A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius Analysis

On pages 114-120 in Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, a conversation that at first appears to be between Dave and Toph, upon further analysis, is actually a conversation between Dave and himself, through the guise of Toph. The conversation is about their day, their day is a summary of their lifestyle, and “Toph’s” talking is an explanation and analysis of why they are living that way (114). The purpose of this conversation is to show us readers the problems that Dave is dealing with internally, yet does not speak of or deal with on a conscious level up to this point in the book: his need for control, his lack of listening to his subconscious, and his consistent proclivity to break free from his past.

The conversation clarifies the idea of Dave’s lack of control over the abrupt death of his parents and his need for control as a result. “Toph”, being Dave’s internal thought process and subconscious, through his dialogue, confirms the fact that his loss of almost everything he was familiar with has left him desperately trying to get his feet on some solid ground and gain some control with “the gimmicks, bells, whistles. Diagrams. Here is a picture of a stapler, all that” (115). According to Abraham Maslow, an American professor of psychology, human beings have a “yearning for a predictable orderly world in which perceived unfairness and inconsistency are under control.” Dave’s world was, during the event of his parent’s deaths, far from predictable and orderly, flourishing with unfairness and inconsistency, and caused him to lash out against the inconsistencies in his perceived world. As a result, he now tries to create a world for himself and Toph, through whatever medium he can, which is both predictable and consistent. If anyone else were to try to take control over his lifestyle and living situation with Toph, Dave would “go absolutely ballistic, (he’d) lose (his) mind” (116). Toph is one of the only pieces of Dave’s past that he has the ability to exert control over. Dave, therefore, in his extreme desire to hold onto something dear to him, exerts control over Toph in abundance, and has proven that he would go to lengths far beyond the average person in order to preserve this familiarity that is Toph. Dave’s extreme need for control is the result of not having any control over the death of both of his parents.

The conversation between Dave and his subconscious thought process also shows that he is dealing with the harsh events of his past in an unsatisfactory manner. He continually refuses to listen to the valid points his subconscious is attempting to make, and often resorts to humor or other unimportant nuances in an effort to bypass his internal conflicts and issues. Dave Carnegie, bestselling author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, states that in order to be active listeners and fully comprehend what others are saying, we must employ tactics such as summarizing what we have heard and not interrupting. Dave interrupts “Toph” several times throughout the conversation, and by using terms such as “I know, I know” and “Right. Right”, as opposed to summarizing and paraphrasing, shows that he is not actively listening (115). Dave’s inability to listen to and deal with his internal conflicts shows that he is still broken from the events of his harsh past, and although his subconscious is burning to deal with the issues, he is not yet ready. Through his lack of listening to his subconscious, Dave proves that he is dealing with his past in an unsatisfactory manner.

A third reason for this peek into Dave’s subconscious is to show that he is attempting to break free from his past, yet is only making it linger by dealing with it in an unsatisfactory way. Throughout his childhood, Dave “never told even (his) closest friends about anything that happened inside (his) house”, and is now attempting to “alternately rebel against and embrace that kind of suppression” by being as open as he can about issues and “toss(ing) away all the old rules” (115, 116). Dave hated the sense of secrecy that his parents aroused while he was growing up, and did not want to apply this same sense of secrecy unto Toph and his new life. By attempting to completely remove his past from his mind, however, and by not consciously attempting to improve upon the secrecy and other undesirable methods that his parents raised him on, he is merely bringing them into the future with him. What Dave does not consciously realize, is that through this method of ignorance, he is merely falling into a self-destructive pattern of applying the same undesired habits and rules unto Toph. Dave’s subconscious is desperately trying to communicate this and the idea that he should “carry on those traditions that made sense and…jettison those that didn’t” to him through the false exterior of Toph (118). Because he is dealing with this attempted communication in an unsatisfactory manner, however, he is making the same mistake that his parents did.

The reason this conversation is placed here is to show us readers the internal conflicts that Dave is still dealing with as a result of his harsh past: his addiction to control, his lack of communication with his subconscious, and his struggles to overcome his past. Dave does not consciously speak of these issues up to this point in the book, and this conversation allows us to clearly see that although Dave may seem like he is okay externally, he still has many problems that he must deal with internally in order to become the dynamic character that he will likely be. Every great book has a dynamic character, and now that the problems that our main character must overcome are clearly laid out, only one question remains: How will he do it?