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Hands: Paranoia

Hands: Paranoia


Pierce
English 102 b
Jan. 28, 1997

It seems that in all three of these works there is a sense of paranoia.
In "Hands" a man is fearful of what might happen if he continues to do as he has
done in the past, touch people. A terrible fear of what a small touch could
lead to. In the story "Eveline" a young woman is confused about what to do with
her life. Whether to go with a man she thinks she loves or stay with her father.
In the poem "Summer Solstice, New York City" This man is made crazy and
paranoid because of something. That something has driven this man to the point
of casting his body over the edge of a building.
Straight from the text of Hands, a story about a man and his paranoia of
his own hands. An example of Wing Biddlebaums fear. "Wing Biddlebaum forever
frightened and beset by a ghostly band of doubts."(p. 882) Adolf Myers, or Wing,
as the town people called him, was a dreamer, he wanted others to dream with him
and experience what he did. "Adolf Myers walked into the evening or had sat
talking until dusk upon the school steps lost in a dream."(p. 884) "In a way
the voice and hands, the stroking of shoulders and the touching of hair were a
part of the school Master's effort to carry a dream into the young minds."(p.
884) This is a man that was run out of a town for something that was not a bad
thing. Nor was this something intended the wrong way. Mr. Myers did touch only
to pass on something great, a dream. Mr. Myers was run from a town. "They
intended to hang the school master."(p. 885) "As he ran away in the darkness
they repented their weakness and ran after him."(p. 885) Mr. Myers was so
paranoid about touching someone he would do anything to keep his hands from
doing so. "When he talked to George Willard, Wing Biddlebaum closed his fist and
beat with them upon a table or on the walls of his house."(p. 882) Once Wing did
let that one thing that he tried so hard not to do...