Getting Unplugged

Buzzworm was one of the more bizarre characters we read about this semester and I found the idea of him unplugging from his walkman at the end of The Tropic of Orange an interesting idea. (265)  Until his chapter, he is constantly connected to the airwaves.  Sometimes it was music, other times it was the news, but the point was, he was always plugged into something.  I found the idea of him unplugging a nice parallel to the scene in his previous chapter where people stopped and looked at the trees, disconnecting from their established patterns. (219) Both he and the people disembarking from the cars on the freeway are leaving their established patterns, but to different effects.  He is disenchanted with the world around him and the other people are enjoying their brief escape from normality.  The whole concept of magical realism is a break from reality and the scene where Buzzworm unplugs is a break from his version of reality, which makes sense that each person has to break from their version of reality, not just some generic "other".