Is Reality Worth It?

Reality can sometimes be harsh and cruel, to the point where we don't want to accept it. Sometimes, we choose to believe our own realities instead. In the back of our minds we know they're fake, yet we make ourselves believe they're real when all else fails. This is especially true in Carl Hiassen's new book, Chomp. Mickey Cray and his teenage son, Wahoo, are animal wranglers in Florida. This means they raise a bunch of different animals, ranging from alligators to monkeys, that people can rent out and use. Mickey used to be one of the best in the business, until an iguana which was frozen during a hard freeze in Florida fell on his head and gave him a concussion that caused him to get painful headaches frequently and see double. When a popular reality TV show called, Expedition Survival! wants to shoot an Everglades episode, they come to Mickey, wanting to use his animals, and they gladly accept the gig. They knew some of the stuff on the show was staged, being the nature lovers they are, but they were shocked to find out so much wasn't at all what it seemed.  Sometimes, in life, reality is tough to face and it becomes hard to blur the lines between what's real and what isn't.

Firstly, Wahoo avoids reality by choosing not to face the bad things in life. When he and Mickey come across a classmate of his named Tuna who has an abusive, alcoholic father, they bring her along for the Everglades adventure. Multiple times, Wahoo has nightmares about her father, but he always pictures him without a face. He says he couldn't humanize such a monster. That means he just can't bear to face the fact that horrible people like Tuna's dad are out there. It's just too much for him. Another way he did this was when he father was shot in the foot by Tuna's dad. Tuna's dad held Mickey hostage, and whil Wahoo was trying to distract him, Mickey said something that really annoyed Tuna's dad and he just shot him. Wahoo probably went through the following mental process: Oh my god, he's gonna shoot him. No, he wouldn't be that stupid to shoot him, would he? I'm not strong enough to watch my own dad die yet. He's not gonna die, what am I worrying about? OH MY GOD HE'S BEEN SHOT. He tried to convince himself in that split second that everything would be okay, but it wasn't. The shot wasn't fatal, but it was still pretty scary. Have you ever thought about losing someone close to you, like a parent? Have you ever thought about how life would be if they weren't around? It's a hard reality to face. It makes us shake our heads in denial and go back to the real world which we know we can handle. Wahoo clearly shows how we make believe reality isn't real when times are tough.

Secondly, Derek Badger, the star of the show who pretends to be an expert survialist, perfectly demonstrates how easy it is to blur the lines between what's real and what's not. When he is bitten by a bat, he makes himself believe he is turning into a real vampire. (Some germs from the infection may have had a little to do with it, but he had to believe it to some extent for him to act as absurd as he did.) He couldn't tell that vampires weren't real and that he wasn't one in the heat of the moment. It's that simple. He thought he was something he wasn't, and he convinced himself that was the truth. Period. Another way he does this (kind of indirectly I guess) is by pretending to be such a rugged outdoorsman on his show. Viewers get sucked into believing the lies he teels them. The whole preface of the show is that he is stranded somewhere by himself, when in fact he has loads of food and water at a stone's throw away. People are told a lie, and they believe. They don't bother to look any closer, becuase they are perfectly content with what they believe to be reality. Evidently, Derek Badger is a prime example of how we tend to mix up what is real and what isn't.

In conclusion, people will believe what they want, and there is no stopping that. Things are almost never exactly how they seem, and if they aren't what we want them to be, we often convince ourselves they are. if people took more time to look between the lines, our world might be more real. However, it also might be more depressing. What would happen if everyone just accepted the harsh realities? If no one could imagine otherwise, we would live in a very bland and boring world. This is an easy read, and I would recommend it to almost everyone.