Summary Of The Goldfinch By Donna Tartt

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and The Circle by Dave Eggers both highlight human versatility and vigor in approaching challenges in surprisingly contradictory ways while also shedding light on humanity’s flaws and downfalls. Tartt’s story chronicles the tragic and moving story of Theodore Decker who struggles to cope with the untimely death of his mother in an explosion while also keeping an insidious secret. Eggers’ novel begins on a more optimistic note, but nonetheless changes for the worst when Mae Holland’s life slowly but surely begins to spiral out of control after being hired for a preeminent technology company named The Circle. Although Eggers and Tartt engross readers with storytelling from two different points of view and communicate their transcending themes and omens with varying tones towards the protagonists, both authors make the conscious decision to employ an unsettling ending to dramatize the didactic purpose of their novels. Tarrt’s use of the first person and Eggers decision to write in the third person both help to not only sculpt the readers’ perspective of the main characters but also to provoke suspense. Throughout the novel Tartt describes Theo’s internal feelings and thoughts as well as his external actions. This mode of narration stems from the very beginning of the story as Theo tries to escape the museum following an explosion and tries to find his mother in a thrilling, nail biting action scene. Tartt keeps readers on the edge of their seats as she describes the
Tartt and Eggers convince readers of their reliability and integrity as experienced life learners through their intuitive and insightful stories, allowing them to more skillfully drive home their respective messages and warnings, both explicit and implicit, at the end of their stories. While Tartt hopes to persuade and galvanize readers