A Visit From The Goon Squad Essay

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The Goon and The Wizened Youth: True Villains Revealed
The Journey of Time through A Visit from the Goon Squad and By Night in Chile

The journey trope functions in A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan and By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolaño to reveal how time becomes the underlining antagonist that continuously torments the characters throughout their lives. Time – as represented in these two novels – has its own palpable energy that takes on the metaphysical embodiment of the ‘goon’ and the ‘wizened youth’. Both these characters take the members of their respective novels on a journey of realisation, regret, and remorse and introduces the readers to the concept that time is the only truth and it is not always kind. In A Visit from …show more content…

Bosco first introduces time as the goon, when he says in ‘A to B’ “Times a goon, right? Isn’t that the expression?” (Egan 134). Martin Molling describes A Visit from the Goon Squad as an “inexorable ruthlessness of the progression of time” (2016 52) which corroborates the generalised context Dictionary.com makes that a goon is a “hired hoodlum or thug” (2016). Through these examples it becomes clear that Bosco referring to time in this instance as ‘a goon’ suggests that time – as a vicious entity – is seeking to torment these characters exclusively. The characters in A Visit from the Goon Squad are miserable, pitiful creatures who’s journey through time sees them constantly being beaten and held back, unable to reach the greatness they envisioned for themselves. In ‘Pure Language’ Bennie says to Scotty “Time’s a goon, right? You gonna let that goon push you around?” to which Scotty dejectedly replies “The goon won.” Egan’s personification of time makes it the true villain of the novel and thus it seeks out its own journey. If ‘time’ is respectively its own character, it’s reason for existence is to ruin the lives of as many people as possible. Time is the perfect villain, for it cannot be stopped or slowed down and can reach everyone in existence

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