Valentino Achak Deng. What Is What Novel by Dave Eggers

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The book under analysis is What Is What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng by Dave Eggers, a modern American writer, editor, and publisher. The analyzed book has inspired intense literary criticism, not always approving of the style and authorship of the book, blaming the official author for fictionalizing the enormities that never belonged to his own experience (Siegel para. 7). However, the book has also inspired a great positive reaction of literary critics and the target audience (Durham para. 6). At the same time, the back cover of the novel offers eloquent and apt quotations taken from the book reviews: I cannot recall the last time I was this moved by a novel (Hosseini as cited in Eggers unpaged), A moving, frightening, improbably beautiful book (Grossman as cited in Eggers unpaged). Such a diverse reaction is, probably, caused by one of the themes disclosed throughout the novel, the theme of individual personal suffering as the means of disclosure of the existence of violence and suffered experienced by many people in the world regardless of the place they live.

The theme is very intricate and it finds its realization in different aspects of the book, such as the authorship the authors tone that can be perceived while reading, the genre, the choice of the characters, the plot, the style, and figurative language of the book. All these aspects should be considered and analyzed in a complex in order to ensure the disclosure of the theme through multidimensional analysis of the novel.

Though the issue of authorship does not entirely belong to the sphere of linguistics, being, probably, a philosophic issue to a great extent, but in this particular case, the analysis of the authorship of the novel can be useful for the disclosure of the analyzed theme. The novel presents a reflection of the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the refugees of the Sudanese civil war that belong to Lost Boys, Sudanese children pursued by enormous calamities, grief, violence, and misfortune during the civil war in their country. The subtitle of the novel claims that the book should be treated as an autobiography of Deng though the real author is Dave Eggers. A bit of reflection of this controversy leads to a logical conclusion, and what is more, the advice for a reader, that the story of the sufferings of a concrete individual should be perceived by other people with deep genuine attention as Eggers demonstrates it by his personal example. If the authorship of the novel is questioned, probably, the best solution to the issue would be to suppose that the authorship belongs to the Sudanese people though reflected by an American.

In order to perceive the authors tone in the book that is necessary to analyze if the theme of personal suffering is studied, it will be beneficial to pay special attention to the preface of the novel which is, by the way, written by Dang without any outside assistance. He characterizes the novel as the soulful account of his life (Eggers 1). He states that it is simply one mans story, subjectively told, for the purpose of acquainting the readers with the atrocities against humanity as to prevent the same horrors from repeating themselves (Eggers 1). In fact, these two statements perfectly prove that the book contains the advanced theme.

As for the genre What is What belongs to, its analysis can also be beneficial for the present study as the genre of autobiography is, undoubtedly, the best genre that can be chosen by the author to pass on the theme of individual suffering to a reader. However, the genre of What is What cannot and should not be treated as autobiography only, as Deng says himself, many of the passages are fictional, the result is called a novel (Eggers 1). Prose states that it is easier for the novel than for even the most incisive biography or historical study to make the reader experience the subject from the inside (para. 1). In fact, the genre of a novel possesses such liberties and devices of fiction that give the audience an opportunity to have a look into the soul, mind, and heart of a person depicted in a novel (Prose para.1). The same author of the book review calls What is What a picaresque novel of adolescence (Prose para. 2). It is a very apt remark on her part that can be contrasted to Siegels idea that it was a grave mistake of Eggers that he chose to fictionalize the book instead of transcribing the story and making it unbiased on his part since he had plenty of genuine material received from private conversation, recordings of Dengs stories, and emails (Siegel para.6). The richness of the factual ground for Eggers work is unquestionable; however, a report-like autobiography would be at a disadvantage in comparison with a fictionalized novel of adolescence. What is What discloses a number of themes typical of a novel of adolescence, such as the theme of the first love experience with the Royal Nieces (Eggers 271), Amath, an older girl that was the object of Achaks affection (Eggers 43), and Dengs girlfriend Tabitha. Though such events seem irrelevant at first glance if the theme of individual suffering is described, they are contrasted to suffering making the narration emotional, personal, and genuine. Creating the opposition to sufferings, pleasant emotions connected with love and friendship emphasize the enormity of the first. The novel adolescence is full of lyricism and genuine feelings that make the theme of suffering more accessible to a reader, unclosing its horrible nature at the same time.

As for the choice of characters, special attention should be given to the protagonist of the novel, Valentino Achak Deng as the bearer of the sufferings of the Sudanese people during the war. The character is autobiographic, it has a prototype but, at the same time, the character is collective as it serves the purpose of disclosing violence experienced by many Sudanese people that are shown through the prism of Dengs sufferings. The idea that the character of the protagonist is collective, even generalized, can be proven by his names. Strange as it may seem, Deng has five names: the first, Achak, is the name given by his parents, Valentino is a baptismal name, besides, he was called Dominic by his teacher Miss Gladys and in America, he was Dominic Arou for three years and changed his name with much effort (Eggers 236). Since the name bears great importance for a person, the lack of freedom of people can be seen in these numerous names. However, the last two names of Deng are of special linguistic importance: he is called Gone Far and Sleeper. Deng says: Isaac Aher Arol was from my region, Bahr al-Ghazal, and he called me Gone Far and I called him Gone Far, and everybody called both of us Gone Far (Eggers 236). It is evident that the name makes the boy an embodiment of a generalized image of all Sudanese boys who were Lost, Boys. The same idea is expressed by the last name the boy was bestowed by a girl, Sleeper was the name he got as she saw him suffering, exhausted, lying on the ground, conjuring his mother and wishing to die as he said that he needed to clear [his] mind of all thoughts, all visions, and concentrate on passing on (Eggers 324). However, the girl helped him to get up mentioning that the boy bore a great resemblance to her dead brother and this is also the evidence for the generalized character of the protagonist as the bearer of common Sudanese grief (Eggers 325). This pattern of the use of the common name can be observed with other characters too, as in the case with Quiet Baby and Royal Girls that contribute to the expression of the theme.

The plot of the story and the style of narration also make a great contribution to the development and expression of the theme of individual suffering as the means of the embodiment of suffering of a great number of people. The significant thing pertaining to the novel that is worth mentioning is that it covers the cases of violence and humiliation that take place not only in Sudan but in the USA, Atlanta, the place the refugee finally reaches in search of homes, families, college, the ability to send money home, advanced degrees, and finally some influence (Eggers 13). Strange as it may seem, the narration starts with the description of violence and humiliation of the protagonist that took place not in his native land but in America, the country he calls a miserable and glorious place (Eggers 315). The beginning of the book is symbolic as it establishes a connection between the past and the present, Sudan and America united by the theme of suffering.

As for the role of the plot for the development of the analyzed theme, the great significance of flashbacks, the memories from the past full of dangers, lions, bombings, hunger, crocodiles, death of friends and relatives is unquestionable. The narration shifts back and forces creating prevalence of sufferings and irony of the situation: escape from the native hell to appear in an unjust foreign land where a person can be attacked in his own apartment when he has no reason to answer the door and the only valuable possession he has is a mattress he sleeps on and still some people dare to take it from him (Eggers 11).

As for the style of the novel, some more details deserve mentioning, such as the use of the legend told by the boys father, Deng Arou that became the source of the title of the book. The legend said that God offered mankind a choice between the cattle and the unknown What (Eggers 63) and if the Dinka chose the cattle, other people chose the What that brought suffering and war to a peaceful land. The author does not offer a direct explanation of the essence of the What but it can be supposed that it is violence and suffering begotten by people.

Drawing a conclusion, it is possible to state that the theme of individual pain and grief as the presentation of the suffering of all people is central in the novel What is What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng. The disclosure of the theme is masterfully done by the formal and official author of the book, Dave Eggers, however, he speaks on behalf of the protagonist, Achak Deng, and the synthesis of the authentic story of Sudanese grief and genuine feelings and memories shared by the protagonist with the readers is possible due to Eggers talent. An apt choice of the genre of the book, the structure of the plot, the choice of characters, and the symbolism of the narration enable a reader to disclose the theme of personal suffering as the embodiment of suffering of all people.

Works Cited

Durham, NC. Incoming Freshmen to Read Dave Eggers What Is What. 2008. Web.

Eggers, Dave. What Is What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng. San Francisco: McSweeneys, 2006.

Prose, Francine. The Lost Boy. The New York Times. 2006. Web.

Siegel, Lee. The Niceness Racket. 2007. Web.

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Valentino Achak Deng. What Is What Novel by Dave Eggers

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