“ In his earnestness, Dr. Luzan kept delving further into my psyche, plumbing the depths. I was developing into a model case. Of course I was switching between him and me, getting piecemeals of the doctor with projections in an almost classical mod, but for the first time I found myself at moments running short of my story, my chosen narrative. Normally I would have ceased matters temporarily, retreated to Westchester to reiterate and revise. But inexplicably I began stringing the legend back upon myself. I was no longer extrapolating; I was looping it through the core, freely talking about my life, suddenly breaching the confidences of my father and my mother and my wife. I even spoke to him about a lost dead son. I was becoming dangerously frank, inconsistently schizophrenic. I ceased listening to him altogether. Like a good doctor he let me go on and on, and in moments I felt he was the only one in the world who might comfort me. I genuinely began to like him. I looked forward to our fifty-minute sessions on Thursday mornings, enough so that we began meeting on Mondays as well. Hoagland assumed I was stepping up the operation. When I was in the chair across the desk from Luzan I completely lost myself. I was becoming a dependent, a friend” (22-23).
One of the first things I noticed about this passage was his short, choppy sentences with the exception of one sentence. Although grammatically speaking the sentences are very short and choppy, when I read it, it felt like the passage had really long sentences. I think this effect paralleled with the fact that Henry wanted his sessions to be longer and longer each time he went over to Dr. Luzan’s office. He even made it twice a week instead of just once a week. There was also a change of attitude from the protagonist. At first, I saw him as just a pitiful man who lost all of his family, but in this passage, he found Luzan to be a friend, and it made me feel happy for him.
Another thing I noticed was that even though Henry was supposed to lie about his life (his “legend”), he started to speak the truth and talk to Dr. Luzan about everything, even the touchy subject of his dead son. This shows the reader how comfortable he felt with Luzan which is a nice change of pace from the Henry who didn’t even open up that much to his own wife. I think it was good that Henry was able to talk one on one with someone he considered a friend about all the ups and downs of his life and what he wants to do next. Also, it was good that he “completely lost” himself because so many things went wrong for Henry that sometimes it would have been good for him to just forget everything and just talk.
His job was to gather information about Dr. Luzan secretly. Of course he did that little by little, but I think after getting to know Luzan, Henry started to feel sorry and even started to forget that he was on a job. Even though normally he would have reconstructed his “legend” if something went wrong, this time he just went with the flow and started adding truth to the lie. I think this further tells the reader that Henry just needs someone that can support him and be there for him when times get rough. He just needs a true friend who will not only help him get through situations, but also help him identify who he is as a person and what he should be doing with his life.