Choose any chapter- What is special about this chapter? HOW DOES THIS CHAPTER REALLY ADD TO THE MEANING OF THE NOVEL?

My favourite chapter is "On Rainy River".

The story is told in a mix of first person narrative and flashback. The narrator telling the story is the mature O’Brien, but he sometimes slips back into the voice and tone of his younger self. The younger O’Brien’s voice is less mature, more entitled, and less morally complex. The tension between the two narrative voices, the young and the old O’Brien, gives dramatic intensity to a story that would otherwise merely relate a young man’s thoughts about an important decision. The interplay between the young and the old O’Brien lend dialogue to a story in which there isn’t much other dialogue.

“On the Rainy River” contains the main existential and moral crisis of the book. The turning point at the river is a classic Freudian scene. The boy wants to jump out of the boat, his ego and his id (his authentic desires) strain to go. But his superego (what society orders) constrains him. In this story, the superego is symbolized by O’Brien imagining large crowds of people watching him make his decision. The scene takes place on a river; water for Freud often symbolizes the unconscious, where the battle between the superego, id and ego takes place.