A Visit From The Goon Squad Analysis

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The Passage of Time in A Visit From the Goon Squad People often use the expressions “a New York minute”, “time flies” and “wasting time” to describe the passage of time; however, these idioms indicate time is something that can be controlled, altered, or differentiated. Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad presents time exactly how it is: relative. Egan breaks away from the structurally conventional form of traditional novels and presents time as a “goon”, a foolish entity that controls every character in this story and hinders them from becoming successful individuals. This “goon” leaves no one unscathed; everyone faces the wrath of time and all that comes with it. Egan uses music, as well as the non-linear structure of the book, …show more content…

This quote corresponds with a quote from A Visit From the Good Squad; on page 34, Sasha states, “This is the music business. Five years is five hundred years” (Egan 34). These quotes deftly encompass the entire overarching message of the Good Squad: time is a goon that can never be controlled. Sasha realizes that linear time in the music industry means nothing; it’s completely relative when considering what is the most popular music of any certain time. Music is constantly being reshaped and morphing into new sounds, and as pointed out by Egan in the latter chapters of the book, relies heavily on it’s primary consumers; whatever age group that may be. The concept that music is incessantly adapted presents the passage of time as circular, similar to the Saturn Return. Many of the characters in A Visit From the Goon Squad are cruelly aware of their own mortality, and how time as a “goon” has caused them to be less successful in life than they’d hoped for. By contriving an intricate mix of music and the passage of time in this novel, readers are able to identify that the Goon Squad is structured around music and analyze how the deliberate placement of each chapter affect the reader’s interpretation of the characters. By organizing the chapters in terms of the emotional effect the overall story will have on readers, versus in chronological order, Jennifer Egan skillfully dissipates any tangible comprehension of time that a reader may have; she presents time as the impregnable, objective concept that it

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