High fidelity - Betyg: C PDF

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A literary analysis on “High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby “High fidelity” is a novel published in 1995. It is written by Nick Hornby, an English writer. High fidelity is his first novel and third book. It is a story about Rob Fleming and his struggles to find love and purpose in life. Rob operates a record shop known as Championship Vinyl together with his colleagues Barry and Di. They sell classic pop records. Rob specifically likes making fun of his customers music taste since this is where he derives his excitement. Rob has a girlfriend named Laura who he loves hopelessly however she left him for another man who lived in the same apartment. Rob and Laura rekindled their love after the death of Laura’s father but they continued to fight and hating each other. This essay analyzes how Rob struggles with love and confidence issues. Rob starts by discussing the memorable breakups of his life however he unexpectedly doesn’t mention Laura. This is because Laura has affected him physically and emotionally as he explains how his relationships have gone wrong and how it affects him now. He does not feel secure with himself and his interactions with others to the point that he scrutinizes himself about the previous relationships and mistakes. He analyzes his relationships with his ex-girlfriends including Laura. He is unable to forget the past and move on. Rob’s love life is related to the way the record shop is being run, he remembers his DJ days same way he remembers the ex- ex-girlfriends. Besides that, he is also not satisfied with the current performance of the record store. He has two co-workers who he does not like but doesn’t have the confidence to tell them. Whenever he has issues with his girlfriend Laura, he does not take a bold step to solve them instead he takes a cowardly move and ends the relationship.

Rob’s self-confidence degenerated as a result of rejection from ex-girlfriends, insecure masculinity and running a mediocre record store. All the five memorable breakups have left a huge impact on his whole life. He started having self-confidence issues when he started talking to Penny Hardwick, his second most memorable breakup. He was struggling even to just touch Penny’s chest and after sometime he gave up when he realized he would not succeed. Shortly after breaking up with Rob, Penny started dating Chris Thompson who was known to have dated many girls at the time. Rob came to realize that Chris had already managed to do what he had struggled to do all the time he dated her. Chris explains that he was able achieve more in the first week that Rob was unable to do in three months. He says “I shagged her in the first week” (Horny pp14). This is the moment Rob starts feeling insecure. Rob felt outperformed, humiliated and beaten. He says “I felt stupid and small” (Hornby,pp14). Rob felt stressed on failing to utilize his chances with Penny. A confession from one guy named Chris shattered his confidence levels. Rob keeps on adding his past emotions to the new ones and makes him unable of regaining his confidence. He is afraid of failure and rejection as a result of the five memorable breakups. The best way for Rob to regain his confidence would be to find a girl and settle down however he cannot easily achieve that because he is still stuck in the idea of rejection and lacks self-confidence. To make matters worse, his current relationship with Laura has also messed his confidence levels. In fact during their relationship, it was Laura that was pushing for development and progress of their relationship. Rob asks to meet Laura after the breakup meaning his self-confidence is derived from being with someone else. He asks to pay Laura a visit and keeps on contacting her endlessly after the breakup. Robs lets his lack of self-confidence control all the aspects of his life including relationships with friends and the record shop.

Rob is not able to develop his character because he afraid of what everybody would say about him. His career symbolizes how his relationships turn out to be. For instance, Rob felt that being a DJ was such a big career for him to handle. He felt incapable of living a lifestyle that is so big and this is related to his relationship with Charlie. Rob felt he could not manage Charlie’s standards. He says “I was never going to be able to say anything amusing or interesting to her” (Hornby, pp23). Rob felt that anything that goes wrong in his life is out of his control whether his relationships with girlfriends or colleagues at the record store. This is relatable to his co-workers Barry and Dick. For instance both of his coworkers were employed to work part time, however they started coming every day and he did not have the courage to stop them.

Reference Hornby, Nick. High Fidelity. Penguin Books Limited, 2005....