Chaptertenahb - Summary of Chaper 10 of \'A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius\' by Dave PDF

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Summary

Summary of Chaper 10 of 'A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius' by Dave Eggers. ENGLISH LIT AND LANG...

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Opening Of The Chapter (p353-357): •

Eggers returns to Chicago.

Key Points To Note: •

‘A return to the cold. Of course, it’s cold...So why didn’t I bring a fucking coat? The only use of the cold is ‘as a forced and obvious metaphor, as foreshadowing.’

A Return To The Imagery Of Chapter 1: •

‘Like caviar.. Like a tiny city with one big gleaming eye… or was it empty like a dried gourd?’ (p356)

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‘This trip is about the fact that things have been much too calm in San Francisco.. I will return home and look for ugly things and chaos.’

Example Analysis Of Opening Of Chapter 10: A return to the cold for which he is unprepared reflects how much he has changed and how accustomed to his new life he is. He is ill-prepared for his return home. He is self-consciously aware of this and sees this cold as a metaphor. His return to the same language of Chapter 1 signals a return to his interest in his parents’ deaths. There are plenty of suggestions in this language that, despite leaving, he hasn’t really moved on. His motivations for coming home are also related to writing - he seems to want drama to bring the book to a close and revive his story.

Writing As Exploitation (p359): •

‘I have brought along a tape recorder, a notebook, and a list of things I want to do while here’ - Sets himself up as an investigative journalist uncovering his past.

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‘The idea I suppose is the emotional equivalent of a drug binge… how much can be dredged up, brought back, remembered, exploited, excused, pitied, made known, made permanent.’ o

Simile of drugs binge - compulsive, addictive, shameful, excessive and indulgent.

o

List - emphasises the amount he wants from the trip; also exploited, excused - sense of guilt. Made known and permanent - reflect a desire to make real through writing

o He wants to ‘throw anything potentially provocative or brutal into the mess - life as a potential mine from which he can ‘dredge up’ stories for his own success as a writer

A Return To The House (p361 & 369-370): •

‘I’m outside my house and feel nothing.’

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‘We walk straight into the kitchen and the light!’ o Everything has changed. His return highlights how he cannot ‘excavate’ the past as he so wanted to do. o The only thing he can see that is the same is the ‘small tall bathroom window’ of Chapter 1 through which he can see the backyard which is ‘much the same’. Unlike Chapter 1 though where there was a feeling of being trapped, Chapter 10 shows us that Dave now must move on and seek resolution elsewhere and in the new.

Beth’s Wedding: •

Used to show more distance between Beth and Dave.

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Dave and Toph nearly miss the wedding due to an accident.

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Also used to show how traditional Eggers is in his views. As Beth comes up the aisle to a Kiss song and is barefoot, Dave wonders if he could ‘slip away quietly,’ to a cliff and throw himself over. Despite trying to create a new family, he often feels frightened that they are too different.

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For Polly’s wedding, he is ‘clinging to the hope for simple, tradition-bound Protestant solidity.’

Polly’s Wedding - Old v Young (p367): •

‘I do not like the older couples who dominate this wedding of two young people.’ o Again, there is a tension between youth and old age in the novel. Dave desperately wants to connect with those of his age and seems unable to accept the presence of the older people. o Despite this, when around others of his own age, he sees his difference to them ‘They know I am not them, I am something else. I am deformed, am a hundred years old. I will spend the next day looking for the remains of my parents.’ o He rejects older people, but also feels excluded from his own social group.

The Ashes: •

Eggers liked the vague notion that they didn’t know where their parents’ ashes were but now he feels like a ‘monster’ for failing to take the ashes.

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Ashes - represent his guilt about his lack of care after their deaths and his failure to hold things together.

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He repeats throughout this chapter that he is a ‘monster’, made truer by the fact that his mother’s ashes are still at the funeral home.

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P397 - throws the cremains into Lake Michigan. Makes a mess of it, blames himself

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In the incomplete guide to Symbols and Metaphors he tells us that Lake Michigan represents his mother, past, peace, chaos and unknown.

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P399-401 quotes about his mother. He wants her approval. He is a monster for exploiting this moment for his writing.

His Mother’s Service: •

The chapter ends on a contrast between Eggers’ imagined service for his mother and how it was in reality.

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He feels disappointed at the amount of mourners who showed up at the funeral and the Chapter ends on his anger at the real event.

The Hospital Trip (p375): •

‘From here I can see my mom’s old room, the New Year’s birthday room…. I want to be in the emergency room and have something happen. I want to be back at the night of the nosebleed… Nothing happens. Nothing returns.’ o Again Chapter 10 shows that a return to the past is not a ‘drug binge’ of a memory trip. There is an emptiness and a lack of connection. Eggers will not find the answers here that he wants to provide closure.

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Stuart says ‘I’m not sure how much I can enlighten you about your dad’s soul’...