Paper Example on Iain Rein's Book "I'm Thinking of Ending Things"

Iain Reid is a Canadian author of the novel by the title "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" that was published in the year 2016 in the United States. Iain Reid in the year 2015-won RBC Taylor Writer Award. Rein career in writing developed after publishing columns and articles in national newspapers and magazines after his college graduation. Iain Reid has written other books such as "one bird's choice" and "The Truth About Luck" The author describes a horror fiction and psychological thriller through a man by the name Jake who takes his girlfriend to his parents and later disturbing aftermath arises. An unnamed Jake's girlfriend narrates the story. Jake first met his girlfriend in a pub at night during his college time, and the young woman gave Jake a phone Number. Some weeks later, Jake takes his girlfriend to visit his parents at the remote farm. In the mind of Jake's girlfriend, she had the plans of terminating their relationship, but she had not informed Jake. When Jake arrived at his home to his parents with his girlfriend, Jake's parents' parents were unpleasant and asked Jake's girlfriend awkward questions, and then Jake's girlfriend was unsettled. The book is about a man who went through psychological problems because of the solitary life he lived. Jake always wished to have a close person that he could share ideas of life, and he eventually killed himself due to the lack of a close friend.

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Question 1

The Book versus the reality

The story in the novel in the novel is pure fiction. It has instances that create shocks to the readers, for example, in the situation where Jake leaves his girlfriend in the car and goes inside the school and never returned; the girlfriend was in shock as she did not know what had happened to Jake. It also explains the problematic situations that Jake went through in the entire story. How he eventually committed suicide. The novel starts by unnamed Jake's girlfriend, who narrates how they visited her boyfriend's parents in the remotes farm. A twist towards the end of the book outlines to the readers that Jake had no relationship with the girl and has fabricated the story for the readers to believe that he was in a serious relationship. Jake had a severe mental problem that resulted in several personal disorder that made him kill himself in a school where he worked for thirty years as a custodian.

Some incidents happen in real-life situations where some individuals make wrong decisions when getting into relationships that sometimes result in mental illness, and others commit suicide. Some of the reasons why some individuals are developing psychological problems and others committing suicide are that some people are getting into relationships without coming into a proper agreement with their partners. The appropriate transaction only occurs if all the partners of the links love one another and can communicate with one another. Some people develop some mental illness if one of the partners evolves the feeling of giving up in the relationships that makes the other one get confused, and this can result in psychological problems. There several instances in the colleges and Universities in the modern world where some students are committing suicide because of the issues concerning love. Lack of proper agreement in the relationships of the students in higher learning institutions has contributed to the disappointment of some students who eventually commit suicide. Sometimes when some individuals find themselves in situations that they are lonely, and they have no one to share their idea with, they develop mental distress and cannot engage themselves in constructive work. Some individuals may even be tempted to commit suicide due to solidarity.

Question 2

The story in the novel is a metaphor in the real world. Jake's girlfriend's feelings of ending their relationship though their relationship was getting stronger, towards the end of the novel, there is a disturbing twist that reveals the situation that the girlfriend found herself in after meeting Jake's parents. This is a metaphor for the readers of the story in the modern world. The novel's account has a significant impact that helps young individuals in society and the higher learning institutions when getting into serious relationships. The readers of the fiction can reflect their behavior from that of Jake's action in his connection and the reaction of Jake's parents and even the feelings of Jake's girlfriend though she had not revealed her feelings to Jake.

Question 3

The author reveals the psychology in the novel by setting the story in the unspecified locale. When Jake decides to take his girlfriend to visit his parents at the remote farm for the first time, Jake was not aware that his girlfriend had the thinking of terminating their relationship. When Jake's girlfriend was introduced to Jake's parents, they asked her awkward questions that that triggered her to create more doubts in their relationship with Jake. When Jake and his girlfriend were traveling on their way home, they experienced nasty weather that made Jake pull out of the road and went to a nearby high school. Jake exits the car and leaves his girlfriend in the car alone after a long wait in the cold car. Jake's girlfriend decides to follow him in the school building. Jake's girlfriend was shocked and terrified; she wished she could have earlier ended her relationship with Jake. Several events happened between Jake and his girlfriend that preceded the couple's separation during the nightmare in the school. Towards the end of the story, the author reveals that the story is about Jake, who was employed as a school janitor and had dropped out of college thirty years ago; thus, the story is about one character who is in deep psychological thoughts.

The psychologist would say that Jake had a baffling behavior due to his mental illness that needs to be investigated after reading the novel, for instance when Jakes takes his girlfriend on a tour visit to his parents at his home place, when they arrived even if it was cold and dark, the girlfriend explains that she felt as if she had stepped in a warp. The photo Jake claims to be his during his early age appeared to be much older than what the girlfriend thinks it was supposed to be. This creates the sense to the readers that the girlfriend described in the novel is actually a fragmented part of the main character Jake. The psychologist would also say that Jake was also confused in his mind; for example, Jake's girlfriend in the story says that after taking dinner with her boyfriend parent, the girlfriend and Jake went on a side trip. Jake then takes his girlfriend into a high school that his girlfriend later realized it was the regular Jake's place of work. As they were getting to the school in a car Jake pretends that he saw another person watching them as they were getting out of the car, Jake then decides to run after that person. Then the girlfriend was left inside the car for a long time waiting for her boyfriend. After a long time in the car, Jake's girlfriend started fearing that Jake might have been hurt when he did not return. Then the girlfriend decided to follow Jake in the direction he had observed in school. She had developed great fear that the person who was employed there in that school as a janitor might harm her. She started searching for Jake until when she later came to understand that Jake had not seen anybody, but he only had lured her to go to school intentionally. After a while, when the girlfriend was searching for her boyfriend, she gets confused about who she is; she later discovers that Jake and she are the same people. The readers of the novel are able to understand through the girlfriend's confusion. Jake had no girlfriend, but the story is about himself in a confused state.

The psychological factor that resulted in Jake committing suicide towards the end of the story is that he had lost his parents a long time ago and had dropped out of college thirty years ago. Jake lived a solitary life that compelled him to have a deep thought in his life, and this subjected him to spend much of his time in writing his notebooks to express his ideas. Jake also had some frustrations in his life after dropping from college at an early age, and he was employed in a school where he was working as a janitor. He had no one to share his thoughts, and this contributed to his idea of writing notebooks to express his feelings. Jake had lost hope for a long time in his life, and he felt that his problems could easily be solved by the girlfriend he always wished to have or a close friend in his life. After he found that there was no way he could express himself, he decided to kill himself as there was no source of hope in his life.

The primary character diagnostic in the novel is schizophrenia. In the story, Jake has a serious personal problem that adversely affected his thought, and he had no close person that he could share his questions with. For example, in the story, the manuscript that was found just next to his body after he killed himself in a school where he worked as a custodian for more than thirty years reveals that he had a very lonely life. At the beginning of the story, it appears Jake's girlfriend is narrating the story while they are traveling to visit Jake's parents for the first time. Towards the end of the story, a twist in the story reveals that Jake had no relationship with a girl. He only had fabricated the story in his imagination how his life might have been if he was in a relationship, or at least if he had another serious close friend, he could share his ideas in his life. After the death of Jake's parents and later dropped out of college, he lived a solitary life when he was working as a janitor in the school and always wished to have a person he could share his life with a situation led himself to be diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Question 4

The main character also suffers from mental distress; when Jake's girlfriend is said to be locked in a car next to the school is a metaphor for Jake's life. Jake feels locked in his mental suffering, and he cannot get out. He had neither family nor friends and had difficulty in sharing his ideas with others. Though he feels intelligent and there is a time he did doctoral working in a laboratory, he is tied up as a school custodian, and he cannot meet different people in sharing his views and ideas. All of his personality aspects were tied in school responsibility that puts him in misery. Jake is also suffering from mental distress. He feels that he had the essential knowledge to share with the people in the community, but he could not get access to the people because of the responsibility charged to him in the high school where he was working as a janitor.

In real life, there are cases of schizophrenic; for instance, Eduard Einstein, who was born in the year 1910 and died in Switzerland. Eduard was a highly intelligent and successful student in his education. During his early age, Eduard wanted to become a psychoanalyst but was attacked by the signs of schizophrenia at a young age of twenty years. He later died in an asylum at the age of fifty-five years. His death due to his brilliant idea raised much awareness of schizophrenia. The intelligence and the wisdom of Eduard Einstein are emulated by many people across the world that wishes to become psychoanalysts. Another real-life example of a person who had schizophrenia is Lionel Aldridge. Lionel was a great footballer who suffered from brain-related disease at the age of thirty years that hindered his performance in his football career. While he was diagnosed the period before his death at the age of fifty-four years, he had helped so many people in managing some mental problems.