| Thoughts
on "The Third Policeman" This passage jumped out at me when I was reading on the bus today. ...you cannot think of it or try to make it the subject of a little idea because you will hurt your box with the excruciation of it. (TTP, page 68) It was the referring to the brain or mind as "your box" that got my attention. This brings to mind some interesting theories, especially in regards to Locke being referred to as "box man" and all the boxes that appear on Lost. Locke If we accept the box as a metaphor for the mind, then the designation "box man" is even more appropriate since Locke has a way of getting in people's heads and knowing their secrets. He enjoys playing mind games and "opens people's boxes" so to speak by assisting them with letting go of the thing- be it an addiction, a fear, an unhealthy relationship, self doubt, that is holding them back. Boxes in general The theory that the box is a metaphor for the mind dovetails nicely with my idea of why the boxes appear in various episodes. As I said in an earlier post, I thought the boxes symbolize a secret or something hidden in the mind of their owners. They are a physical metaphor for the innermost hidden self or the soul. I've been thinking about it, and all the characters who had boxes in their homes or offices could conceivably have something to hide or some deep dark secret. The nesting boxes of decreasing size The progressively smaller boxes one inside of another could symbolize the layers of the human psyche or mind, getting smaller as they get nearer to the core of our being. I kind of think of this as stripping away the layers of artifice and pretense and exposing what or who we really are. I thought immediately of the matryoshka, or Russian nesting dolls when I read this part. This applies to Lost in that the survivors are slowly being stripped of some of their "masks" if you will, the things they hide behind as they spend time on the island. For some like Sawyer and Ana-Lucia it is happening slowly, but it is happening. The lostaways are learning who they really are and exposing their true selves. I hope this isn't too metaphysical or scattered. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around some of the questions raised by the book.
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