Personification And Hyperbole In Good People By David Foster Wallace

“Good People” Teen pregnancy has went from a norm, to a taboo, to somewhat in between. People who often get pregnant as teens during these days gets ridiculed but expected. Between the couple, the mother usually gets the brunt of it. It’s hard to make a decision to give birth or to stop the process. Either way ends up in more ridicule. If they decide to give birth, friends and family might turn their back or people might say rude things because of the mother being at a young age. If they decided to stop the process, people will call her a murderer and tell her she is going to hell. In “Good People” by David Foster Wallace, Sherri wants to keep the baby, even knowing the struggles she will face. She hopes that Lane will be a good person and stick with her, even after giving him an out. In this story, personification and hyperbole is shown throughout to help understand the theme of faith and integrity. Through “Good People”, readers can tell the tone is serious and stays that way throughout. This park setting, even though it is very open, offers a more intimate setting for the characters than a restaurant or house would. This story is about Lane A. Dean Jr. and his girlfriend, Sherri. Sherri has become pregnant and they

Hyperbole is when something is exaggerated. Lane did this a lot throughout the story. “He was freezing more and more solid…” (Wallace, 928). Lane is described as freezing or already frozen multiple time throughout the story. He is not actually frozen and is just used to show the readers how stiff he is throughout the story. They also use this with Sherri. Wallace describes her as “blank and hidden” (929). Lane could not figure out what she was thinking and this hyperbole gave us understanding on how he saw Sherri. Later on in the story, he was able to find out what Sherri was thinking and that was her hoping that Lane is good enough to not let her go through this