Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

James wakes up in the Medical Wing feeling violently ill. He crawls to the bathroom and vomits blood, then, standing in front of a mirror, James is struck by his thin, beaten, and weak body. He gets into the shower and turns up the hot water until it burns. Frey writes that he believes he deserves the pain, and while the heat hurts, it also relieves his shame. Much of James's recovery can be tracked by what happens in the bathroom, both in the shower and in front of a mirror. This scene is the first time the reader witnesses both James's perception of himself as a stranger, and his desire to hurt himself by standing under scalding hot water. He tries to retrace his steps in the days before he woke up wounded on the airplane, but remembers only being...