In Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins, it tells the story of Katniss Everdeen (the main character), a teen girl who lives in a run down district ruled by a powerful dictator Capitol city, and Peeta Mellark, who are selected to participate in the Hunger Games, a game where they take one teen boy and girl from each district (12 districts) and have them fight to the death. Katniss and Peeta won the game together in the first 2 books of the series, but in these books they also were different, and rebelled against the Capitol, mainly Katniss. No one ever does that, and it ended up in war. As payback for Katniss, the Capitol takes Peeta (someone Katniss had come to love) to a lab and hijacks him to think of Katniss as the enemy. At the scene of this quotation, the allies including Katniss have rescued Peeta and are trying to regain his trust in Katniss. In this scene, Katniss is talking to Peeta one night.
Ally.” Peeta says the words slowly, tasting it. “Friend. Lover. Victor. Enemy. Fiancee. Target. Mutt. Neighbour. Hunter. Tribute. Ally. I’ll add it to the list of words I use to try to figure you out. The problem is, I can’t tell what’s real anymore, and what’s made up (p.124*).
This quotation really sums up total confusion. And, it relates a lot to real life when someone has a mental health issue or their brain goes through things like psychosis. You stop being able to tell what real, and it makes it hard to believe what people say when you’ve been told, or in this extreme case, had your brain rewired and hijacked, to believe something else. Even in the most basic situations, like stealing candy, this still applies. Your candy is gone, your brother tells you that he did not take it, and that your sister took it. When you talk to your sister, she says she didn’t take it, and that your brother took it. 2 people you both trust telling you completely different things, so which one is real. It makes you think about who you really believe and what is real and what isn’t. If you go far enough into it, you have science suggesting the entire universe is a simulation, and then you have science suggesting other more traditional widely accepted manners of creation. What is real and whats fake or made up. Same with politics and everything.
*the page number cited is the page number from the online PDF copy of the book. I wasn’t able to find my physical copy.