preview

Analysis Of John Egan 's ' The Eyes Apart From My Friends '

Decent Essays
Open Document

Not only are these characters disconnected from society, but they are also unable to maintain meaningful personal relationships. The narrator in Egan’s story explains how he “drifted apart from my friends. I stopped searching for a lover. I took to working at home” (Egan, 164). P. Burke, on the other hand, is in love with Paul, whom she meets as Delphi in cyberspace, but he is horrified when he sees her real body. Perhaps Tiptree chose not to give P. Burke the opportunity to tell her own story in order to fully capture her helplessness as a result of society’s shallow judgements. In contrast, the narrator of Egan’s story becomes a victim to the “fear of switching” that was “suffocating” (Egan 164). During his brief time in higher education, the narrator discusses the “Cartesian dualism” in an essay, to which his professor responds by saying his argument is “IRRELEVANT” (Egan, 161). In this case, the professor’s response represents that of society as well, as the narrator seems to be in a minority group of people holding anxieties about how the jewel could change them forever, while the majority of people eventually switch, despite their fears. However, the narrator also worries excessively over the implications of the mind or personality being harmed, when he should have also payed attention to how his body would never be the same.
Both Egan and Tiptree are less optimistic when exploring how relationships to bodies might change in the future. From the very moment that P.

Get Access