Yellow Pill

800 Words2 Pages

Earth madness
Can a pill make a person see false images? The story “The Yellow Pill” is based solely on what others say is real. Pills can be very dangerous and have different effects on different people.To keep the thought of reality in mind, the pill-taker must remember who is real, past expierences and what makes them who they are. The story of “The Yellow Pill” takes place on Earth.

“‘I remember,’ Cedric said. ‘A nice pat rationalization in any man's reality to make the rejection be my own before you could have time to reject me yourself’”. “‘But it isn’t!’ Helena said. ‘Oh, darling, I am here! This is real!’” (7). In this situation, Cedric is talking to Helena; he asks her to go to dinner with him, but she says no. In dreams, what someone wants to happen, happens; dreams are wishful thinking. In Cedric’s perfect world, Helena would say yes to the dinner; however, she says no. Helena is a real person that lives on Earth with her own thoughts and feelings. Cedric interacts with many people and he also is able to make contact with them. Another person that Cedric talks to is Dave from the District Attorney’s office. The phone conversation ended like this, “‘I thought that would be less of an imposition on you,’ the D.A. said. ‘I am in a hurry on it.’ ‘Oh,’ Cedric said. ‘Well, okay, Dave. He’s out in the waiting room. I’ll do my best to snap him back to reality for you’”(5). There was a two-sided conversation between Dave and Cedric; therefore Dave cannot be a made up character in Cedric’s mind. Cedric also has interactions with his patients; whereas Jerry only interacts with one person.

Cedric has taken the yellow pill before and when Cedric takes it for the second time, he says, “‘I took one three years ago when they first b...

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...s his name throughout the story while Cedric has two names. Jerry gave the name of Gar to Cedric, which is the only reason why he is called a different name.

Earth is the setting of this story. Jerry and Cedric are two characters with very different lifestyles; one is a mass murder while the other is a psychiatrist. Though one may believe the story takes place in space, there are many more facts that result in the option of Earth. These reasons are: real interactions between characters, past experiences with the pill, psychologist's have a different level of thought than everyday people, and Jerry saw things the way they truly are.

Works Cited

Phillips, Rog. The Yellow Pill. N.p.: Gnome, 1959. Print.
Stern, Richard. "Behavioural-Cognitive Psychotherapy Training for Psychiatrists." Pb.rcpsych.org. The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

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