"This is a very strong dream," he said." It may eat you up."
Dreaming was dangerous in the world where John lived because it made a person think that he or she can be something more and thus they become dissatisfied with their current situation. This is dangerous because it can make a person disregard the rules put in place to protect them and those people may be willing to risk their lives just to achieve a foolish goal. In this sense, one’s dreams may end up eating a person up in the sense that it may lead to their destruction.
Yet, all through the night, I knew that I should have to cross the river and walk in the places of the gods, although the gods ate me up.
Despite knowing about the dangers and knowing that he will most likely suffer because of his dreams, John can’t keep himself away from the place of Gods. At one point, he is ready to stop and return home, fooling himself that he should be happy because he was able to see the place of the Gods for himself. He soon realizes however that just seeing will never be enough for him and he willingly risks his life to get closer to the dangerous place everyone told him to stay away from. John however is willing to take the risk and to sacrifice everything for something he believes in.
I was taught how to read in the old books and how to make the old writings—it was like a fire in my heart.
John’s passion for knowledge and his desire to learn more and find more is obvious from the first pages of the story when he reveals that reading the Old books brought him great satisfaction. But learning was not an easy process and John admitted with struggling to understand some of the old writings. Despite this, his desire to learn and to find more is compared with and uncontrolled fire in his bones. In a broader sense, John’s desire to learn can be compared with the human tendency and desire to learn as much as possible and with the innate curiosity everyone is born with and is uncontrollable at times.
