Chapter 5 - Second Half: Summary

[Søren Balslev]

Chapter 5 – Second Half: Summary

Well, after one long and dreadful night, Oedipa wanders the streets until
early morning, pondering about what happened to her and what might become of
her. She finds herself overcome by the presence of the eerie symbols and the
uncanny and disturbing underground organizations, which seems to count a
vast number of people. She encounters an old and dying man (whose name we
aren’t told) who in a bewildered state of mind, charges her with the
delivery of a personal letter. She accepts the request but is told, before
she heads out to locate the mailbox, that the fellow isn’t quite well and
suffers from delusions. She manages to find the mailbox, dozes off for a
while and notices a mailman in action. She follows him for long hours,
through heavy traffic and areas of urban decay only to find herself at the
apartment of Nefastis.

Following her return to the hotel, she encounters the gathering of
deaf-mutes, who in turn seize her and insist on dancing and being merry.
After a clumsy escape she finally manages to catch some sleep. The following
day she decides to pay her sweet Dr. Hilarius a visit, hoping that he might
put an end to the frenzy, the revelations have put her in. She finds
however, the good doctor in a different state of mind than usual. He seems
to have gone mad and is now shooting wildly about. She enters and actually
succeeds in starting a conversation, in which he admits, that he once upon a
time, was one of the bad guys during the second world war. He was afterwards
(but off course) so filled with remorse that he devoted the rest of his life
to the grand Jew (Freud). A decision that might deserve some questioning.
After some cozy minutes, Oedipa manages to grab the gun and call in the
police.

Then she finally meets her delightful and jazzy husband Mucho, who (on air
off course) questions her about the incident and thanks her for the report.
She discovers that he has gone trough some radical changes and seems to have
become a spiritual and emotional border liner (so to speak), in part because
of the LSD medicaments offered to him by the earlier mentioned Dr. Hilarius.
She departs from him, heavy at heart and lonely once more.

With kind regards

Soren.