al bureaucrat fails to "cure" Ragin of Gromov's company or a conviction that life is so wretched and mundane that its external conditions do not matter; though he perfectly understands that his only friend in the village is a lunatic, he is committed to the mental ward, number six. Deprived of freedom and mundane comforts--his walks, his dog, his beer, etc.--Ragin panics, in a moment of absolute clarity realizing that "just such a pain must