Rat

In these chapters, Joe feels that there is a rat eating at one of his open sores. He remembers when he was in the war, he and his fellow soldiers found the body of an enemy soldier. He had been dead for weeks, and there was a rat eating the face of the body. Joe and the soldiers chased away the rat and killed it. He had come up with the conclusion that the enemy was not the other soldiers but the rat.
In reality, he is actually dreaming this but he can’t figure out whether it is a dream or really happening. Joe figures that if he can feel the nurse cleaning and bandaging his wounds, and he can feel the rat gnawing on his wound, they both must be really happening. He feels there is nothing he can do to stop the rat, because he doesn’t have any arms or legs. He becomes restless because he can’t do anything about it and he continues to fall in and out of consciousness.
Like most of his nightmares before, Joe is comforted that he could calm himself down by waking up and opening his eyes. He knows he cannot do this now, and it is why he is unable to tell if the rat is a dream or reality.