Question

Read the excerpt from Infinite Jest. I cannot make myself understood. “I am not just a jock,” I say slowly. Distinctly. “My transcript for the last year might have been dickied a bit, maybe, but that was to get me over a rough spot. The grades prior to that are de moi.” My eyes are closed; the room is silent. “I cannot make myself understood, now.” I am speaking slowly and distinctly. “Call it something I ate.” Which statement best says how Wallace explores the conflict between personal and societal realities?

Answer 1

Wallace uses dialogue to show the conflict that can occur between inner perceptions of self and outside perceptions of self.

Answer 2

Wallace´s outstanding novel has many characters, some of which, most notably Hal, are portrayed as possessing incredible skills, such as eidetic memory in this case. Although being so well predisposed to life and its intricacies, these characters are nonetheless unable to function properly according to society´s norms and expectations —mediocre or even evil, as they are understood by the characters themselves—, perhaps because of their unrealized (or unrealizable potential), making them, in turn, incapable of figuring out their own mental constitution and pushing them, like Hal, to a point of unfathomable madness.