Adding to the uncontrollability of imagination, Hemon expresses that imagination leads us to conceptualize ideas and situations we don't wish to experience. As humans, Hemon says, we own a psychological mechanism that prevents us from thinking about our own death. It is true that we are helpless against death and that it is inevitable, but unlike accidents, we don't have the ability to picture our slip from consciousness to nonexistence or darkness. Hemon further explains that if he is unable to picture his own death, how is supposed to have the ability to think of his dear daughters death which seems so much closer than his own? The reader is able to understand his situation because of the reasons of longer life that a child is supposed to have compared to his/her parent and love that Hemon provides along with the question, why would you? For a parents love should be able to surpass the ideological mechanism that controls a persons thoughts. Unfortunately, it doesn't. As Hemon says, we cannot control our imagination, its there to be your best day dream and also your worst nightmare. Hemon criticizes his imagination to create a world of pain and sorrow for himself since it led to his daughters tumor and death. .
Although, Hemon criticizes imagination that is associated with him, he commends it when it is related to his three year old daughter Ella. Ella, unable to comprehend anything that is happening in her family and to her younger sister, makes up an imaginary Mingus to help her deal with the confusion and unfamiliarity of the situation. Hemon expresses how the the "surge in language" helps Ella connect her interior thoughts to her external actions and interactions. For instance, when Ella learnt of the word California, she made imaginary Mingus be deployed to the state. Also, she started acting like a parent to him, and issued pseudo parental orders to Mingus. Ellas interior turmoil regarding the condition of her younger sister Isabel started surfacing after she was faced prolonged periods of solitude since her parents were struggling through Isabels tumor.
