Why Is Leonard Peacock Important In The Book Forgive Me
Was it the Nazi handgun beside the bowl of cereal, the “gift” of chopped up hair or the almost perverted obsession with his Holocaust teacher's arms that make Leonard Peacock immediately fascinating? His narration is frantic, jumping back and forth, skipping over details as though you already know them. However, with Leonard being the narrator, you are able to see everything from his point of view exclusively, making you question how other people perceived him. Leonard will suddenly break from the present time and skip back months or years, allowing the reader to have some of their questions answered, even if they weren't sure they were being asked in the first place. Footnotes and “Letters from the Future” are more ways that allow you to gain insight and information about Leonard's life. Overall, the unique way Matthew Quick has written Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is heartbreaking and brutally honest.
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One of the ways Matthew Quick makes the main character capture your attention right away is how it is written from the perspective of Leonard Peacock.
At no point in this book is there any kind of narration except first-person, allowing you to see Leonard’s sarcastic, brash, hypocritical, sometimes downright sexist, and uncensored view of the world at all times. This point of view, ironically, makes it possible to see how important life is to Leonard. To him, life is confusing because no adult that he has ever followed on the train appeared happy (45), yet he cares about the lives of the recipients of his gifts enough that he tries to make his suicide more bearable for them (5). Leonard, however, doesn't tell you why these particular people mean so much to him until later in the
novel.
With the lack of information presented in the first part of the novel, the reader has to assume that Leonard will explain the earlier years of his life through flashbacks. When Leonard does eventually start to explain the trauma he went through with Asher Beal it is not until nearly the end of the book where it is definitively said Asher raped him (224). It has been implied, rather heavily, for the entire book up to this point. While this way of writing flashbacks may sound as though the author left numerous plot holes or simply failed to provide details, it makes the story more realistic and engaging because the reader feels as though they are with Leonard on his birthday. A way Leonard attempts to clarify what is happening is through dozens of footnotes.
These footnotes, however, are a bit more like foot essays in certain cases. The reader will occasionally need to read some previous lines to remember exactly where they are in the story. Some of the shorter footnotes, such as the one introducing Herr Silverman are great as they quickly and accurately explain who he is. Others, such as when Leonard tells the reader who Bart is to him were too long and didn't do a good job summing up the situation, leaving the reader wondering what the point of the footnote was and why it couldn't have just been left in the story itself. Overall, the footnotes are generally informative and appertain to the story despite that some would have been better left in the novel itself.
The letters from the future also had the opportunity to be more relevant to the story but the way these letters were introduced was choppy and unclear. Until later in the novel when he spoke with Herr Silverman about these letters, they seemed incredibly out of place. This caused the story to abruptly flip between Leonard planning a murder/suicide to swimming with dolphins in a post-apocalyptic world. Despite these complaints, it was fascinating to see that Leonard thought of himself in a happy, if not slightly ridiculous, future where he wasn't an outcast.
The uniqueness of the way this novel was written immediately grabs the reader and makes them sympathize with Leonard, and even pity him in certain parts of the novel. Had this novel been written from a different viewpoint or been too up front about what Asher did Leonard, it would have made the reader immediately hate Leonard and realise he was blaming all the people around him and refused to admit he did anything wrong. Before someone has the chance to step back and analyse the events and characters in the novel and ask too many questions, being in the moment with Leonard and his thoughts is something that will haunt your thoughts for a while.
One of the ways Matthew Quick makes the main character capture your attention right away is how it is written from the perspective of Leonard Peacock.
At no point in this book is there any kind of narration except first-person, allowing you to see Leonard’s sarcastic, brash, hypocritical, sometimes downright sexist, and uncensored view of the world at all times. This point of view, ironically, makes it possible to see how important life is to Leonard. To him, life is confusing because no adult that he has ever followed on the train appeared happy (45), yet he cares about the lives of the recipients of his gifts enough that he tries to make his suicide more bearable for them (5). Leonard, however, doesn't tell you why these particular people mean so much to him until later in the
novel.
With the lack of information presented in the first part of the novel, the reader has to assume that Leonard will explain the earlier years of his life through flashbacks. When Leonard does eventually start to explain the trauma he went through with Asher Beal it is not until nearly the end of the book where it is definitively said Asher raped him (224). It has been implied, rather heavily, for the entire book up to this point. While this way of writing flashbacks may sound as though the author left numerous plot holes or simply failed to provide details, it makes the story more realistic and engaging because the reader feels as though they are with Leonard on his birthday. A way Leonard attempts to clarify what is happening is through dozens of footnotes.
These footnotes, however, are a bit more like foot essays in certain cases. The reader will occasionally need to read some previous lines to remember exactly where they are in the story. Some of the shorter footnotes, such as the one introducing Herr Silverman are great as they quickly and accurately explain who he is. Others, such as when Leonard tells the reader who Bart is to him were too long and didn't do a good job summing up the situation, leaving the reader wondering what the point of the footnote was and why it couldn't have just been left in the story itself. Overall, the footnotes are generally informative and appertain to the story despite that some would have been better left in the novel itself.
The letters from the future also had the opportunity to be more relevant to the story but the way these letters were introduced was choppy and unclear. Until later in the novel when he spoke with Herr Silverman about these letters, they seemed incredibly out of place. This caused the story to abruptly flip between Leonard planning a murder/suicide to swimming with dolphins in a post-apocalyptic world. Despite these complaints, it was fascinating to see that Leonard thought of himself in a happy, if not slightly ridiculous, future where he wasn't an outcast.
The uniqueness of the way this novel was written immediately grabs the reader and makes them sympathize with Leonard, and even pity him in certain parts of the novel. Had this novel been written from a different viewpoint or been too up front about what Asher did Leonard, it would have made the reader immediately hate Leonard and realise he was blaming all the people around him and refused to admit he did anything wrong. Before someone has the chance to step back and analyse the events and characters in the novel and ask too many questions, being in the moment with Leonard and his thoughts is something that will haunt your thoughts for a while.