-'If the star of the something-like-a-date expresses any reservations about having Toph along, she is clearly a very bad person'
Dave has impossibly high standards for the women in his life. If they do not fit his exact, cookie-cutter shape of what they should be like, how they should feel, how they should behave, they are more than just inferior to him- they are bad people altogether and don't deserve to be in his life.
-'It means that I like her less...she is misguided, self-centered and also a bad person...that's not her place and there's no coming out of that alive'
Dave wants women to say in a certain space, somewhere he can be detached from them. He seems to view women as not having any natural curiosities or feelings, and that anything he doesn't approve of is rude and unacceptable.
-'The 29 year old, an actual woman-woman'
Hierarchy of women. Concept of 'real' women and 'fake' women. Women aren't 'real' women until they are mature and perhaps are more likely to be manipulated by him, as he thinks he knows what's going on inside every woman's head. Ageism.
-'If she would be wrinkled, prunelike, sagging...I was ready to be horrified...if I had to touch her pimpled or varicose flesh'
Naive, childish, immature. Very sexist and ageist as he assumes that anyone above his own age is old, even though the woman he is dating is only 29. Extremely inexperienced and narrow-minded when it comes to the female body.
-'Marny's breasts...are kind of uneven...June looks normal.'
Wants a woman with a 'perfect' (not real) body. Lexical choice of 'normal' shows how messed up Dave's idea is of woman as he has this ideal image in his head of what a woman's breasts should look like, and anything that is not this perfect image is abnormal, weird or disgusting.
-'She is my mother, my girlfriend, my wife.'
Reminds me of the anti-rape campaign that was to do with 'how would you feel if that was your mother? Your wife? etc' Women are only important and matter if they have some relationship with you.
-'I want Toph to be her friend and make her happy'
A girl can only happy if she has a friend who is a boy/relationship with a boy. As the girl is slightly on the larger side then it is presumed that she is unhappy.
-'I was looking to score. I expected flirting. I expected attractive single mothers.'
Thinks very highly of himself. Presumes single mothers to be attractive and desperate.
Tuesday, 26 January 2016
Sunday, 24 January 2016
Notes: pg 166-182 (AHWOSG)
'We're all lying'
-Collective pronoun shows certainty of others around him, he believes that everyone feels the same was as he does
-Present tense of 'ongoing', suggests he is a deceiving person
-Short sentence, statement/declarative
'They have tattoos before everyone has tattoos...no cars that are not old cars...'
-Culture shock?
-Feels that he physically looks different from everyone else
-Confusion/awe
'We say nothing and complain little...we have to work 18 hours a day...we're in a certain place'
-Feels that he needs to meet high standards in order to really 'work'
-Very submissive, he's being manipulated, brainwashed?
-Blends in completely, not seen as an individual, similar to when he moved into a diverse neighbourhood
'We want them doing things that we will find interesting'
-Demanding
-Focus on 'we' shows that he's slowly becoming a part of a collective
-Selfish, manipulative, corporate
'We are obsessed with seeming diverse'
-Very racist
-Token minority individuals used to make his company look better
-Careless wording, obviously lying because of 'seeming'. Aware that it's all a lie.
-'June is our black friend....' Places huge weight on the colour of someone's skin.
-Collective pronoun shows certainty of others around him, he believes that everyone feels the same was as he does
-Present tense of 'ongoing', suggests he is a deceiving person
-Short sentence, statement/declarative
'They have tattoos before everyone has tattoos...no cars that are not old cars...'
-Culture shock?
-Feels that he physically looks different from everyone else
-Confusion/awe
'We say nothing and complain little...we have to work 18 hours a day...we're in a certain place'
-Feels that he needs to meet high standards in order to really 'work'
-Very submissive, he's being manipulated, brainwashed?
-Blends in completely, not seen as an individual, similar to when he moved into a diverse neighbourhood
'We want them doing things that we will find interesting'
-Demanding
-Focus on 'we' shows that he's slowly becoming a part of a collective
-Selfish, manipulative, corporate
'We are obsessed with seeming diverse'
-Very racist
-Token minority individuals used to make his company look better
-Careless wording, obviously lying because of 'seeming'. Aware that it's all a lie.
-'June is our black friend....' Places huge weight on the colour of someone's skin.
'Home' essay (AHWOSG)
The first presentation we get of home in 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' is the metaphor of the house being a 'factory'. Eggers used this to show that Dave was detached from his home environment and that he views his home as an artificial production line. This could be because of his mother's illness: he views it as more of a hospital setting with people going in and out. However in this case, his mother barely leaves the house so it shows that she's not getting better.
We know this from the quotation 'there was a time when she was still up and about...running errands'. This shows stagnation and that his mother's progress towards health has come to a stand still. Everything is decaying around him because his mother can no longer clean or maintain the house the was she used to. Just as her body is decaying, so is the house.
Eggers uses the quotation '...inviting everyone to come and watch us in the middle of our disintegration' to show how protective Dave feels toward the house, as if it's his personal place to break down, The idea of having a party at home feels odd because for him these concepts are juxtaposed: a party is seen as fun, vibrant and full of life whereas his home feels like a 'factory', somewhere grey and dull and drained of energy. This links with Dave's uncomfortable feeling about 'everyone knowing' his family's issues because he doesn't want to invite strangers or friends into somewhere he doesn't feel they belong: his home. For Dave, there is both a physical and emotional barrier between him and the people outside. The physical barrier is the house's walls and the emotional barrier is the one he puts there himself, shown in the quotation: 'I....have developed elaborate fantasies for those who would see...our situation (as) gossip fodder.' The lexical choice of 'fodder' has connotations of a farm and animals, suggesting that Eggers saw his neighbours and anyone outside of his family as beasts waiting to feast on his bad news/situation. He uses his home to keep them away, even stating that he is 'not a proponent of the curtains being open'. This shows that he will go to desperate measures to stop anyone from seeing the truth about his home life.
The sublet that Dave describes can be contrasted with the family home, as he wants to be somewhere small in a place that is rather big eg. California. In his home, he is considered the 'big' one in some place small, which is the family home. Dave has to be Toph's big brother as well as his guardian and he has to be his mother's carer and look after her. Because of this he feels 'seen' by everyone around him, shown when Eggers uses the repetition of 'everybody knows'. Dave feels like he's constantly being watched, talked about and intruded upon because of his situation, and he wants to his home to be somewhere quite detached, temporary ('sublet') and freeing, shown in the description of the scenery around him, for example the hilltops, the sky and the sea. Later on in the memoir when Dave is searching for a new house, it's clear that he can't afford the house he really wants and this is upsetting for him as he sees home as such an important and influential part of his life. He can't afford anywhere with even a bathtub or doors, let alone a beautiful backdrop to his story. It's important to mention that having doors would be essential for Dave as he is so guarded about his home life.
On page 61, Eggers uses the exclamation marks in the living arrangements description to show Dave's excitement, youthfulness and naivety. He's almost parodying his past self by using short, exclamatory sentences that make him sound innocent and child-like. The fact that the emphasis has been placed on everything being shared, 'like a commune', shows how sick Dave is of all the constant responsibility and pressure. It shows that he feels isolated and detached from everyone else around him, and that he would appreciate being able to share his struggles to keep on top of everything he currently has control over.
When him and Toph do get their own place, Dave is adamant that Toph helps with the chores so he is not alone in doing the housework. As Eggers compares this to college, it is further reinstated that Dave wants to go back to the way he feels he should be in his early 20s: playful and not taking anything too seriously, but he is also cynical and bitter about the way he acted before he had to take on a more mature role within in the family. This is supported by the use of the diagram on page 62, as the floor plan, although it shows that Dave has awareness of the practicalities of owning a house, it indicates the perfect area to slide in socks which reminds the reader how young Dave really is and perhaps makes us feel more protective towards him. When the entropy of living conditions is made clear on page 82, Eggers uses the child-like lexical choices of 'call me bad names' to show Dave's true innocence and fragility. This has connotations of bullying, which is probably what Eggers was trying to convey: Dave feels bullied by the outside world, made to feel small by the people around him.
When Dave and Toph finally do get a house, they are surrounded by what could be considered minority neighbours. For once they are not the topic of conversation because there are so many more people around them who have their own stories to tell. They are not unusual, or pitied upon, or felt sorry for, because in this neighbourhood they are not special at all: they blend in with everyone else.
We know this from the quotation 'there was a time when she was still up and about...running errands'. This shows stagnation and that his mother's progress towards health has come to a stand still. Everything is decaying around him because his mother can no longer clean or maintain the house the was she used to. Just as her body is decaying, so is the house.
Eggers uses the quotation '...inviting everyone to come and watch us in the middle of our disintegration' to show how protective Dave feels toward the house, as if it's his personal place to break down, The idea of having a party at home feels odd because for him these concepts are juxtaposed: a party is seen as fun, vibrant and full of life whereas his home feels like a 'factory', somewhere grey and dull and drained of energy. This links with Dave's uncomfortable feeling about 'everyone knowing' his family's issues because he doesn't want to invite strangers or friends into somewhere he doesn't feel they belong: his home. For Dave, there is both a physical and emotional barrier between him and the people outside. The physical barrier is the house's walls and the emotional barrier is the one he puts there himself, shown in the quotation: 'I....have developed elaborate fantasies for those who would see...our situation (as) gossip fodder.' The lexical choice of 'fodder' has connotations of a farm and animals, suggesting that Eggers saw his neighbours and anyone outside of his family as beasts waiting to feast on his bad news/situation. He uses his home to keep them away, even stating that he is 'not a proponent of the curtains being open'. This shows that he will go to desperate measures to stop anyone from seeing the truth about his home life.
The sublet that Dave describes can be contrasted with the family home, as he wants to be somewhere small in a place that is rather big eg. California. In his home, he is considered the 'big' one in some place small, which is the family home. Dave has to be Toph's big brother as well as his guardian and he has to be his mother's carer and look after her. Because of this he feels 'seen' by everyone around him, shown when Eggers uses the repetition of 'everybody knows'. Dave feels like he's constantly being watched, talked about and intruded upon because of his situation, and he wants to his home to be somewhere quite detached, temporary ('sublet') and freeing, shown in the description of the scenery around him, for example the hilltops, the sky and the sea. Later on in the memoir when Dave is searching for a new house, it's clear that he can't afford the house he really wants and this is upsetting for him as he sees home as such an important and influential part of his life. He can't afford anywhere with even a bathtub or doors, let alone a beautiful backdrop to his story. It's important to mention that having doors would be essential for Dave as he is so guarded about his home life.
On page 61, Eggers uses the exclamation marks in the living arrangements description to show Dave's excitement, youthfulness and naivety. He's almost parodying his past self by using short, exclamatory sentences that make him sound innocent and child-like. The fact that the emphasis has been placed on everything being shared, 'like a commune', shows how sick Dave is of all the constant responsibility and pressure. It shows that he feels isolated and detached from everyone else around him, and that he would appreciate being able to share his struggles to keep on top of everything he currently has control over.
When him and Toph do get their own place, Dave is adamant that Toph helps with the chores so he is not alone in doing the housework. As Eggers compares this to college, it is further reinstated that Dave wants to go back to the way he feels he should be in his early 20s: playful and not taking anything too seriously, but he is also cynical and bitter about the way he acted before he had to take on a more mature role within in the family. This is supported by the use of the diagram on page 62, as the floor plan, although it shows that Dave has awareness of the practicalities of owning a house, it indicates the perfect area to slide in socks which reminds the reader how young Dave really is and perhaps makes us feel more protective towards him. When the entropy of living conditions is made clear on page 82, Eggers uses the child-like lexical choices of 'call me bad names' to show Dave's true innocence and fragility. This has connotations of bullying, which is probably what Eggers was trying to convey: Dave feels bullied by the outside world, made to feel small by the people around him.
When Dave and Toph finally do get a house, they are surrounded by what could be considered minority neighbours. For once they are not the topic of conversation because there are so many more people around them who have their own stories to tell. They are not unusual, or pitied upon, or felt sorry for, because in this neighbourhood they are not special at all: they blend in with everyone else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)