Chap­ter 36 begins with the nar­ra­tor reflect­ing on the dif­fi­cult and often strained rela­tion­ship they have with Camp­bell, char­ac­ter­ized by fre­quent emo­tion­al ten­sion and a lack of open com­mu­ni­ca­tion. One sig­nif­i­cant aspect of their inter­ac­tions is Campbell’s ten­den­cy to demand com­plete silence when he is upset, a habit that only increas­es the dis­tance between them. The nar­ra­tor has, over time, devel­oped a sub­tle skill for pro­vok­ing Campbell’s anger, often find­ing the per­fect words to esca­late his mild irri­ta­tion into full-blown out­rage. This abil­i­ty to trig­ger such intense reac­tions speaks to the under­ly­ing dys­func­tion in their rela­tion­ship, where frus­tra­tion is rarely addressed con­struc­tive­ly. Beneath the sur­face of these out­ward expres­sions of con­flict lies a deep­er, inter­nal strug­gle with­in the nar­ra­tor. They are bur­dened by a flood of unspo­ken words, a tor­rent of emo­tions and thoughts that remain locked inside, unable to be voiced. The weight of these sup­pressed emo­tions grows heav­ier by the day, as the nar­ra­tor con­tin­ues to bot­tle up their feel­ings, each unex­pressed thought becom­ing like a painful object lodged deep with­in, inten­si­fy­ing the sense of frus­tra­tion and emo­tion­al anguish.

The metaphor of words as sharp, painful objects vivid­ly illus­trates the nar­ra­tor’s inter­nal strug­gle. Each sup­pressed word is imag­ined as con­tort­ing and twist­ing inside, cre­at­ing an unbear­able feel­ing of emo­tion­al agony. This grow­ing emo­tion­al ten­sion is com­pound­ed by the narrator’s over­whelm­ing sense of being trapped by their own silence, unable to release the pres­sure that builds from hold­ing so much inside. The imagery deep­ens as the nar­ra­tor imag­ines that if they could some­how be opened up, all the words they have kept hid­den would spill out in a flood of emo­tion. The thought of being so over­whelmed by their unsaid thoughts is likened to the image of a whale that has swal­lowed too much debris, an image that evokes both the phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al con­se­quences of hold­ing on to too much. The whale becomes a pow­er­ful metaphor for the narrator’s inner tur­moil, sym­bol­iz­ing the heav­i­ness of silence and the toll it takes on one’s men­tal and emo­tion­al well-being. The nar­ra­tor feels as though they are car­ry­ing the refuse of their own repressed thoughts, which is slow­ly suf­fo­cat­ing them, much like the debris inside the whale.

As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, the narrator’s inter­nal bat­tle becomes even more pro­nounced, reflect­ing a strug­gle not just with Camp­bell but with the act of com­mu­ni­ca­tion itself. The inabil­i­ty to express their true feel­ings has caused a pro­found dis­con­nect, both with­in them­selves and in their rela­tion­ship with Camp­bell. The emo­tion­al bur­den of silence grows more appar­ent as the nar­ra­tor grap­ples with the con­se­quences of not being able to com­mu­ni­cate their pain. This chap­ter under­scores how the act of hold­ing in one’s thoughts can erode a person’s emo­tion­al well-being, as the nar­ra­tor con­tin­ues to sup­press their feel­ings in an effort to avoid con­flict. The ten­sion between want­i­ng to speak out and the fear of the poten­tial fall­out cre­ates a painful para­dox. They long to voice their feel­ings and seek under­stand­ing but are par­a­lyzed by the fear of con­fronta­tion and rejec­tion. This ongo­ing inter­nal con­flict only deep­ens their sense of iso­la­tion, as they feel cut off not only from Camp­bell but also from their own emo­tions. The chap­ter poignant­ly explores the emo­tion­al costs of silence, illus­trat­ing how the inabil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate can lead to emo­tion­al suf­fer­ing and unre­solved pain, which ulti­mate­ly builds a bar­ri­er between indi­vid­u­als. It becomes clear that with­out the abil­i­ty to artic­u­late their true emo­tions, the nar­ra­tor is left with a sense of alien­ation that grows stronger with each pass­ing day. Through this painful reflec­tion, the chap­ter calls atten­tion to the cru­cial role that open com­mu­ni­ca­tion plays in main­tain­ing healthy rela­tion­ships and men­tal well-being, empha­siz­ing that the silence between peo­ple can be just as dam­ag­ing, if not more so, than the con­flict itself.