In the opening lines of David Foster Wallace’s short story, “Good Old Neon,” the protagonist and narrator Neal describes himself as follows: “My whole life I’ve been a fraud. I’m not exaggerating. Pretty much all I’ve ever done all the time is try to create a certain impression of me in other people” (141). In saying this, Neal sets up a self-aware yet self-deprecating representation of himself. Seemingly, Neal (who is a ghost in “Good Old Neon”) understands his hamartia, or tragic flaw, as inauthenticity. However, a closer reading of Neal’s choice of language shows that he is an unreliable narrator. In fact, he is intentionally unreliable as a narrator because he wants to “come across someone who is [his] match and can’t be fooled.” In other …show more content…
Repeatedly, Neal insists that his sentiments are “long, rushing, and clumsy” so as “to convey the way I remember it,” or portray his narrative authentically (148, 150). Repetition of this explanation, coupled with an appeal to the reader to sympathize with his ramblings—“I know that you know as well as I do how fast thoughts and associations can fly through your head”—could give Neal credibility and reinforce his self-aware yet self-deprecating characterization (150). In contrast, another reading of Neal’s reiterated explanations of his garrulousness, coupled with his appeal, is that he is overcompensating to come off as honest. But he is deliberately overdoing it to the extent that he exposes himself as an imposter. As such, Neal is testing whether the reader can tell that he is overcompensating. In support of this point, the way that the appeal begins, “I know that know you as well as I do,” has an exaggerated or overstated tone (150). Overcompensation is also reflected in Neal’s overuse of tangential parenthetical remarks, some of them half a page or more in length. Overcompensation is further manifested in the content of the remarks themselves. In one case, Neal begins, “To be honest, I knew it was Cézanne because . . .” (146). Parentheticals “are said while one is …show more content…
It comes up when Neal says, “I more or less conned myself into sticking with going to see Dr. G. … for almost nine months” (164). By saying “nine months,” Neal is evoking the image of pregnancy. Neal is metaphorically pregnant; like an expectant mother, Neal is carrying an interior self within an exterior self. However, for Neal, this interior self is one of fraudulence and insincerity – which he wants the reader to identify – beneath an exterior façade of a self-aware yet self-deprecating character. This pregnancy imagery is fleshed out by Neal referring to Dr. Gustafson in this sentence as “Dr. G.,” which alludes to a doctor of gynecology
In her personal essay, Dr. Grant writes that she learned that most cases involving her patients should not be only handled from a doctor’s point of view but also from personal experience that can help her relate to each patient regardless of their background; Dr. Grant was taught this lesson when she came face to face with a unique patient. Throughout her essay, Dr. Grant writes about how she came to contact with a patient she had nicknamed Mr. G. According to Dr. Grant, “Mr. G is the personification of the irate, belligerent patient that you always dread dealing with because he is usually implacable” (181). It is evident that Dr. Grant lets her position as a doctor greatly impact her judgement placed on her patients, this is supported as she nicknamed the current patient Mr.G . To deal with Mr. G, Dr. Grant resorts to using all the skills she
Academic colleagues like, David Greenburg, would have been exasperated, part from envy of McCullough’s ability in not only story telling but to sell and he would object to the approach of this book. The colleagues would tear at the lack of compelling rationale for an overused topic, as well as the scene setting, and meager analysis.
Brizee, Allen, and J. Case Tompkins. "Purdue OWL: Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism." Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). 21 Apr. 2010. Web. 21 Apr. 2011. .
For example, “The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them… I heard many things in the heaven…Earth… I heard many things in Hell (pg.522). The Narrator has stated to have a disease that has affected his perception of reality. Furthermore, The Narrator seems to have skewed morals. For example on page 523, “Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me … for his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye!” The Narrator had planned to kill The Old Man simply because he was not fond of his eye. He was so easily swayed to kill because he thought The Old Man’s Eye had cursed him. This man acts on impulse and has no
In life, many people strive to find a person that is reliable and to separate the people that are unreliable. Unreliable can be defined as an adjective meaning not dependable. Having read through the short stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and “Strawberry Spring” by Stephen King, it is reasonable to conclude that each of these stories has its own unreliable narrator. The most unreliable narrator, however, is the narrator/killer Springheel Jack from “Strawberry Spring” by Stephen King due to the narrator’s cognition problems and the violent nature of the murders.
316-318. Excerpted and reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Volume 37. What is the difference between a'smart' and Daniel Marowski. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1986.
One of his intriguing skills as a writer is his ability to intertwine narration and analysis in his essays. James Baldwin mixes narration and analysis in his essays so well that coherence is never broken, and the subconscious is so tempted to agree with and relate to what he says, that if you don’t pay close attention, one will find himself agreeing with Baldwin, when he wasn’t even aware Baldwin was making a point. Physical placement of analytical arguments and analytical transitions, frequency and size of analytical arguments, and the language used within the analytical arguments are the keys to Baldwin’s graceful persuasion. Throughout this essay, I will be using Baldwin’s “Notes of a Native Son” as an example. “Notes of a Native Son” is an essay that Baldwin wrote which focuses primarily on his life around the time his father died, which also happens to be the same time his youngest brother was born.
Dillard’s inquisitive tone reflects her strife to understand the incomprehensible suffering of others. Confused about the randomness of suffering, Dillard asks, “Will someone please explain to Alan McDonald in his dignity, to the deer at Providencia in his dignity, what is going on? And mail me the carbon” (Dillard, 1984, p.102). (M.S. 8) Dillard indicates her confusion by directly asking for “someone to please explain what is going on.” Dillard’s tone demands for someone to “mail her the carbon” if they discover the answer. She does not phrase her sentence as a question, but as an imperative statement. (M.S. 3) Dillard also implements a tone of exasperation amongst the North American travelers. The travelers expect Dillard to attempt to rescue the deer or at least appear distraught; instead, the travelers perceive Dillard’s lack of reaction as disconnected. However, Dillard’s reaction likewise reveals her intense knowledge of the deer’s suffering as inevitable. Dillard addresses the travelers by asking, “Gentlemen of the city, what surprises you? That there is suffering here, or that I know it” (Dillard, 1982, p.100)? Dillard’s defends her awareness of suffering by straightforwardly affirming her understanding of affliction by her expression, “or that I know it.” Dillard’s tone of inquisition and exasperation throughout her story verifies her
... is a compliment to his readers’ minds. He uses words like "consideration," "frankly acknowledge to you," and "I propose" (36) to illustrate the rationalism he expects to share with them.
4. What two forms of figurative language does the author use in lines 20-23 of page 211 to make his writing more
Love, Heather. "Close but Not Deep: Literary Ethics and the Descriptive Turn." New Literary History 41.2 (2010): 371-91. Project Muse. Web. 30 April 2014.
Kelly, John. ENGLISH 2308E: American Literature Notes. London, ON: University of Western. Fall 2014. Lecture Notes.
I wish, in this article, to make some observations about the way in which some of the seminal ideas in the Poetics affected one key writer within the English literary tradition. Curiously enough the first thing to be said about Arnold's view of Aristotle is that it is more a Platonic than an Aristotelian view. In short Arnold was primarily, though not merely, an idealist. If, for the sake of clarity we could for the purpose of this analysis call Aristotle a realist, we might be better able to see the proper scope of this account. What we have then is the case of a man who was primarily a scientist and philosopher -- a realist in the best sense of the word, influencing a poet and visionary -- an idealist in the best sense of the word.
Though Wilde wrote in the preface to this book that " To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim", we can still trace the shadow of the author himself in all of the three major characters.
The nineteenth century French historian Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893) is often considered the first modern ‘sociologist of literature’ who endeavours to systematize this approach by way of formulating a scientific precision in the process. Taine has been a stern believer of the notion that literature, regardless of the genre, has a reciprocal relationship with society. This perception is very much explicit in his History of English Literature (1863) – widely recognized as one of the landmark texts of the century. To comprehend and analyze literature in the context of sociological perspective, Taine in his study attempts to device a precise universal criterion. As he deciphers, literature, far from being dubbed as the mere reflection of personality, should be considered the collective expression of the societal set-up embodying the spirit of the age at large. In order to conceive this embodiment, Taine culls out the role three formative factors: ‘race, milieu and moment’. In a nutshell, by ‘race’ he suggests the “innate and hereditary dispositions which man brings with him into the world” . It entails a sense of nationality to be found in literary productions. In other words, it controls the collective disposition that governs everyone without their knowledge or consent. Likewise, ‘milieu’ is the particular circumstance that distorts or develops the disposition mentioned erstwhile. And finally, ‘moment’ is the momentum of the past and present traditions. In this paper we will attempt to unveil these elements at work behind the poems of Thomas Wyatt by alluding to and focusing on a select few