Creative Writing – Big Me

In the world of fantasy, the kid picks the functions he wishes to play. On the planet of fantasy, the child finally finds his essence and feels that he is valued by others. In Dan Chaon's "Big Me", revealing and informing serves the instrument of the child's imagination, and the means of escaping his real-world solitude. Dan Chaon produces an amazing picture of the child who tries to define his function and meaning in the world, through the prism of thirty-two-year-old Andy O'Day who informs the story of his youth.

"I never ever seemed like danger. I was convinced of my own powers of stealth and invisibility.

[...] He could not see me unless I picked to be seen" (Chaon, 2002). In Chaon's story showing and telling, observation and creativity offer a young kid with limitless power-- the power that he can not use in real life, and the power he requires to compensate for the constantly increasing sense of loneliness. He is going through a hard duration when his moms and dads are drinking and quarreling; his sibling tries a suicide; under the increasing social pressure, the kid can no longer remain realistic, and to some extent his proving and informing ends up being the key to ethical, psychological, and spiritual redemption.

Get quality help now

RhizMan

Verified writer

Proficient in: Writing

4.9 (247)

“ Rhizman is absolutely amazing at what he does . I highly recommend him if you need an assignment done ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

To be a Detective for Andy means to save the imagined two million city of crime, and to have an opportunity to penetrate into other houses for investigation: “I had been going to his house frequently by that time. I had a notebook, into which I had pasted the Santa photo, and a sample of his handwriting, and a bit of hair from his comb.

[…] There were letters: “I am tired, unbelievably tired, of going around in circles with you. […] I had copied this down in my detective’s notebook” (Chaon, 2002).

Andy imagines himself a Detective; he investigates the way other people live; he writes everything down into his small notebook – this is how his showing and telling works. The need to control other people’s lives does not leave him as he reaches the thirty second year of his life. His showing and telling turns into the second life, which he secretly leads as a reminiscence of his early years when he could sense the smell of the unlimited power of a Detective in a two million city. References Chaon, D. (2002). Big me. In D. Chaon, Among the Missing, Ballantine Books.