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The View From The Midwest David Foster Wallace Summary

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In the essay The View from the Midwest (2001 issue of Rolling Stone), novelist David Foster Wallace gives a detailed account and explores a different angle of the September 11 attack. In this passionate piece of writing, he discloses personal experiences and vividly describes what he goes through on the day of attack and the day after, piece by piece through a labyrinth of narratives. He talks about his next door neighbor, a retired CPA and vet, and about his best friend’s mother, Mrs Thompson. Through his essay, Wallace tries to spotlight the patriotic stigma and the terrifying undaunting faith people have in the system. In this paper, I confer about Wallace’s view that is, the failure of the general public to follow through with the transformation …show more content…

In the second paragraph, Wallace starts out by directly mocking the people’s attempt to exhibit patriotism without speculating what it actually symbolizes. Wallace talks about his next door neighbor, Mr N and highlights how Mr N prides about the meticulousness of his flag’s details. Mr N advertises patriotism rather than doing something concrete which is illuminated by his statement - "Why" (after a brief interval of giving me the same sort of look he usually gives my lawn) "to show our support and empathy in terms of what's going on, as …show more content…

Wallace ridicules the american doctrine of materialistic patronage and insists that such beliefs only exacerbate the situation. He prompts the people to have notions that are more consequential and assert people to comprehend the core of the problem. Simultaneously, Wallace illustrates the trauma and innocence of people when they go through such a shock. He explains how people stopped paying attention to the peculiarities of what they were watching not because of their ignorance but because of their innocence as he

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