OR Week 2

Natalie Lopatowski

Mrs. Baione-Doda

AP Literature

September 2008

How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers: Quiet

"It is messy I guess."

"It looks awfully messy. It looks almost impossible to survive, to tell you the truth. The pain of it all."

"Its not that painful," I said.

"But tom," it said, ‘the swinging of your pendulums! Everyone’s pendulums swinging, to and fro, and always you’re
getting hit by someone else’s swinging pendulum. You’re minding your business, but someone else’s pendulum is swinging around, and pow! You get hit in the head."

Tom loves Erin. She has only one arm but he loves her for it. Tom feels that his life is inadequate, that you can even fail in grabbing your desires so you better find meaning or at least beauty in the simple existence of the natural world. For example, in my quote he happens to be having a conversation with the moon which he bases this theory off of. But his behavior towards Erin leads to romantic tension and what was once an innocent romance becomes something more brutal. This relates to the general meaning of the story that Tom’s behavior is determined by hunger for intimacy and connection.

First, it baffled me that Tom was having a conversation with the moon and the moon was criticizing and harassing him but Tom just listened like he was talking with one of his buddies and carried on with the conversation. I didn’t know if this took place in his mind or verbally but I believed that the moon was somewhat of a conscience for Tom or like the angel and the devil sitting on his shoulder telling him what to do but he was listening to the angel. Tom seems to be in denial and his boring responses may imply that he knows he has a problem with his behavior.