Chapter Fourteen

The fourteenth chapter is about Matt Donaghy. Matt wants to publish a text about the day, when he was arrested and which effects that day had. But the paper staff prohibited that so he’s really angry for being censored.

When I started reading the fourteenth chapter, something instantly caught my eye. The beginning of this chapter is the same as the beginning of the previous chapter. The atmosphere of these described days is very depressing: “Another Nothing-Day. Smelling of dirty socks, and worse. (p. 97, ll. 18, 19)”

In my opinion, the repetition shall express the monotony of this time for Matt. He was accustomed to be a popular student, but now he doesn’t have ‘real’ friends. This is a total ‘Nothing-Time’, he is bored and his heart has been broken.

For Matt the only way out of that is writing. When he writes a text for the school paper, he is free and independent. By writing, he can express his enormous feelings and this is a kind of therapy. But now the school paper staff has forbidden Matt to publish his article. I think this is going to lure Matt on to destruction. He must keep his feelings for himself and isn’t able to get that off his chest.

We can already notice that. After hearing the message of Mr. Steiner, he got really angry. He couldn’t believe what he’s heard. His passion has been forbidden for him and like I expected, he didn’t want to accept that.