The Hitchhiker Schizophrenia Summary
Diagnosing a Schizophrenic Schizophrenia is a long term, typically untreatable mental disorder which can interfere in a person's daily routine. Any person diagnosed with schizophrenia has a deviating perception of reality. In other words it “affects the way a person acts, thinks, and sees the world” (“Schizophrenia” 1). In Andrew Horowitz’s, “The Hitchhiker” a 15-year old boy, Jacob, leaves an asylum for the first time after nine years in order to spend his birthday with his parents. On the way back, Jacob pushed a hitchhiker out of his car because he believed the hitchhiker escaped from a nearby asylum and was going to murder him along with his family. In reality, the hitchhiker was a gardener who managed to trek to the next town after his
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Jacob has hallucinations when he thinks the hitchhiker’s arms were covered in blood and when he believes the hitchhiker was going to kill his entire family. Schizophrenia victims like Jacob “may see or hear things that don’t exist, [...] believe that others are trying to harm them, or feel like they’re constantly being watched” (Schizophrenia” 1). Jacob shows correlation with all of these symptoms when he thinks he see blood “trickling down all the way to the edge of his (hitchhiker’s) hand” and when he supposes he saw a knife (Horowitz 8). However he later finds out it had been “mud” he had seen on the hitchhiker’s wrist and that the hitchhiker had been “holding not a knife but a cigarette case” (Horowitz 18). Jacob’s hallucinations felt so real to him that even after he was told he was wrong, he was skeptical. Such hallucinations are called visual hallucinations and are extremely common with schizophrenic patients. Even though the hallucinations may seem real to the patient, they are only figments of their imagination. Clearly, Jacob’s deceitful hallucinations, were a side effect of having schizophrenia.
Undoubtedly, Jacob has paranoid schizophrenia because he is overly suspicious triggering side effects such as hallucinations. Jacob begins seeing things like blood instead of mud and a knife instead of cigarettes. Symptoms like the one Jacob is dealing with are extremely common in schizophrenic patients making his illness
Jacob has hallucinations when he thinks the hitchhiker’s arms were covered in blood and when he believes the hitchhiker was going to kill his entire family. Schizophrenia victims like Jacob “may see or hear things that don’t exist, [...] believe that others are trying to harm them, or feel like they’re constantly being watched” (Schizophrenia” 1). Jacob shows correlation with all of these symptoms when he thinks he see blood “trickling down all the way to the edge of his (hitchhiker’s) hand” and when he supposes he saw a knife (Horowitz 8). However he later finds out it had been “mud” he had seen on the hitchhiker’s wrist and that the hitchhiker had been “holding not a knife but a cigarette case” (Horowitz 18). Jacob’s hallucinations felt so real to him that even after he was told he was wrong, he was skeptical. Such hallucinations are called visual hallucinations and are extremely common with schizophrenic patients. Even though the hallucinations may seem real to the patient, they are only figments of their imagination. Clearly, Jacob’s deceitful hallucinations, were a side effect of having schizophrenia.
Undoubtedly, Jacob has paranoid schizophrenia because he is overly suspicious triggering side effects such as hallucinations. Jacob begins seeing things like blood instead of mud and a knife instead of cigarettes. Symptoms like the one Jacob is dealing with are extremely common in schizophrenic patients making his illness