How does Eggers’ present the relationship between him and Toph in
chapters 1-5 of a Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius?
Eggers’ doesn’t introduce Toph until page eighteen, this
could have been done to show how the responsibility was ‘sprung’ on him randomly
and unexpectedly. Throughout the memoir, Eggers’ uses humour, his paranoia and
selfishness to portray the type of bond and relationship he has with his little
brother.
Dave’s sporadically changing maturity levels confuse Toph;
at times it sounds like Toph is being raised by two different people due to
Dave’s changing personalities. On one hand, Dave treats Toph as if he’s older
than his age, telling him ‘You’re seven you’re perfectly capable of looking
yourself’. By stating his age as a noun in a declarative sentence, Dave seems
to be belittling Toph, conveying to him that he’s ‘old enough to do it
himself’, when in actual fact Toph is still a child who needs looking after. By
using the adverb ‘perfectly’ it may create a sarcastic tone in Eggers’ voice in
the readers head, which is effective because some readers will make the
assumption that Dave is a patronising parental figure in their brotherly
relationship. Eggers’ repeats this technique two years later with another
declarative sentence ‘you’re nine years old and I’m going to have to come over
there and help you tuck in your shirt.’ Dave treats his brother some would say
‘unfairly’, and by using the verb ‘have’
he is expressing his annoyance of having to look after Toph, that he does not
want the responsibility. Eggers’ use of the verb ‘help’ just reiterates Dave’s
distaste for being ‘tied down’ with looking after his family member, help has
connotations with support, maybe from a parent but Dave uses this in a
derogative way rather than the former.
More reasons to
believe that Dave is treating Toph more like an adult, is his constant blaming
for them always being late in the morning, ‘why didn’t you wake me up?’ the
adverb ‘why’ is used to question Toph, an appropriate response would be to
state his age because a seven year old shouldn’t be given that responsibility. A
final reason is when Dave is inappropriate and takes him to a nudist beach. Due to being treated older, Toph believes that
he is older than he is, he says ‘what? I thought he was our age’ when with Dave
and his friend followed with his own embarrassment. Some readers may believe
that he is trying to get Toph to grow up faster because he doesn’t want to
waste any more time of his young life, he wants to experience things and he
trusts Toph at home alone at only thirteen years old. Dave blurs the line
between sibling and parent-takes things too far sometimes like a brother i.e.
the knife scene, ‘’then I push him in to a bush’, but paranoia and worry of a parent
(babysitting scene), is a mix of parent and brother because of ‘yeah we’ll look
for another bat’ house hunting, getting a house but having one of the rules as
‘sliding ability floor’ which shows Dave’s personality as childish and not
responsible.
Additionally, Eggers’
suggests that Dave feels that Toph is a burden, that he is stopping him live
his life like he should. This is shown in the quote ‘the usual euphoria-free!’ In terms of authography, Eggers’
uses italics on the adjective ‘free’ to express his extreme happiness to be out
of the house with no responsibilities, as well as making it an exclamatory
sentence. By using the adjective ‘euphoria’ which has connotations with a ‘drug
high’ or ‘intense excitement’ this suggests that Dave wants to ‘break free from
his chains’ of having to look after his little brother. However quite a few
readers think that Dave still prioritises his brother after himself, they
gather this by his highly complicated list of what makes a good girlfriend, how
Toph is included in that process- ‘of course Toph comes along’ ‘if she does not
know how to talk to Toph… she is not seen again’. He doesn’t even feel happy
when out with his friends, there’s always a ‘constant red/black worry’. The
adjective ‘constant’ means that he always feels this way, which means that Toph
must always be on his mind. The adjective ‘red’ has connotations with blood,
injury, and the adjective black has connotations with shadows, darkness and
death, this shows that Dave loves Toph and that he is terrified that he will
lose him like he did with his mother and
father. He uses the less extreme verb ‘worry’ to describe his paranoia
involving Toph’s safety, which could mean that he doesn’t want Toph to see him
weak or vulnerable, that he has to be the strong one, the father figure that he
himself lost out on when he needed it the most.
To further this point, in reference to page sixty eight we
see (or at least some readers see) that Dave really does care about Toph’s wellbeing,
he wants to be his ‘protector’ and shield him from the bad in the world. This
is show in the quote ‘might remind him of our father’s weight loss…I should
work out’. ‘Weight loss’ is a symbolism of illness, which leads to death so Eggers’
uses the verb ‘remind’ to discuss his refusal to bring topics like that in to
Toph’s innocent brain. This portrays his character as thoughtful and respect of
Tophs vulnerable mind, and it shows his understanding that Toph hasn’t and doesn’t
need to think about those things that early in his life. His way of preventing
the memories is to change himself and his body image. The verb ‘should’ shows
that he is willing to consider this option, but whether he goes through with it
is another matter. He also says ‘I have to present to Toph a body of exploding
with virility, flawless.’ Eggers’ uses the imperative phrase ‘I have to’ to
show that Dave takes this seriously. He uses the adjective ‘present’ quite
formally, almost as if this was a mission, which to some may seem unnecessary
but it shows his dedication to make Toph have faith in him and look up to him,
to make sure that Toph doesn’t doubt that he will always be there for him and
that unlike his parents he won’t leave suddenly. The noun ‘virility’ has a
definition which includes the lexical field of strength, manliness and energy,
which is what Dave wants to appear to Toph as so that he will want to follow in
his older brother’s footsteps. The adjective ‘flawless’ means no imperfections,
or defects, perfect but there is not a person in the world who can be this, so
he is describing the impossible, a goal he simply won’t be able to reach. In
terms of their relationship, Dave wanting to be Tophs protector means that they
have a strong bond.
However, Dave doesn’t take Tophs education seriously, in
fact he’s quite selfish in regards to it. For one he always makes Toph late, as
well as making the open house about himself and finding a woman. Maybe this is
because he didn’t have any prospect of a career in the future because he got
tied down with the responsibility before he had a chance to follow his dreams
so maybe in a way he resents his little brother for that and doesn’t want him
to do well and better than him, getting a better career when he’s Dave’s age
because Dave missed out. This shows sibling rivalry. Or he may just believe
that Toph doesn’t have any real prospect either because he never got to explore
any career.
