2/15/12

The Door in the Wall starts off as this man thinking about a door that his friend had told him about.  He had just died, but he would have had a great future if he had lived long enough.  Anyway, the story was of a door in a wall that he though was real.  He had first seen it when he was 5 or 6 years old, it intrigued him and his description of what it held was so vivid.  He didn't have a great childhood.  His mother died when he was 2 and his father was sort of a dead beat.  He was taken care of by 2 nursery governess.  One day, he just left, and he found a bright green door.  He wanted to explore it so badly but he knew that it would not be a good idea.  He knew his father would be angry...but he ran in anyway and slammed the door behind him.  The once little boy described such a vivid and exquisite world with a garden.  A place that you would only think of from a fairytale.  He realized afterwards that when he went into the door, he forgot of everything in the other world, he remembered absolutely nothing.  He was so happy there, it was like heaven to him.  It seemed like the life that ever child has subconciously wished for.  He could remember everything of this place except for the games he played with other children there.  There was a woman who took him aside and showed him a book that held the realities of his life.  But, his adventures of the door was not in it, only the harsh reality which he did not fancy.  He was back in the real world then, he tried to tell others, like his father.  But he only beat him for telling lies.  He did not look for the door again until he was much older.  He crept upon him, but this time he did not enter.  He kept going to school, which was a priority for him.  He told another boy about it and soon he was being bullied and teased.  Again, he saw it when he was older, 17 exact.  And then another, which led to his career.  He had a good life, and he saw the door 3 times in one year, but never entered he was upset with himself.  He became depressed and ashamed.  His whole life has been thrown away over a door.  When really...was there any door in the wall at all?

What I got from this book was that he had a mental disability that handicapped his life.