I've Gone Bovine

            Since the last time I read this book, I've done a lot of thinking. The fact that death is placed upon us at a certain time doesn't scare as much, but the reality of it happening any time soon scares me. Otherwise, I've started reading right where I left off. The book has a few reoccurring scenes. I hadn't exactly realized how important the setting was until I realized that this one particular scene kept repeating itself. It was rather quite redundant.
            Cameron keeps having these flashbacks to when he was 5. His very first flashback starts right when the book starts (2). To be honest, I think Libba Bray is just trying to show how important this scene is. Cameron goes on about the Small World ride at Disney and how everything was so surreal. Soon (3), Cameron realizes how fake this ride is. I couldn't agree more. He realizes that all the dolls get along fairly too well and that the ride is unrealistic. The topic of death gazes his 5 year old mind and that is when he started panicking and getting scared. He then falls into the water of the ride and half heartedly drowns because he doesn't know how to swim. I think this whole setting makes the plot so connectable. The reason why I think many of us can make this connection is because we have all grown up knowing that "Disney is the happiest place on Earth!" These expectations of Disney being such a fantasied, problem free world makes all of us happy. 
            Having that I've gone to Disney World before, I know that the Small World ride is very popular. I even remember when I embarrassingly begged my mother, father, and brother to wait in line with me to go on this ride. (I was 11 then, but obviously the young child inside of me came out.) The line was extremely long. When I had finally gotten seated into the ride, seeing all these dolls from around the world seemed magical. Although it was magical, it freaked me out a little too. These dolls seemed nightmarish to me. As you can see, I'm kind of crazy and I get paranoid about really stupid things. Dolls soon officially became something that gave me the heebie jeebies.
            One hundred sixty-four pages later, the same Disney World flashback happens again. This triggers the thought that maybe there is a hint in that scene that helps Cameron help him recover from this mad cow disease. Or maybe there is a clue in that scene that helps him find Dr. X who can heal him. If this scene wasn't so important, I don't think Bray would be this repetitive and include it in the book a handful times.