It seems that in all three of these works there is a sense of paranoia. In 'Hands' a man is fearful of what might happen if he continues to do as he has done in the past, touch people. A terrible fear of what a small touch could lead to. In the story 'Eveline' a young woman is confused about what to do with her life. Whether to go with a man she thinks she loves or stay with her father. In the poem 'Summer Solstice, New York City' This man is made crazy and paranoid because of something. That something has driven this man to the point of casting his body over the edge of a building.
Straight from the text of Hands, a story about a man and his paranoia of his own hands. An example of Wing Biddlebaums fear. 'Wing Biddlebaum forever frightened and beset by a ghostly band of doubts.'(p.
Paranoia Magazine Issue #1
So, Who's Paranoid?
English: eveline882) Adolf Myers, or Wing, as the town people called him, was a dreamer, he wanted others to dream with him and experience what he did. 'Adolf Myers walked into the evening or had sat talking until dusk upon the school steps lost in a dream.'(p. 884) 'In a way the voice and hands, the stroking of shoulders and the touching of hair were a part of the school Master's effort to carry a dream into the young minds.'(p. 884) This is a man that was run out of a town for something that was not a bad thing. Nor was this something intended the wrong way. Mr. Myers did touch only to pass on something great, a dream. Mr. Myers was run from a town. 'They intended to hang the school master.'(p. 885) 'As he ran away in the darkness...