Juice Part One Response

While reading “Juice”, I was kind of confused as to the origin of the speaker and his people. To me it seems as if the people of his culture are going through a hard time adjusting to the changes that are going on  around them. I have come to think that they may be a tribe that is native to an mountainous area that incomers are building around. Unlike other cultures that look to the past for guidance, they do not. They prefer to store it away from sight and not use it, which to me, is kind of weird. However, I want to know why he was the only one left behind. Why did he have to suffer the effects of being left alone for so long that he heard voices and saw spirits? Why couldn’t he go with them or why couldn’t a few of them stay behind with him?

This book displays the descent into madness that a person can experience from going too long without human contact. The speaker went from  having his whole community there with him to being by himself over night. What was the crisis that these people went through that they left him behind?  In the beginning of the book, the speaker was obsessed with  juice, any kind of juice really. But once everyone left him, he no longer worries about it. He just wonders when his people will be back. He doesn’t eat and it is unclear whether he sleeps or not, but it is highly likely that he doesn’t. It is also unclear how long he has been left alone, on page 18, he says that it was 2 years ago that the first visions appeared. However, that could just be from that moment in time in which he was speaking.

So far, I would say that this book is pretty good. It has plenty of mystery as to what happened to his people, where did they go, when they are going to be back, and why did they leave him there by himself? He finds ways to entertain himself, even though he is slowly going insane without human contact. He even finds a way to take care of his sexual needs. I honestly cannot wait to see how this book ends. It will be interesting to see his people’s reaction to the changes of his state of mind and body when they return.