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Extreme Impressions In Jennifer Egan's The Keep

992 Words4 Pages

As Jennifer Egan’s The Keep progresses, Ray experiences two significant moments where extreme emotion causes specific impressions of the world and those around him. The first is when almost by miracle, Holly visits the prison while Ray is working on a sewage line. Ray is overwhelmingly shocked and at first struggles to take it all in. The wonderment is so spectacular that Ray’s “eyes hurt from the brightness of all that wire.” Ray also explains that he feels that all of what began because of Holly’s writing class, like the feeling offered by the “door,” was all just leading him to “watching her walk up that path on a sunny day” (Egan pg. 134-135). So shaken by the staggering beauty and pure ecstasy of the event, two instances of extreme perceived light and brightness were experienced by Ray. The deep rooted happiness he experiences by Holly’s presence is reflected directly by the light in the environment surrounding him. Despite being forced to dig looking for a sewage that smells horrific by a brutal C.O., Ray’s world is one of brightness and sunshine. Without Holly’s appearance and Ray’s subsequent radical shift in mood, the outdoors setting would have likely been depressing and …show more content…

This is done by Jennifer Egan in order to suggest a unique and robust concept, the environment a person believes and observes around them is a product of their own internal conflict and health. The common maxim, “The beauty you see is a reflection of you“ by Rumi, comes to mind. Personal happiness and positivity in The Keep are introduced throughout the novel by the existence of light or darkness in the eyes of the character, whether that is a sunrise or consuming darkness. This valuable insight by Egan creates a “pool” like that envisioned by Howie and Ann, to dip into and rethink the way we examine the not-so-subjective

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