Only a shipwrecked person who has just escaped drowning could understand the psychology of someone who breaks… — Kōbō Abe

More than iron doors, more than walls, it is the tiny peephole that really makes the prisoner feel locked in.

Suddenly a sorrow the color of dawn welled up in him. They might as well lick each other's wounds. But they would lick forever, and the wounds would never heal, and in the end their tongues would be worn away.

When a castaway collapses from hunger and thirst it is fear of physical want rather than a real want, they say. Defeat begins with the fear that one has lost.