3 Point, Evidence, Explanation paragraphs on chapter five

Chapter five: 3 P.E.E paragraphs

On page 125, in the quote ‘the usual euphoria-free!’ Eggers’ uses the noun ‘euphoria’ which means a state of intense happiness or excitement, he uses it to describe his feelings on leaving home and going out which doesn’t suggest any of his paranoia on the topic of him thinking Toph will be murdered by the babysitter. By pairing this quote with the next couple of lines, there is a clear juxtaposition of emotions due to him describing his worry on leaving Toph. This is effective because the reader will realise just how indecisive Dave is, so indecisive in fact that he can’t even decide what emotion to feel. The connotations with euphoria are quite often sexual or to do with drugs, where the people involved feel ‘a sense of euphoria’, Eggers’ references sex in the memoir repeatedly. He also uses the adjective ‘usual’ meaning that this has happened before, the feeling of euphoria about leaving home, this almost describes this as a natural occurrence in his life. Eggers’ has used a clever style of typography to express his extreme happiness on leaving, which is italics on the adjective ‘free!’ He has also done this to make the single lexis stand out on the page and make the reader focus on it. ‘Free’ has connotations with lack of responsibilities, freedom, allowed to make own choices or do what you want. This is effective because it’s describing Dave’s feelings about having to look after Toph, that it feels like a prison or that it’s restricting. Egger’s also creates an exclamatory sentence by using an exclamation mark, this was used to further express his extreme happiness.

Dave talks about his belief that he can tell the future and that Toph will inevitably die in the quote ‘in a flash of pure truth seeing- it happens every time I leave him somewhere- that Toph will be killed.’ Many readers would feel that these two concepts are completely unrealistic so they make the assumption that Dave is just a dramatic character. The verb ‘flash’ has connotations with being fast or quick and Eggers’ pairs it with the adjective ‘pure’ which has connotations with angels, heaven, clearness or something without any trace of dark influence. This is effective because Eggers’ is describing the process of ‘truth seeing’ as untainted with badness which contradicts the idea of Toph being killed. Eggers’ uses the determiner ‘every’ with the noun ‘time’ to convey the idea that this worry happens whenever he leaves Toph. This makes the reader question why Dave goes out at all, if he is just filled with paranoia about his little brother dying, this kind of shows a selfishness in Dave, because even though he has doubts about Toph’s safety, he still goes out. The adverb ‘somewhere’ is very vague, and is not a specific place like home etc., therefore he literally means anywhere, any time he leaves Toph he gets the familiar fear, this shows that Dave really does care for Toph. 

Eggers’ describes his feelings of the situation and of himself in the quote ‘the risk is worth it. I’m so evil.’ The noun ‘risk’ has connotations with danger and fear which highlight his paranoia, but he puts it with the adjective ‘worth’ which means the level at which someone or something deserves to be valued  or rated. He believes that even though Toph’s safety is in jeopardy, him having a good night out is more important, this reiterates Dave’s selfishness. However he backtracks a little by using the adjective ‘evil’ which means immoral, and has connotations with badness. This shows that he does feel bad about his choices, but he is too self-absorbed to change them.  Eggers’ may be personifying the paranoia of leaving Toph with the babysitter by using the collective pronoun ‘we’ in the quote ‘we’ll see you later.’ This is because Dave is going out on his own to meet his friends, and is not with anyone at that precise moment in time and therefore there is no ‘we.’ Also he uses the loose time frame ‘later’ to show that he doesn’t know what time he’ll be back because he’s unpredictable and hasn’t planned it that far.