In Money: A Suicide Note Martin Amis describes the life of John Self, an extremely successful filmmaker of TV adverts who takes part in the materialist game characterising the society of the 1980s. The protagonist is addicted to the 20th century, where he leads a careless life based on a daily abundance of drugs, alcohol, promiscuous sex, handjobs and the porn industry. However, this addiction leaves its marks on the body and character of John Self. His physical as well as social health slowly deteriorate while Self is unable (and unwilling) to get off his never-ending trip. For him life seems to be mainly a holiday, and a very expensive one indeed. Only far too late does he realise the dark sides of a lifestyle depending fully on money, namely the brutality and corruption materialism often results in, until finally John Self himself becomes a victim of the destructive power of money.
In the following essay I would like to examine the significance of narrative unreliability in Martin Amis's novel Money: A Suicide Note in order to prove that John Self, the narrator of this story, is not a reliable one. First of all, some basic literary terms relevant for the discussion shall be explained. Then, this information is going to be applied to the novel in question. Several possible reasons for a narrator's unreliability will be examined in connection to the narration of the protagonist. Furthermore, I will elaborate on John Self's personal motivation for withholding certain bits of information from the reader. At the same time, we shall have a look at several scenes of the novel in order to fully understand the importance of the use of narrative unreliability in Money: A Suicide Note.
In order to be able to discuss the significance...
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...rary Terms (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).
Electronic Sources:
Finney, Brian, What's Martin Amis in Contemporary British Fiction? Martin Amis's Money and Time's Arrow (1999):
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Diedrick, James, Understanding Martin Amis, Chapter 3 (1995):
http://www.martinamis.albion.edu/money1.htm
http://www.martinamis.albion.edu/money2.htm
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People one can never really tell how person is feeling or what their situation is behind closed doors or behind the façade of the life they lead. Two masterly crafted literary works present readers with characters that have two similar but very different stories that end in the same result. In Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby the Scrivener” readers are presented with Bartleby, an interesting and minimally deep character. In comparison to Gail Godwin’s work, “A Sorrowful Woman” we are presented with a nameless woman with a similar physiological state as Bartleby whom expresses her feelings of dissatisfaction of her life. Here, a deeper examination of these characters their situations and their ultimate fate will be pursued and delved into for a deeper understanding of the choice death for these characters.
D'hoker, Elke, and Gunther Martens, eds. Narrative unreliability in the twentieth-century first-person novel. Vol. 14. Walter de Gruyter, 2008.
In ‘unreliable narration’ the narrator’s account is at odds with the implied reader's surmises about the story’s real intentions. The story und...
Three works Cited Materialism started to become a main theme of literature in the modernist era. During this time the economy was good causing jazz to be popular, bootlegging common, and an affair meaning nothing (Gevaert). This negative view of money and the gross materialism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby serves to be a modern theme in the novel. Throughout the novel, the rich possess a sense of carelessness and believe that money yields happiness.
Several literary devices are implemented in the novel to convey the author’s experiences and feelings, thus contributing to the overall appeal of the writing. In his younger years
On Narrative and Narratives: II. New York: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994-98. 503-26. Print. Vol. 3 of New York Literary History. 11 vols.
Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 9th ed. Vol. A. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. Print
Abrams, M. H. et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 1. Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, & Co. 1993. 200-254.
In Junot Diaz’s essay “The Money” he explains where his family stands economically. Stating that his father was regularly being fired from his forklifting jobs and his mother 's only job was to care for him and his four siblings. With the money brought home by his father, his mom would save some. Her reason was to raise enough to send to her parents back in the Dominican Republic. When his family went on a vacation, they came back to an unpleasant surprise; their house had been broke into. Eventually Diaz was able to get back their money and belongings. Diaz returned the money to his mother although she didn’t thank him for it, this disappointed him. Like Diaz I have also encountered a similar situation where I was disappointed. When I was in second grade, my life life took a completely different turn. My dad took an unexpected trip to Guatemala, on his return, the outcome was not what I expected.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. p. 2256
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
To a good number of people, money is their personal king, their ruler, their everything. Money is their motivation, and their ambition revolves entirely around it. They are entranced by its brightness, dazzled by its brilliance. Such people can be found in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, in which money plays a central role and is the driving force behind many significant events.
Specifically, money also becomes “a message of masculinity and adulthood” (Somerville 114). Operating from Somerville’s framework, Jimmy Doyle is never truly allowed to reach the pinnacle transformation into adulthood, rather forcing him to remain in adolescence. Doyle’s father, whom was “proud of his excess” also covered Jimmy’s expenses from university (Joyce 26). However, his father’s generosity also helps to reinforce Jimmy’s dependence to his father, stunting his ability to activate his own selfhood and freedom. Much like a paralyzed Dublin, Jimmy is also ‘paralyzed’ by the fact that he has yet to break free from his father’s dominance over his
Damrosch, David, et al., ed. The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Vol. B. Compact ed. New York: Longman - Addison Wesley Longman, 2000.