Chapter 4 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Chapter 4

Narrative Structure

We have been discussing Eggers' use of a variety of narrative and structural devices to present his story. He uses drawings, diagrams, scripts, musical notations and he experiments with structure and form all the way through.  He is the first to agree that some of these devices are just gimmicks and throughout is very self-conscious of himself as a writer. This is particularly prominent in the opening section of the book. However, he uses them to inject some fun and humour to what is essentially a tragic story, creating a fragmented and post-modern narrative.

One way in which Eggers explores himself as a writer and his relationship with Toph is through the construction of dialogue. As he suggests in the preface, the dialogue "has of course been almost entirely reconstructed. The dialogue, though all essentially true - except that which is obviously not true, as when people break out of their narrative time-space continuum to cloyingly talk about the book itself - has been written from memory, and reflects both the author's memory's limitations and his imaginations nudgings." (Preface ix)

Write a paragraph on the how Egger's uses the dialogue between him and Toph as a narrative device in pages 114 - 119.

What is he actually doing in this section? What does the dialogue reveal about Eggers as writer? Why is he writing? What does the dialogue reveal about Eggers as a parental figure? What do we find out about his relationships with his parents? What emotions come out from this section? Why does he write about it from 'Toph's' point of view?  Support each idea with one quotation from the text.

Symbolism

Close analysis of page 122

Complete the table here as you closely analyse the etc. What do we learn about Eggers and his feelings in this section? What does this whole section symbolise?

Key terminology for your analysis:

negative lexis
adjectives and noun phrases
lists
minor sentences
simple sentences
declaratives
stative verbs
dynamic verbs
onomatopoeia
juxtaposition
interrogatives
symbolism
first person plural