The Eye of Minds
51 pages • 1-hour read
James DashnerThe Eye of Minds
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Symbols & Motifs
Hunger, Thirst, and Physical Discomfort
Throughout his quest on the Path, Michael frequently notes the ways in which he is plagued by hunger, thirst, or other forms of physical discomfort, which speaks to The Tensions Between Appearance and Reality. The novel’s reveal that Michael is a Tangent whom Kaine is testing for suitability for human life highlights how the challenges of the Path were specifically designed to encourage these physical discomforts, which are an inherent part of human life but not inherent to digital consciousness. Michael is extremely attentive to his physical discomfort and mentions it far more frequently than either Bryson or Sarah, foreshadowing that these sensations are atypical for Michael. Michael’s ability to continue down the Path despite these discomforts suggests that he will be able to function successfully after he has been given a body, as per the Mortality Doctrine.
The novel’s final line references Michael’s hunger, suggesting the importance of embodied sensations to his new life in a human body. This final reference amidst the chaos of Michael’s newfound reality suggests that the limitations of living in a human body will be extremely important in his battle against Kaine in the next installments in the series.
Lifeblood Deep
When Michael is in what he considers to be the real world, or the “Wake,” he lives with an advertisement for Lifeblood Deep outside his window. Lifeblood Deep is a hyper-real version of Lifeblood, the most popular game in the VirtNet, one that imitates real life in a particularly gritty version. The exclusivity of access to Lifeblood Deep is the primary lure for Michael, though he also wishes to experience the high technology of the “deep” virtual world. Ultimately, however, Michael learns that the sign outside his window is not an advertisement after all, but a label: He has always lived in Lifeblood Deep, which is sufficiently real that Michael mistakes it for real world and his own experience for that as an organic human being, not a programmed Tangent.
The recurring motif of the Lifeblood Deep sign both offers a clue to the reveal that Michael is a Tangent and highlights his desire to access a deeper or truer level of reality. This desire mirrors that of Kaine’s congregation, who wish to experience reality as humans do. Michael’s longing for the most real version of a form of reality—whether virtual or otherwise—suggests that the Tangents are not inherently wrong to desire to experience the real world, merely that their strategy for accessing that experience is wrong.
Coding
The ability to code—and to hack—is a motif that bonds Michael, Bryson, and Sarah. The three teens consider being able to code the most crucial skill that generates enjoyment inside the VirtNet, as those who cannot code are not able to fully explore the vast possibilities of living in a virtual reality. The teens use their coding skills to test the limits of what is possible in the VirtNet, something that they initially treat as a delightful game but which becomes increasingly serious to them as they work on their quest to discover Kaine’s hideout.
The ability to hack and code is—despite Kaine’s words about what the Path truly tests—ultimately the most important thing that the three friends use to navigate the Path. Both in the strange haunted house level and in the hallway full of Tangents, the friends move forward by finding “weak spots” in the code that they can hack through. Their understanding of how different types of coding works helps them understand their purpose better, as they recognize that the Path is ineffective as firewall (which it is alleged to be) but highly effective as a sort of funnel that gives those who walk it only one direction forward. Their coding skills align with their fluency in the logic of video games, which helps them predict the actions of various Tangents on the Path. These skills also help them notice when this logic is not operating as it ought to, thereby offering them a clue.
In the novel’s final chapters, Michael also discovers a newfound ability to “obliterate” code, something that lets him manipulate the VirtNet more than any other hacker aside from Kaine. The reveal in the final chapter that Michael himself is a Tangent, not a human, implies that being made out of code is something that helps Tangents work within the code of the VirtNet, and by extension the fabric of the reality they inhabit.
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