Dreams (Chapter 11)

The narrator has just participated in a small brawl with his mentor, Brockway, after being suspected of being a member of the Union. It is abruptly stopped by the loss of Brockway's teeth after biting the narrator, and the hissing of the boilers due to extremely high valve pressure. In the efforts of releasing the pressure, the boilers explode covering the narrator in machinery and "stinking goo" (230). The narrator awakes in a hospital to see a man, the doctor, "with a bright third eye that glowed from the center of his forehead" (231). This scene represents a figurative "rebirth" for the narrator due to his paralleled symptoms of a newborn--no memory, inability to understand speech, and unformed identity--causing the character to see the spiritual and religious symbol ultimately representing his mind finally being awakened to the truth. His entire state of euphoria during the x-ray and electric shock treatments is the act of him being enlightened and exposed to his potential universal energy that will finally keep "this nigger boy from running." The transition of the narrator first hearing "the opening motif of Beethoven's Fifth" to "a distinct wail of female pain" illustrates the process of a woman's cries in childbirth and the narrator's enlightenment through works of music (235). However, this "rebirth" happens with neither a mother or father, relating back to the advice of the veteran "Be your own father, young man." stating that he should create his own identity rather than accept the identity imposed on him from the outside. (156) More evidence is prevalent in the song choice of "The Holy City" in the narrator's lucid dream and his memory of his grandmother's peaceful, in some ways haunting, song about the "Godamighty" (234).