Language in A Visit from the Goon Squad
Though Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad has received praise on many grounds, one of its most compelling features is its undeniable humanness. The Chicago Tribune called it groundbreaking, featuring “characters about whom you come to care deeply as you watch them doing things they shouldn’t, acting gloriously, infuriatingly human.” Readers connect so easily to this book not simply because they care about the characters, but because they embody the characters. Through Jennifer Egan’s refreshingly contemporary writing style, she displays humankind’s complete lack of self awareness in a horrifying, yet eye opening fashion.
Jennifer Egan utilizes a third person omniscient point of view and a casual tone within the chapters to provide insight to the thoughts and feelings of her characters, and easily relate her readers to those characters. Each chapter focuses on one person, having their own personal flaws and trials, connecting them to the other characters through their lack of control over their own lives. Within each chapter Jennifer Egan mimics the way in which people think and speak by seamlessly switching between dialogue and personal thought. By being able to delve into each character’s most personal thoughts and feelings, readers learn that these people are self obsessed in a way that is both appalling and yet undeniably relatable. One of the most heartbreaking cases is displayed in chapter three when Rhea explains the dynamic of her band, but focuses primarily on her freckles, her unrequited love for Bennie, and the fact that she is not a “real punk.” Although having a total self obsession fed by her insecurities, she has a complete lack of self awareness and identity, proven when Lou, a man who she despises, seems to have a better understanding of her than she does. Through situations like these Jennifer Egan suggests that this absence of self understanding is a problem plaguing modern society.
In chapter four Mindy is able to predict the actions of the people on the safari with her, yet lacks the self awareness to stop herself from marrying Lou who inevitably leaves her with no money, struggling to support her family. Charlene knows her father well enough to predict that he will marry Mindy, but cannot stop herself from joining a cult in Mexico and eventually dying from salmonella poisoning. Rhea feels that she understands Bennie so well that she may have a deeper understanding of him than she does of herself. There seems to be a theme of characters having a deep understanding of other characters, yet lacking this understanding of themselves. Jennifer Egan incorporates modernism while illustrating this by providing readers with views into the future, using a wide timeline that the novel occurs in, and by providing anecdotes that give a peek into the future lives of characters. This both demonstrates a lack of personal understanding, and the impossibility of predicting one’s future.
Jennifer Egan employes a modern writing style along with time shifts, a third person omniscient point of view, and smooth transitions between dialogue and thought. This simultaneously connects readers to her characters, while proving that society has an alarming lack of self awareness, leading to life outcomes that are impossible to predict. A Visit From the Goon Squad leaves readers feeling simultaneously horrified and reassured, seeing the frustrating qualities of Jennifer Egan’s characters in themselves, but knowing that this trait is present in everyone.
Monday, May 23, 2016
The Role of Technology Essay
Technology Clock
In Jennifer Egan’s novel, A Visit From The Goon Squad, technology constantly shows growth of characters and reflects the time period in which the chapter is set in. The story is not told in chronological order and can be difficult to follow as the characters progress into the oddly formatted telling of their life. Technology, as a whole, heavily reflects human’s progression of society and in this book, helps make the sporadic chain events connect in an orderly fashion. Eagan specifically reflects her point of view on technology changing music and society through character’s opinions and instances where they long for a connection that has been shattered by technology’s evolution.
One of the most prominent characters, that portrays Egan’s point, is Bennie Salazar. In the novel, Bennie is a successful music producer but is shown struggling to find a connection to most modern music he comes across. He expresses his thoughts on how technology has helped spread the music to all audiences and made it very accessible, but with that comes the erasing of the original sound of most music and other art forms he mentions. He refers to the constant overproduced, “clean” sound as an “aesthetic holocaust”. This is said as he reminisces the olden days by listening to punk bands, which mostly were recorded poorly, but reflect the lack of technology in music. Bennie misses the feeling of knowing that the instruments were truly being played, whereas today, he expresses that technology can fake the instrumentation and is therefore overproduced by the process of digitization. Egan reflects her point of view on how technology has altered music, mostly for worse, through Bennie’s frustration and this helps display how Bennie progresses through a society and connects with other characters. He constantly is on the search for the untouched sound and this helps create his web that ties him to other people in the novel, ironically acting as a social network.
As the novel progresses, the last chapter helps give insight to where technology is headed, how it’s used, and even the audience it's being marketed towards. As Bennie interacts with Alex, conversing about an artist that Bennie has signed, Scotty Hausmann, they are connected through the discussion of untouched music. This helps Egan explore her thoughts of technology and also supports this character spider web, connecting many different folks. Not only that, but in the same chapter, the youthful Lulu is scolded for conversing on a phone, a modern piece of technology. She works for Bennie and Alex so this is why Rebecca, Alex’s wife feels free to scold her. This reflects the gap in generational opinion of technology by having the older person feel angry towards the younger one for “keeping up with the times” by using technology. Egan accurately and subtly predicts how technology companies will market towards the youth by showing Lulu’s effortless use of the modern phone.
Technology helps Egan display time progression and connections from character to character as the jumbled, unchronological, novel progresses. The aesthetic used by Egan to help the reader follow the story is almost creating a timeline through the change of each of the character’s surrounding in every chapter. Technology is one of the most common symbols that helps not only tie the book together, but also reflects a ghastly accurate opinion of the times that Egan expresses.
In Jennifer Egan’s novel, A Visit From The Goon Squad, technology constantly shows growth of characters and reflects the time period in which the chapter is set in. The story is not told in chronological order and can be difficult to follow as the characters progress into the oddly formatted telling of their life. Technology, as a whole, heavily reflects human’s progression of society and in this book, helps make the sporadic chain events connect in an orderly fashion. Eagan specifically reflects her point of view on technology changing music and society through character’s opinions and instances where they long for a connection that has been shattered by technology’s evolution.
One of the most prominent characters, that portrays Egan’s point, is Bennie Salazar. In the novel, Bennie is a successful music producer but is shown struggling to find a connection to most modern music he comes across. He expresses his thoughts on how technology has helped spread the music to all audiences and made it very accessible, but with that comes the erasing of the original sound of most music and other art forms he mentions. He refers to the constant overproduced, “clean” sound as an “aesthetic holocaust”. This is said as he reminisces the olden days by listening to punk bands, which mostly were recorded poorly, but reflect the lack of technology in music. Bennie misses the feeling of knowing that the instruments were truly being played, whereas today, he expresses that technology can fake the instrumentation and is therefore overproduced by the process of digitization. Egan reflects her point of view on how technology has altered music, mostly for worse, through Bennie’s frustration and this helps display how Bennie progresses through a society and connects with other characters. He constantly is on the search for the untouched sound and this helps create his web that ties him to other people in the novel, ironically acting as a social network.
As the novel progresses, the last chapter helps give insight to where technology is headed, how it’s used, and even the audience it's being marketed towards. As Bennie interacts with Alex, conversing about an artist that Bennie has signed, Scotty Hausmann, they are connected through the discussion of untouched music. This helps Egan explore her thoughts of technology and also supports this character spider web, connecting many different folks. Not only that, but in the same chapter, the youthful Lulu is scolded for conversing on a phone, a modern piece of technology. She works for Bennie and Alex so this is why Rebecca, Alex’s wife feels free to scold her. This reflects the gap in generational opinion of technology by having the older person feel angry towards the younger one for “keeping up with the times” by using technology. Egan accurately and subtly predicts how technology companies will market towards the youth by showing Lulu’s effortless use of the modern phone.
Technology helps Egan display time progression and connections from character to character as the jumbled, unchronological, novel progresses. The aesthetic used by Egan to help the reader follow the story is almost creating a timeline through the change of each of the character’s surrounding in every chapter. Technology is one of the most common symbols that helps not only tie the book together, but also reflects a ghastly accurate opinion of the times that Egan expresses.
Critical Lens Essay
Modern History’s Influence on A Visit from the Goon Squad
A Visit from the Goon Squad was published in 2010, following a decade of
turmoil and unrest between America and foreign powers in the Middle East. In the ever-
shifting storyline of A Visit from the Goon Squad the attack of 9/11 is shown in multiple
chapters to be a focal point of change in both the characters’ lives and the future of
America. Sasha’s emotional connection to the site of the Twin Towers is a reflection of
Jennifer Egan’s connection the event, which dramatically altered security and politics on
a global level. In the aftermath of 9/11, George W. Bush passed the USA Patriot Act
and other laws to allow greater involvement of the federal government in domestic
surveillance and an increase in military spending. Citizens who feared future attacks
relied more heavily on the government than before, increasing the government’s ability
to implement aggressive reforms without backlash. The war on terror was in full effect
during Egan’s writing of A Visit from the Goon Squad and although no one yet knows
the lasting impacts of America’s intervention domestically and in foreign affairs, she
exposes a very possible future of America under the policies put in place after 9/11.
Through exaggeration of current issues in American society, in relation to terrorism and
global warming, Egan seeks to use fictional stories to reflect on real global issues
America is facing.
The altered future world that Egan presents is characterized by a much stronger
federal government with tight control over public safety. In Chapter 13, which describes
this future, citizens are not allowed to do seemingly harmless activities such as use
strollers because they impede public safety in the event of an evacuation. Alex also
describes the omnipresent existence of helicopters that are “flogging the air with a
sound Alex hadn’t been able to bear in the early years-too loud, too loud-but over time
he’d gotten used to it: the price of safety" (pg.330). The reasons for such tightened domestic
security are never fully explained, which is a tactic used by Egan to elevate the sense of
an ominous and paranoid destiny. The changes in society that are described in chapter
13 are an exaggerated version of real changes being made to the America economy
and foreign affairs influenced by the USA Patriot Act. For instance, a technological
economy and society arises which trains the youngest generation from birth how to use
handsets and communicate virtually. Those who thrive in the future world are young,
brilliant, and technologically capable individuals such as Lulu who can run the world
through their deep understanding of the workings of both human tendencies and
technology.
The symbol of “From A to B” in A Visit from the Goon Squad, used typically when
a character is attempting to discover which moments in their lives were pivotal to their
current position in life, can also be used to understand the importance of 9/11 in history.
The terrorist attack was a catalyst for not only domestic change, but a societal shift
globally, and is therefore a clear transition to a new modern world. In the novel only 7
out of 13 chapters are set in the time after 2001, which brings up the question, what is
the significance of focusing so heavily on events before 9/11? The earlier chapters are
included purely to juxtapose our future civilization with the oblivious world which existed
before. Chapters set before the shift feature a population less paranoid about its safety
and not worried about how technology could possibly alter how humans live and
communicate. Egan’s purpose is subtly explored in the other chapters after 9/11, but it
isn’t until the last chapter, chapter 13, that her objective is fully developed and
understood, making it the most important in the novel.
America faces its biggest challenges in foreign affairs with terrorist organizations,
and the catalyst for this war on terror was the infamous attack of 9/11. This atrocity
conducted by Al Qaeda left the world in shock and has had a profound impact on
foreign affairs up until the present day. Although only half of the book is set in this time
period after 9/11, it is in these chapters where she solidifies her purpose in writing the
novel. Jennifer Egan used events from the war on terror and other issues in current
affairs to create a future for society which serves to comment on present American
culture and new technology.
About Jennifer Egan
American novelist Jennifer Egan was born September 7th, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois. When she was seven, her parents divorced and she went to live with her mother in San Francisco, California, visiting her father back in Chicago during the summers. Egan attended the University of Pennsylvania, originally planning to major in archaeology but switching to creative writing after experiencing an uneventful archaeological dig after she graduated high school. During her time at UPenn, she was in a long distance relationship with young inventor and future CEO of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs, who gave her a Macintosh computer. In her senior year, Egan won the Thouron Award which enabled her to study at Cambridge University in England after graduating.
After Cambridge, Egan travelled to China, the Soviet Union, and Italy before settling in New York City. In New York, Egan worked as a temp, a word processor, and-most unusually-the private secretary of Spanish-American aristorat, the Countess of Romanones. Realizing that she had forgotten the things she had learned at Penn State, Egan sought the tutelage of poet and writing instructor, Phillip Schultz, to help her write her first novel, The Invisible Circus (1995).
Egan went on to publish The Invisible Circus as well as other novels such as Look At Me (2001) and The Keep (2006). While doing research for Look At Me, a story about a young fashion model in New York City, Egan wrote a story on the same topic for the New York Times. This introduced her to journalism, now she is often published in The New York Times Magazine.
In 2010, she published her most recent novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad. A Visit from the Goon Squad became her most successful endeavor yet, winning the LA Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
After Cambridge, Egan travelled to China, the Soviet Union, and Italy before settling in New York City. In New York, Egan worked as a temp, a word processor, and-most unusually-the private secretary of Spanish-American aristorat, the Countess of Romanones. Realizing that she had forgotten the things she had learned at Penn State, Egan sought the tutelage of poet and writing instructor, Phillip Schultz, to help her write her first novel, The Invisible Circus (1995).
Egan went on to publish The Invisible Circus as well as other novels such as Look At Me (2001) and The Keep (2006). While doing research for Look At Me, a story about a young fashion model in New York City, Egan wrote a story on the same topic for the New York Times. This introduced her to journalism, now she is often published in The New York Times Magazine.
In 2010, she published her most recent novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad. A Visit from the Goon Squad became her most successful endeavor yet, winning the LA Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)