Tape OZK005

I read up to the fourth section of the book, from Tape OKZ005.
The story falls deeper into the mystery of Adam Farmer. Tape OKZ005 starts with the bike trip narrative, Adam desperately urging to talk to Amy, unable to think of anything else that will encourage him to journey on. He was tired, wishing that he would have taken the medicine before taking off. He falls into deeper devastation as he finds out that he would not be able to make it to the motel in Belton falls in time before night. Despite the discouragement, Adam is able to recall happy memories he had with his parents of the owner of the house that stood in front of him. Even though Amy would have been at school, he decides to call her, but she does not pick up the phone. Encouraging himself by singing “The Farmer in the Dell”, he heads for Carver town. Then the narrative and setting is changed to the conversations that Brint and Adam have. Brint asks about Amy, and this time, Adam seems to be more cooperative telling of what she knows about Amy. Adam starts telling of Amy, distinguishing her from the rest of the people whom he believes are clues. As he starts telling, he falls into a memory of them making out, realizing more and more of whom she actually was and the relationship he had with her. Not only was she funny and talkative, but it was her admiration for his dream of becoming a famous author that made him truly fall in deep love with as soon as his eyes met her. Amy also seemed to like Adam, wanting to do activities such as Numbers with him. Adam was attracted more and more to Amy not only because she was opposite of what he was like, bold and courageous, but he became more like her and less like himself when they spent time together, which was one of Adam’s significant characteristic, being someone else than himself. He fell into happy memories of the times they spent playing Numbers which was placing as much canned goods into a cart than successfully abandoning the cart in the mart.

The narrative and setting changed back to the conversation, Adam stating that Amy is one of the clues, falling into another memory in a third person narrative. He recalls telling Amy that he used to live in Rawlings his first four years of his life. One day he significantly remembers is the day that suspicion ran through his family’s identity. Amy met an editor from Rawlings and asked if he had heard of Adam’s family a few years back. However, the editor has not heard of such a family, stunning Adam, making him question his family’s identity. He decides that it was something that had to do with the night his family was running away on the bus. Despite the loving relationship he had with Amy, he decides to lie to Amy that he actually stayed in Rawlings for only a couple months which is why the editor doesn’t know his family. It is not only that he had actually lied without guilt, changing the true identity of his family; it is that something pushed him to lie to Amy. The narrative and setting is back to the conversation. Adam tells Brint that he logically interpreted the situation and decided to believe that it was just the editor who had a bad memory. Brint then states this second piece of significant memory as landmark, suggesting Adam to eat more medicine to allow him to bring back more memories. The narrative is back to the bike trip as he vigorously travels through the rain to Carver. All his belongings including the gift for his father are wet due to the rain. He thinks of giving up, yet encourages himself to go on, singing the “The Farmer in the Dell.”

Robert Cormier adds a significant curve to this story by telling of Adam’s instinct of lying. Adam found it so easy to lie and something powerful inside him those made him lie, hiding him and his family’s identity. It curves the story in to a much deeper mystery of Adam and his family’s identity. The hiding of identity by Adam made me fall deeper because if someone does not reveal their identity, even to their loved ones, there is something much sinister about the identity. It is also something about Adam lying that changes the perspective that I had of the bike trip from Adam’s point of view, narrated in first person. Since the bike trip is never from a third person, telling of what is really going on, not just what Adam tells is going on, it brings more suspicion. It is not only the lying, but in the previous sections, it is shown that Adam does not always choose tell the truth such as the conversations between Adam and Brint. This definitely brings doubt in the bike trip.

As I was reading, I imagined what it would be like to be Adam, having conversations trying to remember things that the psychiatrist is asking of. Even though Adam did not really want to reveal anything to Brint, he somehow found a way for Adam to tell of his past by forcing him to remember details. The terrifying part is that he remembers what happened, but does remember why he did it or what caused him to do it. He remembers him lying to Amy about his family’s identity, but does not remember why he had lied and what about his family’s identity made him lie to his loved one. He remembers that he has lived in Rawlings for four years, yet does not know how the editor does not remember his family. It would have been especially terrifying to not really know your identity and your family’s identity, suddenly starting to remember frightening things that happened in your life, starting to remember bit by bit of your identity, but ending with more question and put into deeper confusion. To be alone without anyone, barely knowing who you are and where you are, and being forced upon to remember the horrible past that you have been through would have been too much for me to handle.