Dystopian radio show

Rise of the Revolt

News broadcast: Day 1 of the cy-bot revolt. Minimal damage caused. Civilians in panic. Not much more to relay. Maximum of 3 injuries reported.

*Static noise*

Elijah: Lila? Lila come out now they’re gone. We don’t have long.

Lila: *shuffling* I don’t know if I can do this Elijah. We’re in a Stage 3 camp which means one more warning and we even think of escaping, well, that’ll be the last thought on our mind. I’m not ready to die yet-not yet.

Elijah: Lil please, you’re overreacting slightly. They won’t suspect us- too many people are trying to escape. I promise. Just one trip, we need supplies don’t we? They can’t monitor our thoughts, I snuck in temporary blockers. All we have to do is-

Lil:-Elijah I physically can’t. I..I was injured. Not too bad! Don’t freak out. I just didn’t want to worry you. It’s just a small gunshot but I think I managed to stitch it up pretty well.

Elijah: Wait, wait, hold on. By yourself?! God Lila you know what they’ll do if they realise your skin’s been opened. You’ll be tortured in that horrible, horrible roo- I can’t even say it. Just.. just stay here I’ll be back soon. Be safe.

News Broadcast: Day 2 of cy-bot revolt. No signs of extreme violence but strange sounds have been coming from chambers underground. Injury count up to 15 as a result of rebelling. More 

updates posted soon.

Lila: *shuffling and heavy footsteps* Elijah? You back?

Guard: Back? Where is it he’s supposedly gone?

Lila: Oh! I- I saw him go to the toilet so I was just wondering if he was back. No problem here sir.

Guard: Right. Very well. Lights out in 5 minutes. No talking, no thinking, actually no noise at all.

*clanging noise nearby*

Lila: *whispering voice* Elijah? Crap, hurry up! Count’s in 5 and we need to make this room look like it’s not been a set up for an escape plan if you don’t mind.

Elijah: Huh? Right ok. Anyway I grabbed everything we need. God it’s terrible out there Lila. I can hear them talking about using the children as soldiers. Soldiers Lila!

Lila: I know Elijah..just stay calm. For me. Please. Someone has to stay sane in this hell hole.

News broadcast: Still day 2 of the cy-bot revolt but something grave has appeared. Something we cannot even begin to fathom and surely not speak about. However all we can say is, be prepared.

*Broadcast cuts out*

Examine the presentation of women in AHWOSG

Throughout the novel, Eggers presentation of women differentiates due to his constant judgement towards others. However, it is evident that he holds his mother closest to his heart and seeks parental figures anywhere he can. Egger uses uncommon phrases to describe his mother but nevertheless, they’re endearing words. He calls her a ‘vase, doll and prize winning vegetable’ suggesting he sees her as fragile and not to be tampered with.  The connotations of the noun ‘doll’ would be innocent like and harmless. However, he also refers to her as a ‘giant fruit’ which slightly changes the ‘delicate’ pattern because the adjective ‘giant’ doesn’t really sound flattering next to ‘fruit’.

When Eggers is at Toph’s school he writes how he is ‘looking to score’ showing his immaturity and lack of respect toward women. The lexical field of ‘sex’ is ambiguous because it may express his teenage hormones or possibly suggest he yearns to start a family of his own.  Dave talks about a woman not ‘wearing a ring’ then goes on to say how he wonders if they could ‘move in together’ hinting at the fact that maybe he just wants to recreate the family he is slowly losing. Then again, his misogynistic nature is shown slightly when he says he ‘expected’ flirting. The verb ‘expected’ makes it almost seem like he felt he deserved an abundance of ‘pretty’ women for him. Rather than ignorant, Eggers made it sound like a naïve statement as Dave was genuinely surprised he was wrong.  In the beginning of the novel, the scene where Dave’s mother is having a nosebleed seems quite intense to him. Dave says ‘we’ are having a nose bleed instead of ‘she’. The use of the pronoun ‘we’ shows that he feels the pain too and his mum’s illness is affecting him more than he’s letting on.

Dave also seems to feel a large sense of guilt towards Beth because he believes they were almost a burden on her. He says ‘Beth being as much or more owed than Toph and I’ which expresses his gratefulness towards her for caring for them all. The verb ‘owed’ emphasises how much she deserves something good after dealing with ill parents and faced with the possibility of becoming an orphan. The conjuction ‘and’ when talking about Toph and Dave links them together to convey the strong relationship between the two. Eggers also writes about the slight guilt felt towards Kirsten who is sort of helpless in the situation. Dave’s thought process screams jumbled especially when he says ‘how much should I/can I/ will I burden Kirsten?’ The use of an interrogative shows he is uncertain and confused on what to do. When Dave panics, he also tends to take a slight judgemental attitude to others. For example, after witnessing a small thing, Dave managed to use extremely negative adjectives towards the girl like ‘misguided and self centred and also a bad person’ without really knowing who she is. It seems Dave has to care for a woman a lot for him to treat them with the utmost respect.

There is quite a balance with the presentation of women in AHWOSG but it is obvious who is respected and who is not. The women Dave knows and feels he owes are the ones who he treats kindly most of the time and doesn’t degrade them whereas random women, he will feel no remorse in completely judging their character. Whether it’s because he is not in the right state of mind with everything he is going through, or it is genuinely how he is as a person, he doesn’t fail to express his thoughts about women throughout the novel.

Examine the presentation of the theme of ‘home’ in ‘AHWOSG’

The theme of home is quite evident throughout the novel but Eggers seems to use many different styles to emphasise it. Most of the home themed scenes focus on the family attempting to find comfort again but never really feeling at total ease.

We are first given a description of the house as being a ‘factory’ which immediately gives off a slightly negative, dull aura. Factories are not usually associated with ‘comfort’ or a homely feeling so for him to call it that suggests something is off. Dave later on personifies the furniture in his family room, giving them ‘clenched teeth’ and ‘sharp elbows’ to express the almost frustration felt in the room. Although some adjectives used are unpleasant, Dave says the family possess random items because they ‘see beauty within and cannot say no’. He is most likely reminiscing on all the times he thought things were useless but now have slight meaning to him. When in the hospital room, Beth points out the lack of TV to which Dave replies with ‘weird’, suggesting even the smallest of devices represent home.

When Dave and Beth begin house hunting, Dave feels a deep sense of guilt due to the constant disappointment occurring. However, he soon describes his ideal home in the style of listing because it’s always been his dream to live in a loft. The neighbours also seem to be a vital factor when moving because they don’t feel comfortable or at home when everyone is distasteful. A new home also proves difficult because of the ages of the two. It’s hard enough without a mother but when landlords refuse them because of the difficulties, the idea of home seems to be getting further away. We know Dave senses something is wrong before even being told due to the ‘stricken’ look of the man upon seeing the two. The short, simple sentences express defeat and almost impatience, due to the time waste on a lost cause. Even after moving from house to house, none of them contain the homely feeling they crave. They feel like ‘house sitters’ or ‘vacationers’. This may be down to the lack of household appliances and possessions they hold dear to them.

Dave often refers to himself as the ‘parental figure’ but only when it suits him, and sometimes Toph. He worries often that others will notice the laziness in the household and report it. When house hunting, Dave always checks for the household appliances mainly due to the responsibility he doesn’t want to have. Without all the technology, they live messily, only sometimes motivated to clean when someone points it out. However, forgetting about responsibilities and letting loose seems to be almost therapeutic to them because they feel innocent and child-like again. To them, home really is where the heart is and is not in a house but in fact in the family.