The Navidson Record In Johnny's The House Of Leaves

Johnny clearly has paranoid thoughts that are brought to the forefront throughout the text. Just like his mother, Pelafina, Johnny makes up many scenarios in his head and is often unreliable. This could be a result of paranoia from many strange events from before Johnny found the Navidson record or from actually reading the Navidson Record. A hereditary mental illness from his mother could also lead to his mental instability and his tendency to be unreliable. The lines between reality and fiction are blurred by leaving it up to the reader to read the letters from Johnny’s mother, Pelafina, to better understand his relationship with his mother. The letters sent by Pelafina to Johnny are the most reliable source of information about Johnny’s past and they are unreliable because she was institutionalized for a mental illness. No one knows for sure if any of the information in this book is accurate and reliable. Johnny’s existence itself is defined by putting together the Navidson Record. It is his

way to self-define, yet it destroys him at the same time; Johnny feels as though his life did not have meaning before he started working on putting together the Navidson Record. Readers will combine information they learn from the letters with their own personal experiences to interpret Johnny as a character.
The Navidson house and the labyrinth are metaphors to one’s brain and subconscious. Just as the house dimensions are greater on the inside than the outside; the brain goes much deeper than just the capacity of the actual organ. The brain is a measurable dimension, but the mind and subconscious are immeasurable with many pathways that lead to your psyche. While your psyche is a reflection or analysis of you and your past, the many components within can get tangled up and seem confusing like a labyrinth. The labyrinth itself represents the impossibility of finding meaning in the world. This is Johnny’s paradox, his struggle to affirm his own existence. Johnny’s weak hold on reality can best be seen when he is attacked by a monster and covered in tattoo ink. He partially vanishes for a moment, but not completely. He relates this as the beast representing his absence where the ink is. In a way, the ink negates (destroys) and affirms (defines) his existence; he exists only in the reflection and is destroyed by the reflective consciousness that defines him. The “beast” symbolizes the battle in his subconscious. Always fighting between what is actually happening and what is going on inside his head. The readers are left to wonder if the scar on Johnny’s neck is from when his mother tried to strangle him, or from the “beast”, or could the “beast” be his mother.
The House of Leaves is a compelling novel that is webbed with a network of fictional narratives.

It is about a family’s documentary that was fictional, written by a fictional blind man, with footnotes and references that are fictional, and compiled by a fictional tattoo assistant that is insane. The many different psyches and perceptions used to connect the characters in the House of Leaves act as foundational support for the theme of the entire novel, that without them in their entirety, there would be absolutely nothing interesting left in the book to read. The House of Leaves provokes thought, debate and analysis of one’s psyche from the reader. Each individual will analyze and interpret the book in their own unique way, through reflective consciousness and mediation. Readers that can navigate through the labyrinth of House of Leaves will learn that they have successfully deconstructed the book, survived the maze, and discovered new ways to interpret

themselves.