David Foster Wallace Analysis

Comparing and contrasting Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” and Chandler Tuttle’s 2081 in relation to their characterization of the short story’s namesake is an undertaking chock-full of potential. These two sources are very different in their representation of young Harrison and this serves to completely skew one’s preconceived understanding of his person, motivations, and desires. Due to this subtle but significant variation one can come to the conclusion that the way an individual is portrayed and the words they speak in different genres greatly manipulates others’ perception of their character. This is evident when one analyzes the monologuing and shot choices of the short film or the descriptions and dialogue in the story.

In his tale “Good People” David Wallace tells the story of young love and the thoughts of teenagers so called in love faced with everyday life adult choices with a teenage mind. The two being both in ministries and meeting there had a heavy influence on the decisions and their choices. The thoughts that the teens had were questions of faith, belief, and the doings of what is right and what is wrong. The two characters Lane and his girlfriend Sheri find themselves looking for the right choice centered around what brought them together… God. Wallace uses the setting of a park by the lake, both characters wearing white to symbolize purity and holiness with water. The setting that Wallace uses in “Good People” is a lake, a beautiful and pure place where the two characters participated in Christian ministries, while sending across the message of making decisions that could come and happen to anybody in an everyday life bases.

As I read this short story in the beginning, the gist of what I have captured the narrator writing is whether the man with a strange habit does really exist or not. Or, if he did exist who was the man that was hitting the narrator in the story on the head without stopping. It sticks in my mind wondering who the strange man was to the narrator. Somehow, despite the agony of trying to understand the motive underlies the story; I was at first wondering what was the strange man had gone through

The View from Mrs. Thompson’s, written by David Foster Wallace, is about how he perceived the tragic events of September 11th. It is not clear what message what Wallace tries to address in this essay, because as a reader it makes you focus on the tragedy that transpired. Although this essay centers around 9/11, the essay is much more about the people, about Bloomington, Illinois, and about himself. Through his experience upon the arrival of and the day after September eleventh, we get a look into the lives of the type of people that live in Bloomington, the general population who " aren’t unfriendly but do tend to be reserved" (128). We find out about the propensity of individuals in Bloomington to sit in front of the TV together: " what you

In George Saunders essay “thank you, Esther Forbes”, he describes how an author who he read during his youthful age helped him to understand why and how sentences can be important. The essay is written on a more personal note about a nun named Sister Lynette who helped Saunders to develop his perception of sentences. In third grade at St. Darmian School, Saunders was given the novel “Johnny Tremain” by Esther Forbes and that was a turning point for him. This was because the book provided him with a different understanding of the joys of reading as well as writing. On the other, “escape from spider head” helps in providing an analysis of the strengths of a man being put to test. The limits presented in the story are classified as physical, emotional as well as moral. The theme of the story is searching for humanity which makes the readers ask themselves, what makes us human? According to “escape from spider head” humans are considered to be innately empathetic in nature and they are considered to be people who are against the infliction of pain as well as discomfort which is caused on another innocent human being. The aim of the essay is to elaborate more on the connection existing between “Thank you, Esther Forbes” and “Escape from Spiderhead” in terms of the details presented in the two stories.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a woman who writes about personal experience, and in her short, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” we learn exactly who our author is based on the language and communication that appears throughout the story. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a captivating tale, largely because the language and communication between characters translates to a feeling of near madness for the reader. The man, the dominant character in the story, has much to say about his wife’s mental condition and practically refuses to permit her feelings. Gilman explains how this story wasn’t made to drive people insane, but rather to save people from insanity. She realizes she has the power to create a powerful effect within literature and that is the thing that

The memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is the tragic story of Wall’s abusive childhood with her alcoholic father and living in poverty. One of the most important and memorable parts of her story of struggle is when she actually stands up for herself against her father on pages 236-238. Throughout Jeannette’s horrid childhood, she has always been loyal to her father, even though he has been highly abusive. It is at this point of the story Jeannette’s rhetorical strategies help convey to the reader her realization that she needs to stand up for herself and get away from her parents. Even in only three pages, Jeannette's strategies show how much better off she would have been without the help of her parents.

To make a list of all things in life that make us feel uncomfortable could take a lifetime in itself. From the awkwardness of puberty to the uneasiness of job interviews, life is uncomfortable, disturbingly uncomfortable. It makes those who are shy uncomfortable and those who have outgoing personalities equally uncomfortable. The only differences lie in our personal decisions to choose to feel so disturbingly uncomfortable about ordinary things we all experience. In “Forever Overhead”, David Foster Wallace is able to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the uncomfortable” (qtd. in McCaffery) by the explicit imagery he uses in describing nocturnal emission, the self-consciousness that is projected through his

“A True Story” was about a malnourished man sick with typhoid fever whom told many stories to his bed neighbor Kapo Kwasniak. Kwasniak detested inactivity, but had poor kidneys and could not eat or work like he once used to. Kwasniak was not humored by the old man’s stories unless they were true as Kwasniak was not impressed with romantic literature, adventure films, or fictional novels. The malnourished old man began to tell Kwasniak a delusional story of a young boy he met in prison; the boy was found to be guilty of writing on walls and was shot

Notwithstanding their partner’s contempt of reading and writing, both the father in “The Boat,” and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” continue to search for reprieve through their respective books and diary.

By taking situations many have personally experienced or know someone who has, realistic fiction authors are able to reach their readers on a deeper level. Charlotte Perkins Gilman has expressed she wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper” because of her own personal battles with mental illness in an attempt to prevent others from “going mad”. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman introduces us to a mentally ill narrator. The narrator is the wife of an established physician and forced to “rest” in a room covered in tattered yellow wallpaper and bars so that she can cure herself of her disease. Throughout the story we follow the narrator through her days in this room and see her eventually be driven to

One should never judge a book by its cover. This is a recurrent theme in the short story “Cathedral.” In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral,” the narrator forms misguided opinions about his wife’s blind friend, Robert, even before he actually meets him. The narrator’s opinions are greatly influenced by stereotypes, jealousy, and even anger.

James Hurst uses indirect and direct characterization in the short story “The Scarlet Ibis,” to reveal how people with physical and mental disabilities were treated and perceived, in a cruel and unforgiving way during the time period of this story. For example, Doodle, one of the main characters in “The scarlet Ibis” is terrified in his coffin that he was to be buried in, while his brother, our narrator finds joy in his fright. “Don’t leave me, Brother,” he cried, and leaned toward the coffin.” In this time period must people with disabilities need to have special care and attention, but in “The Scarlet Ibis” the narrator treats Doodle worse than a normal human being. By forcing Doodle to touch his own coffin he was going to be buried

It is bizarre how two wildly different texts can have weirdly similar ideas, and still be immensely unique in the way they are presented. The chapter “how to fight monsters” from the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, and the poem “cross” written by Langston Hughes carry an irre similarity, however, manage to be about entirely different situations. Though both the texts deal with somewhat similar situations, their their similarities and differences become apparent when one begins to examine how the main characters feel in their situation, where their problems stem from, and how they choose to deal with their problems in their own unique ways. It is no secret that both the characters are put

David Foster Wallace’s born in Ithaca, New York wrote short story, “Good People”, follows the tumultuous thoughts of nineteen-year-old Lane Dean Jr. as he sits on a bench in quiet with his, equally submersed in thought, pregnant girlfriend Sheri. The sun is described to make the shallows look dark. Lane is described to be looking in the direction of the shallows through out the story. The description of how “the shallows [lap] from different directions at the tree, as if almost teething at it” (____) express the idea of trees, or “life” representing a baby, as well as, symbolizes Lane’s obvious, prevailing desire to not become a father. Finally, when Lane has his “moment of grace” and realizes what Sheri is about to tell him, “everything [seems]