sun, as orange could represent this source of light which he was deprived of. Keenan even states that ‘I want to bow before it, loving that blazing, roaring, orange colour.’ The assonance so the ‘r’ and ‘l’ consonants imply the richness and depth of the colour A kind of worship of an orange is suggested, and thus for the Sun. It seems that the rush of sensitivity made him feel insecure and thus in an attempt to bring back some stability, he looked for a kind of deity to venerate. This idea is backed up by phrases such as ‘I am filled with a sense of love. I am filled and satiated by it.’ Just like with religion, he seems to adore the orange, and he feels filled by it, almost as giving meaning to his previously meaningless, repetitive life. Having something to look up to, to idolize he gains a psychological support and becomes dependent on his fruits which he would not eat, nor give away to the guards.
The phrase ‘I am invaded at random by unwanted and unknown images.’ accentuates Keenan’s mental instability. ‘Random’ and ‘unknown images’ suggest confusion and lack of logic. The fact that these images are ‘unwanted’ and invade his thoughts proves that he has no control over his mind.
In an attempt to bring back some control, Keenan tries to delude himself. He lies to himself that he can understand time: ‘its flux and pattern is new, seeming so clear, so precise, so deeply understood…’ the repetition of the word ‘so’ suggests the accuracy with which he is aware of time. It seems that he gained control over mind. However after claiming these, he concludes that his ideas are ‘yet inexplicable’, proving that he cannot explain his ideas, because they lack logic. This paradox of understanding something which he cannot explain is an attempt to bring back control over him, but he fails, emphasising the power of his senses and the feebleness of his logical thinking, which over time was inundated by his brain’s need of stimuli.
Keenan’s need of stability and support is accentuated by the phrase ‘In my corner I sit enclosed in the womb of light from my candle-flame.’ Sitting enclosed and the word ‘womb’ suggest a poverty of love and protection. Womb can also imply that his insecurity and fragility, just like an infant’s or even more powerful, a yet unborn baby. He sits in the corner, almost trying to hide himself away, turning inwards.
It seems that Keenan went through some phases. First the repetitive, monotonous days made his senses deprived of stimuli. He began to feel lifeless and his lack of motivation and emptiness made him depressed. Therefore, when he was exposed to a mild stimulus, the orange (and the other fruits), his senses went into extremes, overreacting. This caused a rush of sensitivity, ideas and thoughts, all of which were controlled by his senses. He could not bring control over his mind, and he lost the ability to reason logically for his ideas. His powerlessness made him feel insecure and weak, seeking comfort in light and a seemingly religious idolization of the colour orange, which can be interpreted as a worship of the Sun.