The following McMahon commentary can be used (that is, quoted) for a research source and put on your Works Cited page if you're writing an essay that addresses Wiley, Anders, or both.
Clearly, the notion of insanity is not absolute; it's a matter of degree. Few people are absolutely and completely insane. Most of us see insanity in ourselves and others on an all-too slippery slope. Stress, trauma, a broken heart, or an unusual enthusiasm or obsession can make us insane for a while but we're not necessarily trapped in our insanity; if we're fortunate, insanity is more like a bout of the cold or common flu soon to subside. In the case of Anders and Wiley from Tobias Wolff's The Night in Question, however, we see a case of two men who, living inside their heads, are moving toward a path that entails more and more insanity. What psychological foibles unite the men and make them kindred spirits? It appears that both chafing individuals are afflicted with vanity, delusions of grandeur, a sense of arch superiority over others, and bouts of chest-thumping braggadocio that stem from their deep sense of inferiority and self-betrayal. Indeed, both men have betrayed themselves in the sense that both men, devoted to massaging their egos to the point of narcissism, fail to live life fully. By this I mean their lives are absent of love, intimacy, maturity, and any meaningful connection to others. Retreating more and more into their childish, egotistical self-delusions, these book smart pencil-neck geeks find themselves marching toward the insanity of solipsism. Their lonely condition is a vicious cycle: The more separated they are from the human race, the more anxious and fearful they become. This condition of fear and anxiety in turn spurs them to resort to acts of grand egotism, cruel sarcasm, pathological lies and self-delusions all designed to make them feel as if they are superior to others and that the failings and frustrations they suffer in life are not their fault but due to their fate to be geniuses "surrounded by a Confederacy of Dunces." Lacking the self-awareness and moral courage to scrutinize their self-destructive ways and make the appropriate changes, both characters seem doomed to inch along their path toward solipsism, that is, living their entire lives inside their heads. What's sad is that their intellectual powers do little more than hide the fact that they are emotional children, wounded souls who languish in their self-pity like "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side."
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