The Lathe of Heaven Part one: Pages 1-72: Orr's fears and the question of reality.

"I am living a nightmare, from which from time to time I awake in sleep"(38).-George Orr

Encumbered by the force of his effective dreams, George Orr lives his life in fear and questions the very essence of reality, desperate to know whether or not he is insane. By thinking, "I am living a nightmare, from which from time to time I awake in sleep"(38), Orr admits his fear of changing the world through his dreams and questions whether his dreams or his waking moments comprise the true reality. He is so afraid in fact, that he believes his life is literally a "nightmare", from which his only reprieve is the even worse nightmares of his dreams. The fear that Orr affirms in this quote is the catalyst for his drug abuse and so leads him to VTT and a doctor who only exploits the aspect of his dreams that he most fears.

This affirmation from Orr that his life is a nightmare, made me feel very sympathetic towards his plight. This also made me angry at Haber, who knows that Orr is not insane, yet will not admit that he too feels the world shift when Orr dreams. Orr so desperately wishes for a companion in his uncertainty that he holds on to his belief that Haber too feels his dream nightmares overlap with his waking nightmares, and believes that Haber is helping him because he, “was not really sure if anyone existed, and wanted to prove they did by helping them (28).” Orr’s statements such as these show his wish to know if he is indeed living in reality and he eventually becomes so frustrated with his burdensome life that he finally declares that he is “living a nightmare.”

In the end, the fact that Orr realizes that his life is a nightmare is beneficial as it is a definitive, unquestioned, rational statement and something in which Orr believes. I feel that it is this realization that gives him the strength to explain his hardship to a lawyer in order to get real help for his situation. I was proud of Orr for finally making a firm statement about his life and for deciding that he would no longer just do what Haber told him. I feel that this quote is in many ways a turning point for Orr and for this novel as after this thought Orr states, "I've got to stop; this is far enough"(40) and then begins to actively search for help to alleviate Haber's part in his nightmare.