Perception

Perception is very skewed in The Second Coming. Allie’s parents are convinced that she is a mental case because she does not know how to interact “correctly” in the world, and Allie thinks that she has to be nice to everyone so as to not make them feel uncomfortable (Percy 85). She does not act like everyone else does, and because of this, her parents put her in a mental institution. She does say funny things like “a circle of knees is more interesting than a circle of faces,” but this could be true (Percy 27). Most of the time, people judge what they see based on people’s faces or appearance. Allie was tired of everyone judging her (which is kind of funny considering that she is in a mental institution), so she stares at their knees instead. Her parents have tried everything in their power to prove that she is crazy, so when she makes the discovery that she can act and think for herself, she escapes. The world is not what she thinks it will be, however, because people do not mean what they say. Allie’s inability to speak the same way that others do only hinders her more because she views words differently than others do. She observes that “people don’t mean what they say. Words often mean their opposites” (Percy 82). Her perception of phrases like “I hate to tell you this, but…” proves that she does see through people, but as she cannot figure out to express that, she is confined to her own thoughts. That changes, however, when she meets Will.
When Will was a boy, he and his father went hunting and an “accident” took place. Will’s father was supposed to be shooting at quail, but he tells Will that he’ll have to “trust him” and he hugs him; something he never does (Percy 53-54). Will is put off by this, but he does not go home. He is “accidentally” shot by his father, but it is later in life that Will discovers that his father tried to kill him. He asks himself whether or not it was possible that he had known all along and did not realize until he was an adult what had happened (Percy 147). Is it really possible to put your own reality into motion because of a traumatic event? I think that Will ignored all of the warning signs that happened before he got shot because he did not want to admit that something was wrong with his father. When he meets Allie, he is the only one who can understand what she is saying. They understand each other because they have their own perceptions of the world. Allie and Will are a good match, not just because she can hoist him when he falls down or because he can interpret her supposed crazy speech, but because they have a better perception of what the world looks like and they can live there together.