Words on Bathroom Walls

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

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Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary

With an increase in the ToZaPrex dosage, Adam sees more hallucinations, but he doesn’t struggle to separate reality from the visions. Every so often, something happens that makes him wonder if the hallucinations are “trying to tell me something I can’t see on my own” (43). One day after gym, Adam hears a splash, and sees Rebecca run toward the pool. Adam follows and finds Maya struggling to stay afloat. He jumps in and rescues her. Maya thanks him, leaving Adam to wonder if Rebecca somehow alerted him to the situation.

Later, a nun approaches Adam about being on the Academic Team. He has to join an extracurricular activity, so he agrees. Maya is also on the Team, and they exchange phone numbers. After Adam jokes that the team is the “loser group.” Later, Maya texts Adam a welcome to the “loser group,” and Adam ends the chapter thinking “I think she likes me” (52).

Chapter 7 Summary

Adam’s great-uncle Greg, whom Adam really liked, also had schizophrenia.

Adam once read about an incident that represents his greatest fear: Convinced that people wanted to kill him, a man leaped from a train, cracking his head open and dying. On some nights, Adam hallucinates a man in his room telling him that a train is coming. Adam knows the man isn’t real, and he doesn’t fear him. But Adam does fear “the way things used to be when I believed he was real” (57).

Chapter 8 Summary

Adam introduces a new hallucination as Jason, a naked guy who shows up every so often. One day when Adam and Jason are sitting outside homeroom, Ian walks by and dumps a wastebasket from biology lab in Adam’s lap. After getting cleaned up, Adam goes on with his day. Later, Maya says Ian is jealous of Adam because Adam is taller and better looking. Adam has no response to this, lamenting that his “level of stupidity has reached epic proportions” (61).

Later, Maya texts Adam with the information for the next Academic Team meeting. Adam asks if there’s anything he should know, and the two banter about all the trivia information the Team’s competitions cover. Adam ends the conversation with a smiley emoticon, thinking that the smiley is an appropriate response “when you don’t know how else to reply” (64).

Chapters 6-8 Analysis

Rebecca’s reaction to the splash in Chapter 6 poses an interesting question about schizophrenia and how the brain works. Adam is unsure whether Rebecca alerted him to Maya’s situation or whether Rebecca only went to investigate the splash because she was curious. While the hallucinations are all inside Adam’s head, he doesn’t know whether they have a level of independence outside him.

Adam discusses his greatest fear—not being able to tell reality from hallucination so much that he injures himself. His story about the man who jumped from the train represents the kind of harm Adam fears he could bring to himself or those around him without the ToZaPrex or a similar medication. Walton introduces an important concept here: Adam’s hallucinations are not the real danger. While uncomfortable, hallucinations on their own cannot harm Adam or anyone else: Rebecca potentially alerting Adam to Maya’s distress shows that some hallucinations can even sometimes be helpful. Rather, the danger lies in Adam taking action while believing the hallucinations: The man who jumped from the train did so in response to what he was seeing and believing. People with schizophrenia can have trouble differentiating between hallucinations and reality, which makes self-injury possible.