Satin Island By Tom Mccarthy Sparknotes

Many people in their lives have gone through a moment or journey of self discovery. In the novel Satin Island written by Tom McCarthy, the main character U goes on a journey of self discovery while working for his boss Peyman and the Company to create the Great Report, which is the modern era and what was important in the modern era written into one report. U creates dossiers of many events that he sees as significant to him or to the creation of Great Report. U discovers a great deal about himself during his dream about Satin Island. Most importantly, U discovers that maybe he or any person can not write the Great Report as it is impossible to put on paper. In Satin Island, the personal narration of the protagonist U serves as a journey of

U starts his dossiers by collecting documents about many events relating to the event that he saw to be significant. This helps U to learn more about a certain topic or event, and he uses these dossiers in order to help him in creating the Great Report. While thinking about a dead parachutist whose parachute fails to opened while he was falling, U says to himself “I started a file on parachutists. Dead ones: ones whose parachutes had failed to open. It’s surprising how many times the story, or a variant on it, pops up: like oil spills, it’s generic” (McCarthy, 73-74). U obviously feels that parachutists who are killed because of a failing parachute is an important enough topic for him to create a dossier about. Using these dossiers, U discovers what he feels is important enough to be included in the Great Report, and he uses these dossiers such as the one on parachutists in order to help him create the Great Report. In a review written by All Things Considered, the author says “U’s Great Report is driven by whatever passes his eyes” (All Things Considered). U is given free rein to write about what he wishes throughout the novel, so he creates dossiers in order to compile information to write into the Great Report. U discovers what he feels important enough to be part of the modern era, but he also experiences self

This dream prompts U to go to Staten Island next time he is in New York. However, just before he gets on the ferry to go to the island, he says “At some point in that final stretch, I’d made my mind up not to take the ferry at all. To go to Staten Island-actually go there-would be profoundly meaningless to me. What would it, in reality, have solved, resolved? Nothing.” (McCarthy, 212-213). U discovers at the last minute that going to Satin Island would be completely useless for he. He realizes that his dream is not the real Staten Island and him going there will not help him answer the questions of why he had this dream or what this dream means. In a book review written by the Telegraph UK, the author says “U gets so close to the solution, but all of his work disappears before he can record it.” (Telegraph UK). This is shown while U is experiencing his dream about Satin Island. U is about to discover why he is having this dream, but he awakens just before his questions are answered. This makes him go on a journey to try and find the answer to the question of why he is having this dream, and what this dream means to him. U discovers things about himself while he is searching for the answers of the questions that were unanswered in his dream, but U also discovers things about himself while he