Essay Questions

How does David Foster Wallace conjure mood?

David Foster Wallace uses flowing language, repeating phrases and actively placing connectives within pauses and minimizers. Instead of utilizing the power of phrases like "so," "such as," and "e.g.," he plants them within terms such as "like," "and," "uh," and "um."

This ceding of status sets up the narrator to defer to his or her own life, accepting events and letting other people subsume distinguishing parts of the individual. An example of this is "Forever Overhead," in which the boy is watched on his birthday by people who talk about him while he stands on the diving board, stranded.

Another way this disempowered language helps Wallace create mood is through his choice of depression as material. By developing a visceral relationship between the reader and the muffled imagery of the test, Wallace conjures a mood which some readers may not have experienced.

What is the nature of the book's cohesion?

The book begins by subverting the idea of spectacle. In "Forever Overhead," we see that the observers are hideous from a distance, as opposed to the young and developing adolescent narrator. However, the book draws forth the hideousness of its characters in increasingly-revolting ways. Wallace uses the same forms of language in order that his characters can share common ground while showing their own unique beings to the reader.

The book has been adapted for the screen. What dramaturgical choices would you make to adapt the book for the stage?

The director should choose to use staging to separate characters instead of relying on props such as elevated surfaces. This seems more in keeping with the spirit of the book; they would make an effort to avoid elements which might distract from the characters, who the audience ought to watch squirm at certain points. Ideally, this director would use a stage similar to that of the Ancient Greeks, which differs in height. In that case, someone could move upstage and become higher than those who remain downstage. This would allow the isolated characters to move away from the place of power - downstage - and change in relation to the action at hand.

The casting director should cast actors who usually play more wholesome or relaxed roles. This would emphasize the fact that the so-called hideous men are not vilified as alien to ordinary people; instead, they are all around us, and even those who criticize them share traits of theirs. The purpose of the theater is to fulfill a need of the audience, and the need filled here is that of inspiration to be different through observation of the play's positive elements.