What Dreams May Come (pgs 1-52)

Summary
The book is a manuscript of Christopher Nielsen after life. It was given to Robert Nielsen by a stranger who says she is a psychic, she claimed that for many months she has been writing it because of his brother Chris wanting him to know the truth. Chris Nielsen who gets in a car accident that causes him to be unconscious. Soon when he is conscious he does not believe that he is dead, Chris said that he had this flashback which was so fast and it went backwards from his death to infancy. Chris really believes he is not dead that he is under anesthetics and is dreaming. While walking around the hospital a mysterious man told him he was dead, he later woke up next to Ann and told her the weird dream. Chris finds himself at a funeral, his funeral and when he is not able to "wake up" and sees all his family and close friends he starts to know for a fact that he is dead. His son Richard called Perry a psychic who was trying to convince Ann that her husband is with her right at that moment but she did not believe the guy. Chris calls her name so much, but then gives up, he walks in his daughter's room Marie and reads the letter she is writing. He found out that he can communicate through but Marie does not show her mom what he told her to write. After Chris starts thinking about his wife and children but then gets this weird feeling and there he knows his after life was not over.

Quotation
This is when Chris had the flashback "A flashback...So fast I couldn't follow it-and in reverse. The days before the accident, back through the children's lives, my marriage to Ann, my writing career. College, World War Two, high school, grammar school, my childhood and my infancy. 1974-1927" (Matheson 11).

Reaction
When Chris said he had a flashback I wanted to know what He had a flashback on. I really thought the flashback would of have started from the beginning of life to the end, but it did make more sense from it to start from the end to beginning. The reason because Chris was able to see all the special moments that happen in his life. He said that it went by really fast, I wonder how he remembered every second of his life that flash before his eyes. Usually when we have things flash before our eyes it takes us a moment to process what just happen. As Chris said it went by so fast that he could not keep up with it but remember the memorable moments. If I was in Chris' brother shoes I would not believe what I am reading but then again I would because when you have siblings you know their personalities. Is this the last flashback that Chris is going to have would he be able to see his whole life at any time he wants in his after life? It was funny because at that moment Chris still did not believe he was dead, which I did not understand because he has saw in movies when someone dies they have a flashback but I guess that did not ring a bell in his head. I think what Matheson is trying to show us through the character Chris is that when we have bad experiences we try to block them out and think the opposite even if though we know the truth of what is really going on.