The Second Bakery Attack

"While she hunted for more fragments of food, I leaned over the edge of my boat and looked down at the peak underwater volcano. The clarity of the ocean water all around the boat gave me an unsettled feeling, as if a hollow had opened somewhere behind my solar plexus-a hermetically sealed cavern that had neither entrance nor exit. Something about this weird sense of absence-this sense of the existential reality of nonexistence-resembled the paralyzing fear you might feel when you climb to the very top of a high steeple. This connection between hunger and acrophobia was a new discovery for me." (Page 39)

First of all I had to look up acrophobia which is a pathological fear of heights. Next I realized that the author was using an allusion to relate his message to you. Overall he is trying to get you to realize how hungry he is, but he is using it by telling a story. He relates it to being sea sick, because when you are over-hungry you feel sick to your stomach. This diction is also in a childish way. The author is telling a story to get his point across, and many times that is what children do when they are trying to tell something. The narrator and his wife don't work, and are struggling for food, and they are both acting like children. They feel that they shouldn't have to work, they should just get whatever they want. This view is often taken by children with how they want everything.

The narrator looks into the ocean and sees a volcano. This symbolizes his life, because he says that there is neither an entrance nor an exit. In his life, there is no way for people to get in or out, and they are just stuck. He can't seem to fix his life, even if he wanted to because he is set in his ways. He feels as if he is too far away from ever fixing it. That relates to the acrophobia, because he is too high, or too far away from fixing things.