A Heartbreaking Genius Sparknotes

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is a work of modern literary by a young writer, Dave Eggers. In the form of a memoir, his work reflects the journey of a typical young man in his early twenties that spends time playing Frisbee and cherishing a fancy job of starting a magazine. At the same time, the book also shares his experiences of losing his parents and wearing a burden to raise his younger brother Toph. Throughout his work, his writing style is really interesting so that he is able to create a scene with different layers of emotions and tones to grasp his readers but hide his inner feelings. However, the most interesting portion of the book is the discussion between Dave and Toph about “Big Day". From my point of view, the conversation is truly about the author himself with his inner thoughts. Its main purpose is to guide the reader to somehow have a grasp on Dave' theme of internal conflicts within himself: his needed control and his persistent tendency to break free from his experiences of the past.
Firstly, the abrupt death of his parents within a month compulsively impact to Dave and his younger brother's entire life.
According to the book, the author writes that “ I mean, it was almost as if it was too much happen in one day, as if a number of days had been spliced together to quickly paint a picture of an entire period of time, to create a whole-seeming idea of how we are living, without having to stoop (or rise) to actually pacing the story out” (114). The burden from the death of his parents twist Dave's experiences at the young age. Not only he has to find a way to support his daily routines, he is also in charge of raising his younger brother in good and round conditions as if his parents would expect from him. Therefore, the author has a sense of being
overwhelmed.
In addition, Dave’s writing style effectively combines two different kinds of tone of witty/humorous and serious/honest side by side within the flow of his conversation with his youngest brother. The mixture of melodramatic and hilarious tone serves as useful tool to get away with the idea of serious and honest analysis of the author himself. The reason is that Dave aims to entertain readers by maintain a humorous tone and fictionalized version of events even when he shows his reflections of serious subjects. For example, the writer make use a sense of humor in the conversation “the gimmicks, bells, whistles. Diagrams. Here is a picture of stapler, and all that" (115). However, he probably tries to maintain balance of his life by putting things in order.
Another interesting feature in this portion is that Toph, at the point, is literally a child. However, his expressions and thoughts is somehow similar to perspectives of a person in Dave's age. For instance, the writers states that “You’re completely paralyzed with guilt about relating all this in the first place, especially the stuff earlier on. You feel somehow obligated to do it, but you also know that Mom and Dad would hate it, would crucify you” (117). In my point of view, Toph only plays a role of the guise on the surface. Deep down is Dave's subconscious thoughts and inner feelings. For example, those lines draws out his nerves and worries to grow up without the guidance of parents as well as take care of Toph, who is lack of parents' love and nourishment. The author is somehow confused and afraid of being fulfilled different responsibility at the time. Therefore, the main idea of the conversation is to present Dave's lack of control and his need of control.