The Nature of Insanity

Several times throughout the novel, characters question and discuss what it means to be insane, their differing answers defining the book's other thematic considerations. For many of the characters, and in all likelihood most readers, the concept of insanity triggers, at least initially, ideas and images of unpredictability, violence, bad physical hygiene, individuals talking to themselves and/or hearing voices, and many other symptoms. In other words, insanity is generally defined and perceived, in both the book and in life, as a profoundly negative experience, with those declared and held to be insane perceived as inhabiting a state of being other than what is commonly held to be or regarded as, "normal." Such people, again in both the book and in life, tend to be further defined as dangerous, frightening, amusing, or irritating, and in all cases ought to be kept away from "normal" people...