Jennifer Egan’s novel A Visit from the Goon Squad is a series of many short stories revolving around several different characters who all interconnect in one way or another. One of Egan’s main themes seems to revolve around the concept of time, and how short life really is. A most pivotal passage from the novel on pages 123 through 132 surrounds around the character Stephanie, and her interactions with her brother Jules and a once renowned rock star trying to make his comeback named Bosco. Egan’s view on time and its relation to the human lifespan in this passage is dependent upon her use of the following literary tools: tone, figurative and symbolic language, and syntax.
Egan uses a desolate and sometimes even cynical tone towards the idea
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Egan also gives the reader a glimpse into Jules’ seemingly cynical perception of the world after he’d been in jail for a few years, referring back to the idea of time passing and how things change. “I go away for a few years and the whole fucking world is upside down,” Jules said angrily. “Buildings are missing. You get strip-searched every time you go to someone’s office. Everybody sounds stoned, because they’re emailing people the whole time they’re talking to you” (123). This tirade towards his sister Stephanie all started because he found out that she and her husband now occasionally “hang out” with republicans, which is supposedly something that would have never even been heard of pre his jail time. To the reader Jules is making out to be a distrustful person of the changed world he now lives in because, for him, the people whom he used to know like the back of his hand are now leading completely different lives… he feels he no longer knows them, or the world around him, like he used to and it’s unnerving. In this quote, Egan slyly inserts Jules’ quick remark about how “buildings are missing” – so quick that if you
O’Connor consciously constructs both Julian Chestny and his mother to participants of convergence and yet incapable of coalescence because of their distortion of self and reality, in part because they live in a world that supports this pretense. From the outset of the story, O’Connor builds an inane world through Julian’s limited view. Julian and his mother set out into a sky of “dying violet,” the start of their journey to reduction marked by the ending of a what should be a beautiful bloom—this imparts an uncanny sense of foreclosure to a beginning (406). Here, O’Connor already portends that their style and approach to building
In Jonathan Hull's book Losing Julia the main character, Patrick Delaney, was a complicated man. At the age of 18, while still very much an innocent boy, he was sent to Europe to fight in a bloody and terrible war. This exposure to the worst of humanity changed him in many ways. During the war he made some of the best and closest friends he ever had in his life. He also watched these friends die a gruesome death while he was only a hundred feet away, unable to help or save them. His entire outlook on life changed. Before the war he was hopeful and optimistic. Afterwards, life didn't seem as important. He went home and tried to be normal, but he couldn't. He married, had kids, and returned to an everyday job as an accountant, but something inside him was missing. He left an important part of himself on the battlefield. It wasn't until he met Julia, that he felt alive again. Through her he was able to open his heart and his soul. Her presence helped to heal the wounds that the war had left behind. There was a lot that happened to Patrick, love, war, loss, and regret, that made him the type of 81 year old man that he was.
Throughout Assassination Vacation Sarah Vowell attempts to humanize each of the assassins. She gives a detailed perspective on Czolgosz's motivation to kill McKinley and lays out the role of Booth’s so-called patriotic dedication to the Confederacy played in his assassination of Lincoln (i.e. it wasn’t simply hatred or lunacy), but her approach to President Garfield’s killer is different. Vowell’s sarcasm is very present in her discussion of Guiteau, and the manner in which she presents his motives, personality, and backstory is unique from her analyses of Czolgosz or Booth.
James Baldwin, in his short story “Sonny’s Blues”, depicts a turbulent relationship between two brothers. As the narrator and his brother are haunted by personal trauma and addiction respectively, the reader’s sympathy towards them shifts drastically. Baldwin masterfully exemplifies control of this sympathy through the positive and negative characterization of both the narrator and Sonny.
Jennifer Egan’s novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, includes thirteen separate short stories that are intertwined in non-chronological order into one exceptional narrative. A Visit from the Goon Squad takes place over a span of five decades, beginning with the punk scene of the 1970s and ending in the ominous future. Egan writes with a form that manipulates time to her advantage, allowing her to show the complex relationships between characters. Time can be seen as a “goon” in the novel that reminds the reader that life advances, times change, and of the mortality that everyone will eventually face. The novel’s theme is centered around the progression of time, memories, music, and redemption. Through the chapters, “Found Objects,” “The Gold Cure,” “You (Plural),” and “Pure Language,” the reader can see how Egan organized the novel around the connections between characters and how the progression of time affects each of the characters. Each separate story functions as a medium to show the interconnectedness of society and to display the novel’s overall theme (Pols).
McGlothlin, Erin. "No Time like the Present: Narrative and Time in Art Spiegelman's "Maus"." Narrative 11.2 (2003): 177-198. JSTOR . Web. 20 Mar. 2011.
In order to break free of time and its clutch on humanity, Harlan Ellison advises the reader to become to the Harlequin. Through satire and lack of structure, Ellison alerts the reader of the winding road down which society is headed, a wakeup call to the truth. The lack of typical literary tools, such as flashbacks and foreshadowing, transform Ellison himself into a harlequin. Both he and the fictitious Harlequin wreak havoc on a time progression that they will destroy and recreate. Satire, employed liberally and sporadically, warns of homogeneity of modern life. By igno...
During the time of its publication “The Story of an Hour” was not received with open arms. In fact, the topic itself was strange to many as it spoke of “a woman rejoicing in the death of her husband” (Hicks). And it
In the short story “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”, by Joyce Carol Oates, the use of the symbolism of Connie’s clothes, her fascination with her beauty, Arnold Friend’s car and Arnold Friend himself help to understand the story’s theme of evil and manipulation. The story, peppered with underlying tones of evil, finds Oates writing about 15-year-old Connie, the protagonist of the story, a pretty girl who is a little too into her own attractiveness, which eventually gets her into trouble with a man named Arnold Friend. The story is liberally doused with symbolism, from the way Connie dresses to the shoes on Arnold Friend’s feet. In “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” the reader can pick up on some of the symbols very easily, while others need deeper thought. The subtle hints of symbolism throughout the story create a riveting tale that draws the reader in. Connie finally succumbs to Arnold Friend at the end of the story, it then becomes obvious that he represents the devil and the symbolism of her clothing and Arnold’s car all tie together to create a better understanding of the story.
The narrator in James Baldwin’s short story, “Sonny’s Blues”, at first glance seems to be a static character, trying to forget the past and constantly demeaning his brother’s choices in life. Throughout the story, readers see how the narrator has tried to forget the past. However, his attempt to forget the past soon took a turn. When the narrator’s daughter died, he slowly started to change. As the narrator experiences these changes in his life, he becomes a dynamic character.
In James Joyce’s “Counterparts,” Farrington, a troubled man stuck in a monotonous job as a text copier, attempts to mitigate his overwhelming stress, only to find himself further demeaned and frustrated. The prison of routine is presented as a major theme, and the plot consists of three main settings that create the comparable catalysts for Farrington’s building anger and torment. Throughout each part of the plot, Joyce’s narration clearly implicates future events, particularly within the office scene. Although the motifs and recurring elements in the office setting reinforce the theme, they are also used to foreshadow impending events and conflicts that unfold to tell Farrington’s grim tale.
Richard Brautigan’s short fiction stories incorporate protagonists that are recognizably fictionalized versions of the author himself. He writes in order to extract his own struggles of the past and the difficulties of discovering himself in the present. Through the characters in The Weather in San Francisco and Corporal, the portrayal of his optimistic view of life as a consequence of the rigors of daily life, and the use of symbols, Brautigan presents his personal story through the words on the paper.
Time is one of the basic components of life that one does not often stop to dwell upon. Each second marks a transition in an individual’s life, but it is rare for someone to consider the true magic of this small measure of history. In Tom’s Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce examines the concept of time in a truly unique manner as she tells the story of a child who comes to terms with time in an extraordinary manner. As Pearce crafts this beautiful yet simply written novel, she intertwines both a moving plot and universal ideas in order to reveal more than meets the eye in terms of the power of time. The novel revolves around a young boy by the name of Tom Long who, in an adverse situation is shipped away from his home to live with his childless Uncle and Aunt for the summer. While Tom is disgruntled by the notion, he comes to adjust his views when he discovers a magical garden that opens his eyes to new experiences and feelings. With the discovery of this mysterious world in the garden, Tom is forced to decipher the power of time, companionship, and imagination and through this journey, he evolves from the childish, inconsiderate young boy he once was into one with a more mature and sensitive outlook on his own life and the world as a whole.
.Jill Hicks published an article in the Columbia Daily Tribune, where she explained the powerful aspects of the novel written by Jennifer Egan. Hicks’s article is trying to prove to the audience that Egan’s novel is excellent and it Pulitzer worthy, and to spread the word. In “The Goon Squad Pays Us a Visit”, Hicks said, “One of the most powerful aspect of the novel, through unexpected on my part, is the sense of the near future crashing in. In the space of once particular chapter, I was smack with the reality of how far society has shifted in terms of technology and the culture of communication since only a couple of decades ago” (Hicks). This statement from Hicks help me understand what Egan was trying to do. I felt the same way as Hicks has felt when the novel read. This help me move from the confusion of point of views to knowing what Egan is thinking when she was writing this piece, which is
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.” Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Eds. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 3rd ed. New York: Pearson, 2010. 261-263. Print.