The more I read about Cassandra's experiences, the more I am noticing an emerging motif: reality vs. imagination. Niles, a police chief and Cassandra's life-long friend, has been questioning that she saw a dead girl hanging in a tree. Niles upsets Cassandra by asking her if "it's possible [she] sometimes [suffers] from hallucinations... things that should be, even could be, but aren't in any provable way" (28).
Niles asks these questions gently, although it still causes Cassandra to question her divine abilities.
Cassandra describes her state of mind like "drowsing, except you're asleep and intensely awake at the same time" (26). Her divining is mentioned as a state of "euphoria or dysphoria" (26) and a "heightened state of sensitivity" (26). She claims to be "extra-sensitive [and] extra-perceptive" (26) as if she's "communing with some alternate world" (26).
These details make me think really deeply about the power of our minds. How much influence does our mentality have on reality? Do we make up events to fill in voids? How much can we convince ourselves of an idea or event?
Some really thoughtful questions at the end of this post, as well as some well-integrated quotes. Certainly the idea of her imagination plays a strong role in the book.
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