Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Critical Analysis of Two Passages of "Fiction":

Passages:

1.      Toph and Dave discuss the “Big Day” p.114-120

‘“I mean, it was almost as if it was too much to happen in one day, as if a number of days had been spliced together to quickly paint a picture of an entire period of time, to create a whole-seeming idea of how we are living, without having to stoop (or rise) to actually pacing the story out.”

“What are you getting at?”

. . .

“So you’re reduced to complaining about it. Or worse, doing little tricks, out of frustration.”

. . .

“The gimmicks, bells, whistles. Diagrams. Here is a picture of a stapler, all that.”

“Right.”

“You know, to be honest, though, what I see is less a problem with form, all that grarbage, and more a problem of conscience. You’re completely paralyzed with guilt about relating all this in the first place, especially the stuff earlier on. You feel somehow obligated to do it, but you also know that Mom and Dad would hate it, would crucify you-”’

Read until the middle of page 120 where the paragraph begins, “I leave the light on . . .”

2.      Visit of John in the hospital p. 271-275

“I go in to see him.

“He has a tube sticking out of his mouth, one out of his nose. . . . It looks like his hands are tied to the bed.”

“His hands are tied to the bed. The bindings are thick, black, Velcro. He must have resisted, or swung at someone . . .

“But this room is much too big, too big and white. This huge room, separate from the rest of the ward, must have been built for more than one bed. . .

“Who’s John?”

“You’re John.”

“I’m John?”

“Yeah. I changed your name.”

              . . .

            “. . . Whatever. But I didn’t ask you to broadcast all this-”

              . . .

            “Whatever. This is mine. You’ve given it to me. We’re trading. I gave you the attention you wanted, I bail you out, when you spend three days in the psych ward, and say how you’re still thinking of doing it, I’m the one who comes in and sits on your bed and gives you the big pep talk – anyway, the point is that because of all of that, all the shit I put in for you – now I get this, this is mine also, and you, because you’ve done it yourself, made yourself the thespian, you have to fulfill that contract, play the dates, go on the road. Now you’re the metaphor.”

Read until break on p.275.

As seen in both passages, Dave Eggers blends humorous/witty, honest/serious and exaggerated melodramatic into his repertoire of tones. In many cases he juts these tones side by side. In both passages, he begins and ends with a mixture of a humorous and melodramatic tone, which he also uses to break from any serious, bluntly honest analysis of himself. In the Toph scene, this can be seen through the conversation of the “Big Day” that included “basketball,” “dinner,” “open house,” “ice cream” and a “movie” (114) He continues to intersperse the humor in his use of “gimmicks, bells, whistles. Diagrams. Here is a picture of a stapler” and the “toothpaste on your chin” (115; 117).  It is almost as though he uses it as a preface and apology for his serious tone as though he is afraid that he will lose his audience by being too serious. In a way, it reflects this battle of his “conscience” to stay true to the story of his life, parents, childhood, Toph, but he still  wants to entertain his readers. As a result he maintains the humor and a fictionalized version of events, such as the Toph conversation. It serves as his conflict, his reflection of serious matters such as what he is thinking/feeling as he deals with his parents’ death and raises Toph, and the needed humor.

This is also seen in his blend of honesty and melodrama and humor in the second passage. His exaggeration of the expansive and white hospital room and bed and the bruises on John’s arms reflect this use of a melodramatic tone. This is combination of humor and melodrama is seen on p. 272, “But then you’d be dying, and the last thing you would see would be some LeRoy Neiman print from the 1983 Masters and that would be just too terrible, not that there could ever be any appropriate thing to see before you died – But if you really liked golf.” He continues this in his initial banter with “John” about his fake name until it goes into a more serious tone about John serving as a metaphor of lost youth in his book. But even then he tries to hide this honesty of his fictionalization through a melodrama of being a good friend and giving John morphine. So he again uses these fictionalized versions of the truth to hint at honesty or falsehood in this book, analyze himself and others, and still entertain his readers.