Tape OZK003, Tape OZK004

I read up to the fourth section of the book, from Tape OZK003 to OKZ004.
Such as always, there is another conversation with Brint constantly asking Adam questions. However, Adam simply ignores Brint this time, not giving him feedback, forcing Brint to call this meeting off. During the conversation, Adam strangely feels that something he does not know is causing him to forget things, throwing him into confusion. The narrative and setting change to the adventurous bike trip. As Adam stands on top of the hill, he is confronted by a dog standing in the middle of the road on the bottom, as if vigorously waiting to hurt Adam. Swallowing his fear, he courageously pedals down the hill, swiftly passing the Then he is dog with speed, but the dog continues to chase him, making him fear for his life until the dog sees another car to chase. Having escaped from the dog, he continues to journey on to Rutterburg. The bike trip then switches back to the conversation. Shockingly, Adam starts to question Brint and his identity. He asks who Brint actually is and what place he is exactly in. Brint somehow shrewdly avoids answering these questions by asking another question back, then giving an answer, creating a bit of suspicion. Brint continues the conversation, asking of the clues he had been asking of earlier. The narrative is quickly switched to third person, telling of Adam’s inner thoughts of how he should answer this question. As he wisely selects only a few parts of what he believes are the clues that Brint is talking about. The narrative switches into which does not show any more inner thoughts of the characters. The German shepherd outside the building is somehow able to remind Adam that it is a dog that is related to the clues. Not exactly the dog outside, but some different dog, allowing him to fall into another deep memory that he faintly remembers of how a dog confronted him and his father in the woods. Strangely, his father was guiding Adam to a road that they don’t really know, heading for the library. Then, with another odd move, Adam’s father started to guide Adam away from the library and to the woods as if they were desperately trying to hide from something coming from the library. It is during the running away and hiding that they are stopped by a dog. Adam, terrified, simply listens to the directions told by his father in order to escape the dog. Although Adam was able to successfully escape the ferocious dog’s attack, his father had no choice but to fight it unto the point the dog gives up. It seemed to be a happening ending, but sinister feelings filled the air as Adam was said to keep quiet about escaping into the woods and of the encounter of the dog.

Although the story may still feel confusing with three different narratives and settings, this is a significant part of the story, since a connection is built between the three, starting to make at least the slightest bit of sense. The dog is introduced in all three different stories. It is introduced in the conversation as Adam states that the German shepherd outside of the building has reminded him of memories of the confrontation that he had with the dog in the woods, resulting in other memories of the situation that his father was going through. The dog stated in the conversation somehow connects the conversation to the old memories that he is having. The dog is also introduced into the bike trip as the animal that Adam has one of the most fears for. If there was no connection between the stories at this point of the story, the curiosity about the mystery would have died down, too confused to understand why there are three stories and how they even connect or relate. With great timing, Robert Cormier starts giving clues of how the three relate. Robert Cormier doesn’t make the connections clear, yet he is able to show that there is some kind of connection between the three different stories. He doesn’t simply show why the three stories are related and connect with each other, but just show the slightest connection, just enough to imprison us in his mind of mystery.

Robert Cormier wisely uses repetition to make the story a bit clearer to give a slight idea of what is going on. He sets the frightening mood and what is going on in the story by repeating scenes of Adam running away. It shows him running away in the bus trip with his parents. Then there is a scene where he is running away from the fierce dog during the bike trip. Lastly, there is also the part where he is not only running away from someone with his dad, but also escaping the dog that attacked him and his dad. The mystery had been made more confusing the more I read, having three different stories in one mystery, each story introducing new characters and characteristics of the characters. However, Robert Cormier keeps the curiosity going clearing up parts of the story, realizing that there will be no curiosity if the mystery was too confusing to realize what was going on.

A new perspective of Brint is also built in this section, stunning me, filling me with a sense that he is not exactly guiding Adam to recover his memory. He seems to be rather trying to control Adam’s memory, than simply guide him, bossy and asking only of the questions that he wants to know. He also denies revealing his identity and who he really is. A sinister feeling of Brint is created, along with much more curiosity to who Brint is than just a psychiatrist. Brint seems as a minor character rather than a main character in the sections before this sinister feeling of Brint is created, but Robert Cormier introduces Brint in section four as one of the main characters than a minor character as he has been in previous section, only asking questions.