Madness Maya Hornbacker
Perceptions of the Lost
“When you are mad, mad like this, you don't know it. Reality is what you see. When what you see shifts, departing from anyone else's reality, it's still reality to you” (Hornbacker, 2008, P. 6). Perception plays a huge role in our lives: whether we realize it or not. I always ask a trusted confidant of mine (and probably the biggest idiot I’ve ever known) about the state of the objects we perceive in our lives. Aside from becoming upset with his complete idiocy, he stated that “there are always two things to view when we speak of perception: the entity itself and our view of it” (J. Lucas, personal communication, November 20, 2012). Essentially, what we may see, hear, touch, etc. could not be the actual truth. This brings a lot of issues when we are examining topics in general. There are more problems present when examining subject matters that are very ambiguous. For example, when examining a narrative we may come to multiple conclusions on what the messages the narrator was attempting get across. This is overtly apparent when viewing Marya Hornbacher’s book, Madness. From reading this book, I believe that Mayra was sexually abused. One of the main reasons I believes so was due to her description of the light that always enters her room. It always leads to her and her “goatman.” I believe this light to be some sort blinding force. This blinding effect would naturally keep a person from seeing any events that are occurring in front of them (i.e.: turning on a bright light after being in the dark for a prolonged period of time). For Mayra, this blinding light forces her to forget (or better yet, suppress) the memories of her sexual abuse behind a huge, seemingly mystical event. When asked of her abuse, she always seemed to forget or deny that it happened. Then this light appears out of nowhere (Hornbacker, 2008, P. 15 -31). She is clearly suppressing something. Chen (2010) states that “It
“When you are mad, mad like this, you don't know it. Reality is what you see. When what you see shifts, departing from anyone else's reality, it's still reality to you” (Hornbacker, 2008, P. 6). Perception plays a huge role in our lives: whether we realize it or not. I always ask a trusted confidant of mine (and probably the biggest idiot I’ve ever known) about the state of the objects we perceive in our lives. Aside from becoming upset with his complete idiocy, he stated that “there are always two things to view when we speak of perception: the entity itself and our view of it” (J. Lucas, personal communication, November 20, 2012). Essentially, what we may see, hear, touch, etc. could not be the actual truth. This brings a lot of issues when we are examining topics in general. There are more problems present when examining subject matters that are very ambiguous. For example, when examining a narrative we may come to multiple conclusions on what the messages the narrator was attempting get across. This is overtly apparent when viewing Marya Hornbacher’s book, Madness. From reading this book, I believe that Mayra was sexually abused. One of the main reasons I believes so was due to her description of the light that always enters her room. It always leads to her and her “goatman.” I believe this light to be some sort blinding force. This blinding effect would naturally keep a person from seeing any events that are occurring in front of them (i.e.: turning on a bright light after being in the dark for a prolonged period of time). For Mayra, this blinding light forces her to forget (or better yet, suppress) the memories of her sexual abuse behind a huge, seemingly mystical event. When asked of her abuse, she always seemed to forget or deny that it happened. Then this light appears out of nowhere (Hornbacker, 2008, P. 15 -31). She is clearly suppressing something. Chen (2010) states that “It