The introduction of these useless facts makes me believe the author included these to tell us that the main characters are not exactly right in the head. The inclusion of the camera in the room made the setting seem like some kind of asylum for the insane and not just a typical hospital in which our main character is in. However, you do realize that the characters themselves are not quite right. For example, Hempel writes of how the nurse is referred to as the Best Friend instead of her real surname. This indicates a mental flaw in the main character’s friend’s brain. There are many strange snippets here and there that the writer puts to show us the oddness of the characters. Such as when the friend of the narrator loops a cord around her neck, as if she is trying to commit suicide. Some of the words almost feel random and nonsensical, which I think is Hempel’s way of delivering a not-as-sane set of characters for the reader to know. Further on, we read more strange nicknames the two patients give to their doctors. These nicknames are what they believe describes them as a whole, and it feels like the nicknames suggest a sort of loose grasp on reality. The narrator and her friend only directly call the nurses and doctors by the singular trait they see on them. The last thing I noticed about Hempel’s story is that each new section after a line break is something akin to a random thought the narrator delivers to us. This short story is rather a tough read because we are introduced to the mind of a mental patient and Hempel shows it through the nicknames, the paragraphs of words that doesn’t make sense. Also, of course, the camera that is installed within the two characters’ room which portrays a less than ordinary hospital.
The Cemetery Where Al Johnson Is Buried
Sep 21st, 2016 by pang17