AHWOSG - Chapter 3.

Chapter 3 quotes and analysis of relationships.
Question, Quote, Analysis

There is also a focus on relationships. We get an insight into how Beth and Dave are dealing with the situation they are in in different ways (p.88)

"Because Beth is always pulling out old photo albums, crying, asking how Toph feels, I feel I have to overcompensate by keeping us occupied. I am making our lives a music video, a game show on Nickelodeon."


Eggers feels like he has to keep Toph happy, trying not to look back but trying to move forward. This brings conflict between Beth and Dave as she is trying to reminisce about the negative past but Dave is trying to make sure Toph has a positive future and feels he has to "overcompensate" because those negative memories are holding them back. However this shows Eggers is very irresponsible / immature because it displays that he cannot face reality. "I am making our lives a video game" again there is a conflict between fantasy and reality. Beth is facing reality that their parents are dead and Dave is trying to block all of it out by playing the fantasy game, irresponsible fun, for Toph and even maybe for himself.

There is a hint of the role that Bill has in the family (p.77) 

"Even the large expenditures, those that require Bill's approval, are pushed through with little resistance" ... " we called Bill, hummed loudly through his mild objections, and finally bought ourselves a washer and dryer"

The fact Dave and Beth need Bill's "approval" when it comes to spending money, shows Bills authority role within the family. Him being the oldest, Beth and Dave feel as if they have to run things through him when in need of certain things. They "hummed loudly through his mild objections" shows how much care they have for Bill's approval, due to him never really being there, they seem to have little care for his objections towards the subject of them spending money. Bill seems like the most distant character/sibling, he is rarely mentioned within the beginning of the book, due to him being in D.C. working in economics privatization, so for his "approval" or opinion to even be considered is very rare. You can see within the relationship between Dave, Beth and him is very weak but they still respect him enough (because he's the oldest) to ask for his approval. 

We continue to get an insight into the conflict Dave feels about being a brother and a parent to Toph and the fact that he isn't a parent and that it is all pretend (p.83 & 90).

"Dear Ms. Richardson, i am sorry Chris is late this morning, i could make something up about an appointment or a sickness, but the fact is that we woke up late. Go figure. Best, Brother of Chris."...
" He has to do certain things for me because i am his parent... when i am called upon to do something, i don't want to do, i do not have to do it, because i am not, actually, his parent." 

In the letter given to Toph's teacher, shows Dave's irresponsibility. He writes the letter so informally like a brother; someone who doesn't care or knows how the school game works. A major part in the conflict of him being a parent and being his brother, is that when it comes to rules and chores and things that need doing, Dave is the parent. However when it comes to something he himself has to do, he then switches roles  back to being a brother. He describes their relationship as, with rules but, "wonderfully flexible" they have a very brotherly relationship, however when rules are tied in, Dave is the parent.

"there is a game that involves Toph pretending that he's the kid, while i pretend i'm a parent"
Dave lives in a life of pretend and fantasy. This fictionalized visualization of his life, not facing reality, The fact they pretend to play a game where Toph's a child and Daves the parent, displays the reality of the situation and positions they play within the real world. Toph plays a typical child asking to do something that is not allowed and the dad (Dave) tells him he cannot do it, Toph leaves with a "i hate you" playing the typical parent/child relationship. However at the end of that Toph asks "was that good?" going back to their normal roles of brothers Dave responds "yeah, yeah... that was pretty good" coming out of the pretend world and back to their original positions within the book,

AHWOSG - Structure and discourse.

AHWOSG - Structure and discourse.

Playing with time – paragraphs show the passing of time, his internal thoughts
and imaginings, some refer to the past, some refer to particular minutes in a
day. Why in particular does he use the time section?
- Eggers plays around with the use of time in chapter 3. In small periods of time he talks about a topic in great detail, prolonging the short amount of time, and then with other topics he doesn't go into much detail and shortens the amount of time he's meant to talk about it. He's created a distorted time frame, by giving the illusion of time going slower than it really is. He does this in Chapter 1, with the prolonged nose bleed lasted until the end of the chapter, but then spoke about his fathers death in-between the story of the nosebleed, for short amounts of time. As if his fathers death was just quick and short. In Chapter 2, he does the same, during the car journey. The car journey takes up the whole chapter and when talking about the car journey, it is prolonged in detail, however there are little snippets about where they live and what life is like now they've moved. This illusion of time relates to his memory and what he can remember, as he remembers his past some bits come to him in more detail and others don't. However he does challenge the genre, where he states in the preface that many of his writing has been fictionalized and with the use of this hyperbolic detail. Use of time; focuses on the minutes passing we get a sense of the chaos and panic.






Use of the diagram of the house – what does this do? What does it remind the
reader of?


- use of the diagram of the house, challenges the genre of the book. As it is an autobiography, it is unusual to have diagrams of objects. He adds in diagrams to give the audience an insight into what he is thinking and what he sees, visualization, detailed description and then the diagram allowing us to visualise. He also uses this diagram in chapter 2, explaining how him and Toph would sock-slide across the house, so the use of it in chapter 3 relates to the immaturity and silliness that occurs in their house. Sock sliding = sense of freedom and fun. Giving Toph a childhood, there's a conflict between whether he is responsible enough to look after Toph.




The food section – why does he use different font etc? What is he trying to
replicate? What does this suggest about how they approach eating and food?
- relates it to a restaurants menu with the titles and meals; ironic, humour. Playing with the genre. Menu = him manipulating the truth. Representing him being something he's not. Fictionalized. The notes section, mocking the style of a menu, showing the real chaos.


Use of the playscript form – where does this happen? Why does Eggers do
this? What does this suggest about how he views the situation they are in?
Where is he placed in the dialogue? What could have influence this?
- As if it is rehearsed. He challenges the genre and in the script he changes it to the third person and by creating a script shows it is not real, for him life has this unreal quality to it. Same responses, when asked what happened? how ? and why ? Fictional life he is living. Stage directs allow him to comment on his feelings so audience knows how he feels. End line, are they in a fantasy world,  fantasy reaction. "crowd stomps" makes him feel like he's doing a good job but in reality we know he is struggling, its debatable whether he is doing a good job or not.