Setting description → the author  wants the reader to visualize the scene

Too low coffee table, choice of the adverb “awkwardly” → sense of discomfort

Connel looks for the receptionist’s guidance → sense of insecurity

Connel studies literature at school→ use of specific language “its syntacs seems to have originated inside him”.

“ he rubs his tongue hard on the roof of his mouth, trying to settle his face into a neutral frown of consideration”→  he wants to hide his real feelings

When he lies on his bedroom’s carpet he deeply analyzes his feelings: he states that life is everywhere the same because it is the thing you bring with you inside your own head.

He also makes some reflections about death: it is a silent eyelid that closes over everything for good.

His ideas of life and death remind the post-modern ones: in your head past and future always exist together with your present and there isn’t paradise after death.

When Connel realizes there is a glass between him and the assistant he feels a potentially contagious mentally unhealthy person.

He would like to have his pages back to change the answers→ he is deeply insecure

Accurate description of the meals served for dinner→ the reader can visualize the scene

 the main themes of the chapter are death and mental ilnesses.