Specific aspects within A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan uniquely shape how it works as a novel. The loosely connected characters, different points of view, the use of the PowerPoint slides, and postmodern language all play important roles in the style in which this novel is written. Egan designs a “web,” which weaves each character in connection with the others as the story unfolds. As we follow the characters throughout the story, we see how they have changed and matured as they go from point “A to B.” The characters’ connections as we follow their stories constantly develop as the novel moves across time periods in their lives. The novel opens with Sasha, who has a difficult time in connecting with people around her. She steals …show more content…
It depicts how technology and the time period have changed from the beginning of the novel to the end, when Sasha is shown as a mature mother. The most important information about the Blake family is presented and allows readers to better understand each character in the family. It shows how important Lincoln’s pauses are in his songs and how Drew has a difficult time connecting to his son, leaving him to yell and make his son cry. After his walk with Alison, Drew seems to have more of an appreciation for the pauses in Lincoln’s songs, as the titles of the slides are shown: “Proof of the Necessity of Pauses,” “Discoveries About Pause Timing,” and “The Persistence of Pauses over Time.” It also allows readers to see how Sasha has developed as a person and mother when she says to Drew, “The pause makes you think the song will end. And then the song isn’t really over, so you’re relieved. But then the song does actually end, because every song ends, obviously, and THAT. TIME. THE. END. IS. FOR. REAL” (Egan 281). This shows that Sasha is very defensive about her autistic son and allows readers to see what kind of mother she has grown to be to her children. Egan shows how people of Alison’s generation depend on technology to portray information and communicate with …show more content…
The majority of the way Egan has the characters communicate is based on technology. Technology creates a need for unique, expressive language, such as the chapter with the PowerPoint slides depicting information about the Blake family. The need for the characters’ communication throughout the novel is what makes the language used postmodern, as well as the use of prolepses in multiple scenes. Not only is the external language postmodern, but also the internal language; how the characters communicate with themselves. Rob’s chapter told in second person, in which he discusses his depression and says he is not himself anymore, portrays postmodernism; he communicates with himself through “you.” All of the characters as individuals try to find themselves, see what their lives are about, and what they have become, as they have gotten older. However, it is only once they stop and pause, as Lincoln does in his songs, that they find the real meaning in their lives. The pause conveys the message that something is ending, but not yet. Just as Sasha describes to Drew that the pause makes you think the song is over, but then the song continues and you are relieved (Egan 281). The pauses in Lincoln’s songs can relate to the pauses in the literary work, “Ah (a shower song”), by Michel and Vis. An allusion was used in reference to Einstein claiming that “between one and nought there is a whole
The diverse alternation of point of views also provides the story an effective way to reach out to readers and be felt. The characterisation is effectively done and applied as Sam, Grace, and the other supporting characters play individual, crucial roles in the course of the story. All the elements of a typical young adult novel, consisting of a gap-filled relationship between children and parents, emotion-driven teenagers, and a unique conflict that makes the book distinct from fellow novels, combined with the dangerous consequences of the challenges the couple encounter, make the book different from all other of the same genre. The plot unfolds slowly giving readers enough time to adjust and anticipate the heavy conflict when it arises. It has gotten us so hooked but the only thing we could possibly dislike about it was the slow pace of plot. The anticipation was too much to handle and we were practically buzzing and bouncing to know how the story turns out as we read. It builds the anticipation, excitement, thrill, sadness, grief, loss, and longing in such an effective way to entice and hook readers further into the world of Sam and
While she might think that her plans are working, they only lead her down a path of destruction. She lands in a boarding house, when child services find her, she goes to jail, becomes pregnant by a man who she believed was rich. Also she becomes sentenced to 15 years in prison, over a street fight with a former friend she double crossed. In the end, she is still serving time and was freed by the warden to go to her mother’s funeral. To only discover that her two sisters were adopted by the man she once loved, her sister is with the man who impregnated her, and the younger sister has become just like her. She wants to warn her sister, but she realizes if she is just like her there is no use in giving her advice. She just decides that her sister must figure it out by
The story follows three girls- Jeanette, the oldest in the pack, Claudette, the narrator and middle child, and the youngest, Mirabella- as they go through the various stages of becoming civilized people. Each girl is an example of the different reactions to being placed in an unfamiliar environment and retrained. Jeanette adapts quickly, becoming the first in the pack to assimilate to the new way of life. She accepts her education and rejects her previous life with few relapses. Claudette understands the education being presented to her but resists adapting fully, her hatred turning into apathy as she quietly accepts her fate. Mirabella either does not comprehend her education, or fully ignores it, as she continually breaks the rules and boundaries set around her, eventually resulting in her removal from the school.
In “A Brief Encounter with the Enemy” by Said Sayrafiezadeh, Luke, a pessimistic soldier, walks down memory lane as he travels the path to get to the hill during his last recon. He remembers appreciating nature, encountering and writing to Becky, the first time he’d shot a gun, and Christmas leave. Luke identifies the moment when he realizes that he had joined the army for the wrong reason, after crossing the bridge his team built in order to cross the valley, and at the same time dreading the return to his former office job. Boredom and nothingness destroy him mentally as he waits for enemies to appear. When the enemies finally appear, he shoots them down and goes home the next day. Sayrafiezadeh proposes that expectations don’t always equate
She then shifts to discussing TV shows that bring family members together such as Sally Jesse Raphael or Oprah. As the mother imagines what it will be like when her daughter comes home, she brings out the imagery of tears and wrapped arms, and since we have all seen these shows, the reader can see the stage set up with four chairs and the daughter waiting for the parents to come out on stage. We can see the look of surprise on the daughter's face as they come out onto the stage. She has not seen her daughter, Dee, for a while and imagines b...
...he story with the various characters. Melinda’s acquaintance, Heather works hard at finding friends and becoming popular, but in the end she turns away from Melinda. The story is about the high school years. Many times when we are growing up we can’t wait to get there because we will be treated as adults, but the truth is the problems that come along when we are older can be difficult. The various clans of students help present the theme by showing us that there are many different types of people. The popular cheerleaders, the jocks, the geeks and those who are just trying to fit in. Melinda transforming the janitor’s closet symbolizes her hiding her feelings and Melinda’s inability to speak and tell people what happened to her. High school can be fun but unfortunately through the eyes of Melinda it was a very hard time.
Viramontes sets a disconcerting tone by introducing that it is night time and Sonya, the young girl, has lost her key and cannot let her younger brother, Macky, and herself into their apartment. The first few paragraphs succeed in showing that Sonya is responsible and protective of her brother despite her age as she chases after him to keep him out of the street.
Many times when reading a novel, the reader connects with one of the characters and begins to sympathize with them. This could be because the reader understands what the character is going through or because we get to see things from the character’s perspective and their emotions and that in return allows a bond to form for the reader. The character that is the most intriguing for me and the one I found comparing to every book that I read during school was Stacey from the book “Ravensong” Lee Maracle. The character Stacey goes through a lot of internal battle with herself and it’s on her path to discovery that she begins to understand herself and what she’s capable of. Throughout the novel, Stacey has a few issues she tries to work through. This is emphasized through her village and in her school that is located across the bridge in white town. Stacey begins dealing with the loss of Nora, and elder in her town. And this in return begins the chain of events that Stacey begins on the path of self-discovery not only on herself but everyone around her. She begins to see things differently and clearly. Stacey is a very complex and confused character, and she begins to work through these complexities through her thoughts, statements and actions.
...self exaggerated stories. One thing she tells herself is that her mother was kidnapped by a lunatic. On another occasion a classmate asks where her mother is and she says that her mother is on a business trip in London. Their similarities help each other to grow and mature and eventually come to terms with their situations.
influence all her life and struggles to accept her true identity. Through the story you can
Charlotte Gilman s manipulation of language and syntax in her prose is crucial to the overall effect of the story. What the reader is presented is a story that uses language and syntax to portray a woman s changing mental state. The reader experiences the narrator s deteriorating mental state as she succumbs to her condition and eventually loses her sanity.
Starting the book is about the most painful thing (almost as painful as a head on collision with a semi on the highway.) Never the less once the characters become more apparent, and a type of plot is reveled, things get more interesting. It doesn’t take to long to get into the book, and learn something interesting about the characters. All of them have something in common which is a brilliant way to bring all of them together. Addie is the mother of the Bundren family and wife to Anse. She is on her deathbed, and the characters all revolve around this each reacting in a different way. Darl is the most level headed about the situation (at first), Jewel is more horse, Dewey is rather devastated, Anus is rather insensitive, and so on.
...and through an unfolding of events display to the reader how their childhoods and families past actions unquestionably, leads to their stance at the end of the novel.
Julavits’s interview with Egan is an informative interview about Visit the Goon Squad and how it was created. Heidi Julavits made a successful interview with Jennifer Egan which it went into depth about the Visit the Goon Squad and breaking it down for the readers to fully understand what Egan’s trying to do. In Jennifer Egan’s interview, Egan explained to Julavits, “I’m really tired of the way pages of text look. I want mine to look different. I had this feeling of not liking to read a book where you turn these pages and they all the same. The biggest thing that guides me is a basic attempt to move away from anything that feels familiar” (Julavits p 83). In a glimpse of what Egan is saying, does change the way the audience read her novel, as it changes in each chapter. This express the theme, passage of
The beginning of the novel introduces the reader to Esther O'Malley Robertson as the last of a family of extreme women. She is sitting in her home, remembering a story that her grandmother told her a long time ago. Esther is the first character that the reader is introduced to, but we do not really understand who she is until the end of the story. Esther's main struggle is dealing with her home on Loughbreeze Beach being torn down, and trying to figure out the mysteries of her family's past.