Standing AloneHUM 3285: Postmodern Adolescent Literature

Spring 2012Dr. Perdigao

February 1, 2012

Revelations• Reality of death

“‘We are all mortal’”; “‘We must all die someday’” (208)

• Representation of mother (200, 201)

• Fragmentation

• Hope for father’s escape, rewriting ending

• Trauma

• Repression

• Screaming (191-192, 199)

Surviving Adolescence?• Third annual questioning

• Age 17?

• Adam’s precarious placement at the novel’s end

• Surviving adolescence, trapped within it, retreat to childhood

• Perversion of MacLeod’s notion of the guide/guru in Brint“‘I am merely your guide to the past. I don’t direct you. In fact, I often follow where you lead’” (170).

• Here, manipulation, power games

Deconstructing the Narrative• Narratives intersect between questions and narrative filled in (201)

• Brint as Grey?

• What Adam knows

• Man “taller than ever” as Thompson/Grey? (201)

• Gray pants

• Does he suppress the knowledge that Brint wants?

Cycling, Circling Narratives• Retreating as journey on bike

• Relationship between the narratives

• Intersection of narratives when Whipper pushed him into the ditch, unresponsive (96-97)

• Already has forgotten Amy and the phone calls when he returns to the bike (204)

• Trapped inside the gates, enclosed system (205)

CLUE• First two letters of mystery novel as key: “‘I’ll show you a mystery novel in which

the first two letters of the first word of the first chapter hold the secret to the book!’” (33).

• Resolution with identified characters

• Mr. Harvester, maintenance man=man at the gas station

• Whipper, Dobbie, Lewis

• Luke, switchboard operator=diner

• Arthur, Junior Varney

Resolutions?• Asks what happened to his father, doesn’t know what happened (208)

• Learns father is dead (208)

• Dupont and the box

• Keeps singing, finally finishes the songhttp://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/farmer/song.htm

• Pokey the Pig

• Adam forgets identity, Paul, Adam Farmer, other name (210)

• Only identifies as the cheese

Final Transcripts• File Data 865-01

• Subject A

• Personnel #2222

• Department I-R

• Witness #599-6

• Termination

• Whether the knowledge is there, repressed, “psychological residue” (212)

• His death as advisory, terminated or kept until he dies

Loopiness• Begins again

• Mirrors chapter 1