Sonntag, 2. Dezember 2007

Response to Good People by David Foster Wallace

Although the short story is very similar, even too similar to my taste, to Ernest Hemingway’s story entitled Hills like White Elephants, Good People written by David Foster Wallace is well done. It is amazing how the author gives the reader an insight in the main character’s life. We learn that the couple is facing some sort of problem and all indicates that the girl got pregnant and they both have decided to go to a doctor and have the baby aborted. Actually, the text does not reveal if it really is about an abortion. So the author kind of plays with the reader’s expectations and finally, lets him in the dark.

Moreover, the text strikes with many stylistic devices that makes the story more vivid. For instance, the speaker point’s at the girl’s cleanliness several times which seemed to be rather unusual to describe a person.

The girl wore a thin old checked cotton shirt with pearl-colored snaps with the long sleeves down and always smelled very good and clean, like someone you could trust and care about even if you weren’t in love.

Sheri’s hair was colored an almost corn blond, very clean, the skin through her central part pink in the sunlight

Describing how clean she is seems to indicate her pureness although she is pregnant.

All in all this short story is a very interesting one by not telling the reader concretely what really has happened to the young couple but by implying so much action.

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