Humans are a species whose appetite for certainty and stability is so strong that it finds it hard to cope with challenges; in such circumstances, their very sense of reality is brought into question. This story shows the existential struggle in Rog Phillips’ short story “The Yellow Pill” between two individuals, Gerald Bocek and Dr. Cedric Elton, who both try to gain each other’s viewpoint on what reality is. The one thing that Bocek cannot be sure about is whether they are on the spaceship or not. Elton argues, however, that they are actually in his psychiatric office on earth, arguing from quite different perspectives. Although one might take Dr. Elton’s ultimate point of view as an illusion at the end, there seems to be evidence that makes it appear like the story happens in the doctor’s office.…show more content… According to Phillips, Bocek asked Elton to look around and describe his setting. The teen enumerated the stuff on his desk, the telephone, and other furniture. Even though Elton knew the number on his phone was inscribed as “Cedar seven-four three nine nine”(Phillips), Phillips believed everything around them was imaginary because spaceships do not have earth settings, according to Bocek.
Furthermore, Elton is also well-versed in the effects of "yellow pill" therapy on perception that may point to an earthly psychiatric milieu. He tells Bocek that the yellow pills “increase nerve currents from end organs by almost three times” and therefore can “overrule any fantasy insertions” (Phillips). This knowledge of medicine and this type of treatment is available is in line with the argument that Elton is a psychiatrist rather than a spaceship
