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Forever Overhead By David Foster Wallace Analysis

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Life is Disturbingly Comfortable To make a list of all things in life that make us feel uncomfortable could take a lifetime in itself. From the awkwardness of puberty to the uneasiness of job interviews, life is uncomfortable, disturbingly uncomfortable. It makes those who are shy uncomfortable and those who have outgoing personalities equally uncomfortable. The only differences lie in our personal decisions to choose to feel so disturbingly uncomfortable about ordinary things we all experience. In “Forever Overhead”, David Foster Wallace is able to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the uncomfortable” (qtd. in McCaffery) by the explicit imagery he uses in describing nocturnal emission, the self-consciousness that is projected through his …show more content…

The comparison is not meant to take away meaning from the life event, but instead is meant to drive home the point that we are all in this together. Each step along the way is all part of the bigger picture that needs to be completed. In “Forever Overhead”, the narrator says, “It is a machine that moves only forward” (13). While the words themselves are in reference to the high board, a deeper meaning about life is present. The line for the high board is much like our lives, we can only move forward. The ability to stop time is nonexistent. The ability to halt life when we are feeling uncomfortable is unavailable to us, we must charge on. Our narrator acknowledges this, “There’s been time the whole time. You can’t kill time with your heart. Everything takes time” (15). Our young “birdlike” narrator has for the first time just realized that he must jump into adulthood, just as he must jump from the high dive at the pool. He is unable to stop time, he’s unable to avoid the outcome. His best option is to embrace puberty, embrace the jump. Puberty is part of life and just as with the narrator it often takes people by surprise. He says, “You have been taken…. Did you think it over. Yes and no” (15). The not knowing what is next is what makes us uncomfortable; yet somehow comforts us because the unknown could be the very thing we need. We all jump, even when we aren’t sure we’re really

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