In Chap­ter 40 of Moth­er Night, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on a strange and unset­tling expe­ri­ence fol­low­ing a brief arrest at an unmarked office inside the Empire State Build­ing. Despite the seri­ous­ness of the sit­u­a­tion, he is released almost imme­di­ate­ly, thanks to the unex­pect­ed inter­ven­tion of his “Blue Fairy God­moth­er.” In less than an hour, he finds him­self back out­side, stand­ing on the side­walk, but instead of feel­ing relief or joy, he is struck by an over­whelm­ing sense of paral­y­sis. This paral­y­sis is not caused by guilt or any emo­tion­al tur­moil, but by a more pro­found real­iza­tion. Over the years, the pro­tag­o­nist has care­ful­ly trained him­self to sup­press any deep feelings—guilt, desire, loathing, or expec­ta­tions from a high­er pow­er. In a world where emo­tions once drove him, he has man­aged to replace them with numb­ness, cre­at­ing a life in which these feel­ings are no longer part of his dai­ly exis­tence. His detach­ment from these emo­tions, while seem­ing­ly a form of self-preser­va­tion, has led him into a state of deep exis­ten­tial dis­con­nec­tion, where he can no longer feel moti­vat­ed to move for­ward.

The true cause of his freeze, how­ev­er, becomes clear as he stands motion­less. For years, curios­i­ty had been his dri­ving force—an insa­tiable need to under­stand and explore the world around him. But now, with his curios­i­ty extin­guished, the pro­tag­o­nist feels an empti­ness with­in. He stands in place, not sure how long he has been frozen in this con­tem­pla­tive state, reflect­ing on his lack of moti­va­tion and pur­pose. This real­iza­tion is jar­ring, as it reveals that the inter­nal dri­ve that once pushed him for­ward has dis­ap­peared entire­ly. With­out this force, the pro­tag­o­nist is left to con­front the void of his exis­tence, where he no longer seeks to under­stand or dis­cov­er any­thing. His past moti­va­tions, which were once the guid­ing light of his actions, have been ren­dered irrel­e­vant, leav­ing him trapped in a state of numb stag­na­tion. This new­found aware­ness is both uncom­fort­able and free­ing, as he must now come to terms with the absence of any clear direc­tion in his life.

Even­tu­al­ly, a police­man notices the pro­tag­o­nist stand­ing still and approach­es, break­ing his moment of paral­y­sis. The offi­cer, con­cerned about his unusu­al still­ness, asks if every­thing is alright, point­ing out that the pro­tag­o­nist has been stand­ing there for a sig­nif­i­cant amount of time. The nar­ra­tor acknowl­edges the ques­tion, but con­fess­es that he has no rea­son to remain in place. He is nei­ther wait­ing for any­one nor bound by any par­tic­u­lar pur­pose, and the policeman’s inquiry feels like a cat­a­lyst for change, even though it is inno­cent­ly made. The offi­cer, seem­ing­ly unfazed, sug­gests that the pro­tag­o­nist should con­tin­ue mov­ing, and this sim­ple sug­ges­tion sparks some­thing with­in him. It is as if the exter­nal prompt of the policeman’s ques­tion forces him to step back into the flow of life, push­ing him to take action despite the emo­tion­al paral­y­sis that has gripped him. The encounter with the offi­cer serves as a sub­tle reminder that even the small­est inter­ac­tions can nudge peo­ple back into motion when they have lost their sense of pur­pose.

This seem­ing­ly insignif­i­cant exchange becomes a turn­ing point for the pro­tag­o­nist, mov­ing him from a state of frozen iner­tia to the uncer­tain path ahead. The police­man’s sug­ges­tion to keep mov­ing, though casu­al and devoid of emo­tion­al weight, breaks the protagonist’s inter­nal stand­still. It high­lights the pro­found effect exter­nal stim­uli can have on a per­son, espe­cial­ly when they are stuck in a men­tal or emo­tion­al rut. Despite his lack of moti­va­tion or emo­tion­al dri­ve, the nar­ra­tor begins to walk, unsure of where he is head­ed but feel­ing the sub­tle force of move­ment. In a world that often feels indif­fer­ent, this inter­ac­tion with the police­man empha­sizes the pow­er of even the small­est actions to break the hold of stag­na­tion. The pro­tag­o­nist, though uncer­tain of what awaits him, takes his first step toward the unknown, pro­pelled not by a deep desire but by the sim­plic­i­ty of exter­nal influ­ence. The chap­ter, in its qui­et explo­ration of human iner­tia, under­scores how dis­con­nect­ed indi­vid­u­als can find them­selves in a world that moves for­ward with or with­out them. This shift from emo­tion­al paral­y­sis to phys­i­cal motion high­lights the com­plex­i­ty of human exis­tence, where the most pro­found changes can come from the most seem­ing­ly insignif­i­cant of moments.