Bright Light Big City

What not to Do: Paper 2, Question 2 With almost every mistake made in life, there are lessons that can be learned from them. They can be minor changes in a person’s character or they can completely alter the way people live their lives. These decisions can be for the better or for the worst as well. In Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City, the character of You faces these very dilemmas. He made mistakes in his life that have altered the way he works, his social life, and, most importantly, the way he interacts with his family.

It is almost as if he is a completely different person who simply wanted to fit into the in crowd. Throughout the book it is evident that the pretender makes his imagination reality, and he cannot keep up with it. This books entire plot should be a what not to do guide for every adolescent who is tempted by peer pressure, because it is a perfect image of what can happen in such a short amount of time, and how quick a person can forget who they really are. In the beginning of the novel, You are quoted, thinking, ‘You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning.

But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. ’ (McInerney, Pg. 1) This quote would be one of the first and most major indicators that the character of You is pretending to be something that he is not. Inside the character of You, he knows that his actions and the people he is hanging around with is not the norm or does not fit who he is on the inside: a person with morals and respect for his family. He is pretending to be a person without morals about taking drugs, his actions toward others, or honesty in order to fit into the ‘In’ crowd.

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As the story develops, the reader gets to learn about You’s relationships, habits, and other personal details that could give hints to his self-destruction. The reader learns that You had recently been divorced from his model wife. They also learn that he is on the verge of losing his job, and his mother had passed away a year ago. However, in my opinion, the people that You began to associate himself with were the ones who changed his morals. After all the stress he had been under, people like Tad Allagash became a sort of easy way out of his situation.

Instead of dealing with his stress in a healthy way, he decided to go out into the New York City night life, where he drank excessively and took various drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, and other pills. He managed to be able to avoid his family throughout his character change which included lying to them when he was forced to talk with them. For example, when You is asked about where his wife, Amanda, is by his brother Michael, he responds, “She’s shopping. ” (McInerney, Pg. 157).

However later, after being knocked out by his brother, he tells the truth, “‘Amanda isn’t shopping,’ you say. ‘She left me. ’ “(McInerney, Pg. 159). This transition from deceit to honesty when he is vulnerable shows that the character and morality of You is still inside of him, it has just been masked by the fabricated life that he had been living for the past year. At the end of the novel, You comes to the realization that the life he is living is not who he truly is on the inside, which is a person with morals and character that is above the pseudo life that is around him. ’I just realized something. ’ (You) ‘What’s that? ’ (Tad) ‘You and Amanda would make a great couple. ’ ‘I supposed that means that you get Odysseus all to yourself. ’ ‘Later, Tad. ’” (McInerney, Pg. 177-178). You realized that Tad is one of the main sources for his self-destruction. His attitude towards life and other people have been reflected on to You. You decided that he did not need to put up with his antics anymore and to simply dismiss Tad from his life.

Leaving Tad behind begins You’s change for the better and at the very end of the novel, You strives for a familiar yet basic staple from his childhood: that being bread. He smells it in the city and bribes a man to give him some in exchange for his Ray-Ban sunglasses. “You get down on your knees and tear open the bag. The smell of warm dough envelops you. The first bite sticks in your throat and you almost gag. You will have to learn everything all over again. ” (McInerney, Pg. 182). This final paragraph is the start of a new beginning for You.

The symbol of giving up his sunglasses for something simple yet familiar shows that he is willing to move on from the events of his past and better himself for the future. In my opinion, the moral lesson in the novel Bright Lights, Big City is to be yourself and to not let the stress in your life open yourself up to people who may alter your morals. This novel is sort of a not to do book that shows how easily a person can be changed when they allow stress to overcome their life. Although it is not a true story, It can be taken as precautionary tale.

I do not believe the McInerney wrote this novel in order to scare people and say that if events like these happen in your life, you will end up a coke head. However, I believe he wrote this book to show that when people are at certain points in their life where they don’t know what to do, they will turn to whatever is easiest. Although at the time what is easy may seem to work, over time it will end up tearing them apart further. Bibliography 1. McInerney, Jay. Bright Lights, Big City: A Novel. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1984. Print.

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