The God Of Nightmares Analysis

a) “My grandfather believed in reason above all else,….There were terrible governments and wars because people used their wills in the wrong direction. He said were all wild children, the whole human race, and must be instructed in how to think,” (Fox, page 169). I like this phrase because of how factual it is in any time frame. Spock, the Vulcan side kick of Captain Kirk in Star Trek often referred to humans as illogical. I often find myself contemplating the reason why people do what they do. Why it is so important to allow oneself to be ruled by greed and selfishness. We all grew up hearing of the golden rule, where there is a reciprocal relationship between one’s self and others that involves both sides equally and in a mutual fashion.
One example of logos is in regards of Gerald. Gerald Boyd was a poet that awarded a prize for his work, which caused the people of the area to lash out at him, “This is the end of the country-not the delta, not those vile little settlements in that hellish swamp Gerald is so crazy about, even though some bastards who live there nearly killed him……It’s what those savages in the bayou did to him. He won a prize for his poetry, a big sophisticated city prize, and of course the local newspaper wrote him up. Those bayou creatures got wind of it, word of mouth, I suppose, since I don’t believe for a second that they can read! Those poems were about them. About their lives. Beautiful poems. And they took offense. What right did he have to write poems about them? They grabbed him one night. They held him on the ground and stuck a hoe into his poor bottom and blew air up him…He had a heart attack after that, because of what they did to him. His country folk friends. He wouldn’t tell the police who did it to him. Howard says he still sees him,” (Fox, page 72). Here we see the beginning of trying to establish reason and logic for what happened to Gerald. By using logos, we are entering the minds of the people that hurt Gerald and try to justify their actions. Again we see this further in the book, “He made their lives his subject. He marked them out and made them seem
I think one point Fox is trying to make through this story can be summed up in that one phrase. Throughout the story it appears the characters are unaware of their actions and how it plays into the outcomes, they are even oblivious to the actions of those around them. “Don’t pay much attention to what people say. Then, someday, you’ll find out what you think yourself. Try to go to what is new as innocently as you can — let the surprise of it take you first,”(Fox, 37). What the reader can sense and what the characters of the story portray and different. For example I had an uncanny feeling that Nina and Len were lovers, the clues were there for the taking. In the end of the story when Helen finds out Len and Nina were lovers she is shocked and amazed. The innocents of her youth opened and the maturity of life allowed her to see what was had really occurred and how she played into it. Hence supporting the fact that people are unknown to themselves. I once had to take a seminar about the inner self awareness. The speaker used a window and divided into four panes much like child draw, and stated our “selves” are like windows. In one pane is what I know and others know about me, the next what others know about me that I am unaware of, the next is what I know about myself that others do not and finally what I am aware about myself as well as others. In order to truly grown in self-awareness we need to make the window