The Interconnectivity of Key Terms

In the interview we watched in class, Jennifer Egan said that the concept of inter connectivity was central to A Visit from the Goon Squad. For me, tracking the novel's keywords helped illustrate this idea.

The term I found most often in the text was "angry." It was obvious while reading that all of the characters in the piece had things to be angry about, but the way this was revealed was unconventional due to the nonlinear structure of the book. The anger described by one particular character helped me to not only understand the character who was "speaking," but also other characters and the relationships among them. For example, Rhea discusses the anger she and her friends shared, but makes special note of Scotty. She says, "But the second Scotty let the garage door slam down, we're suddenly enraged, all of us" (Egan 44). She later goes on to comment, "I realized that out of all of us, Scotty is the truly angry one" (52). In this case, the keyword "angry" gave Egan a tool to describe not only the emotions of Rhea,  but it also allowed her to give readers insight into the dynamics among all of the characters within this group of friends, as well as insight into another individual character, Scotty.  At this point in the text,  Scotty's perspective had not been given, but discussing anger, a force connecting all the characters, provides a natural segue into discussing his character rather than the protagonist of the chapter. Essentially, because all of the characters have anger in common, it can be used as an instrument of interconnectivity, allowing information about each character to be revealed in any chapter of the book, not just the chapter in which that particular character is the protagonist. This is essential to the flow of Egan's novel. Without these instances, background information regarding a certain character would have to be revealed only within that certain character's chapter, making the chapters feel more like completely separate entities instead of interconnected parts of a single whole.

The keyword "power" also gave me a glimpse into the interconnectivity of the lives of Egan's characters. During class discussion, someone had observed that the amount of power held by each character seemed to correlate with that character's happiness. Those with less power seemed to be more content than those with more power. In Egan's text, the keyword "power" pointed me toward the competition between Bennie and Scotty. While visiting Bennie in his swanky office after many years apart, Scotty showed Bennie his gap-filled smile and reflected on Bennie's reaction, saying, "All at once I felt strong, as if some balance had tipped in the room and all of Bennie's power--the desk, the view, the levitating chair--suddenly belonged to me. Bennie felt it, too. Power is like that; everyone feels it at once" (103). Again, the key term showcased the interconnectivity between the characters by illuminating the score between them. This brings up other questions to consider when reading. How do the other characters score in this competition? Is each individual competing with everyone else or are there only rivalries? Who is competing with whom? Why are these people competing? Does this competition seem to directly relate to characters' happiness? Perhaps a hierarchy exists among Egan's characters and mapping this will provide a clearer understanding of the story as a whole.