Essay

2001 Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a "discerning Eye." Select a novel or play in which a character's apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then, write a well-organized essay explaining this delusion or eccentric behavior and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of the "madness" to the work as a whole.


There are tons of things in this world that can cause a person to go crazy or to have Irrational behavior. Some people go crazy because of love or because something traumatic happened to them when they were young and some were just born that way. In the case of Buddy in the Diviners he was traumatized by a horrible incident as a kid. It caused to have several disabilities and quite an unusual fear of water.

Buddy’s madness is pretty much one of the main parts of The Diviners, with out it there will basically be no play. His fear of water plays a huge role in this story. His fear all started from when he almost drowned as a child. Not only did he almost drowned he also lost his mother, his mom died trying to save him. Because of the incident Buddy now has several disabilities and fears. But out of his disabilities he also got a very special gift in return. It might seem a little ironic but Buddy became very good at using the divining rod. The divining rod is a split stick that some people claim they can use to find new sources of water. Once C.C. comes to town he begins working buddy, buddy slowly starts to realize that the water isn’t so bad after all. Because buddy is terrified of the water this means that he doesn’t shower or bath, he is covered in dirt and he is always complaining about his skin itching. Its not until it starts to rain and buddy gets a little wet that he starts to realize that the water would wash the dirt off of him that he realizes that water really isn’t that bad.

Buddys madness is key through out the entire play, with out it there would be no play, there would be no show. Buddy is the main character and so of course with out him it wouldn’t be the same any more. Buddy is the story, and buddys story is about his fears and unusual abilities.