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.