Highly Illogical Behavior

Lisa, always the character that takes the most initiative, propels the storyline forward by confronting Clark about his close friendship with Solomon. Clark’s reaction highlights a flaw in Lisa’s character: her assumption that her intuition about other people’s thoughts and emotions are correct. This assumption is what started the experiment in the first place; Lisa tends to believe she knows more about other people than they know about themselves.

Lisa needs to assert control once again, so she goes to Solomon’s house to give him her blessing to tell Clark about his feelings. She tells Solomon that she believes Clark reciprocates his feelings, but again without any proof. In fact, Clark has told her outright that he is not in love with Solomon, but Lisa is more prone to believe her own perceptions of people’s truths. Lisa thinks she is doing this for everyone, not hesitating to wonder if she’ll hurt Solomon if Clark turns him down. These chapters highlight that when Lisa has something in her head, she cannot back down from it, even if it’s nearing irrationality. It is Lisa’s way of asserting control over her own life, while in the process setting more in motion for Solomon.

Solomon learns an important lesson about people when Clark tells him he is not in love with him, a lesson that Lisa also needs to learn but continues to avoid. Solomon discovers just how nuanced and complex relationships between people are, a discovery he makes only now because he has not been around people for so long. It is notable, however, that despite the heartbreak and embarrassment, Clark stays over with Solomon and their friendship continues. Solomon is sure that the friendship is changed forever, but Clark doesn’t run away like people in Solomon’s past have. This highlights the genuine nature of Clark’s friendship with Solomon: Even though it is not romantic, Clark does love Solomon. That they are both boys who want to be alone and “imagine the world away” grounds them together, but also separates them from Lisa. It is true that Solomon and Clark have similar desires from life, and that Lisa is on a different path. This is also a process symbolic of their coming of age. Clark, Lisa, and Solomon must begin to make decisions about what their futures will look like, and sometimes those decisions bring people apart.

A major turning point occurs in Chapter 26 when Solomon finds out about the essay. Although the essay comes up by accident, Lisa’s assumption that Clark has told Solomon already is a sign of her insecurities. She is projecting her own anxieties onto other people, and in the process of that projection her anxieties come true. In fact, Clark has not told Solomon, but now they both have to. Solomon immediately responds with an emotional breakdown the likes of which Clark and Lisa haven’t seen. He becomes violent with himself, leaving Clark and Lisa no choice but to leave him with his parents. Solomon’s reaction demonstrates the depth of his emotions; the happier he is the deeper he is hurt by complexities that threaten their intimacy.

His reaction also shows that Solomon, for all his progress, is still dealing with a disorder he has little control over. The betrayal of his only friends, the people who helped him get into the outside world and into the pool, would be overwhelming for even the healthiest individual, but it is especially difficult for Solomon. It takes the truth about the experiment and Solomon’s reaction to help Lisa see that the person she truly is the most worried about is herself. This reveals to the reader a new level to Lisa: she has allowed Solomon’s friendship to become something emotionally important for her too. It is Lisa’s own hubris that puts that friendship at risk, thus demonstrating the overarching point Whaley is trying to make about humans: that we all have emotional or mental deficits that can interfere with the health of our lives.