How does matt see the world in chapters one to five?

Matt feels dead in the world of the living. In the opening scene, he describes the people in the hall of his high school. He says that most people are “zipping by” as they rush toward their next class while Matt “sort of floated through the halls like some kind of zombie” (1). He compares himself to a zombie for two reasons: he is struggling to feel anything other than grief after his mother's death and he has come to realize that high school is not as important as most believe it to be. Matt has faced a crisis and none of his classmates know how to handle this situation.