Anger in A Visit from the Goon Squad

In Jennifer Egan’s novel A Visit From the Good Squad, anger is described as “a deep, sickening rage” (78) that “fills up [one’s] head sometimes and rubs out [one’s] thoughts like chalk” (89), “squeezes and mashes [one] from inside” (90), and is “so violent it make[s] [one] dizzy” (101). Anger is portrayed as a powerful emotion that the well-adjusted can learn to overcome, an emotion that the broken characters feel during some of their darkest or unfamiliar times.

Characters who are unfamiliar with their surroundings and the culture around them feel anger. When Sasha and Alex are approached by the woman whose wallet Sasha had stolen, Alex became very angry that people were not doing more to help her find it, and “the anger made him recognizable in a way that an hour of aimless chatter (mostly, hers it was true) had not: he was new to New York” (10). In this scene, Alex, being new to New York, is not yet adjusted to the city, a city where people did not really care about others. He is portrayed as angry because he is unadjusted to this environment, and because he is in an unfamiliar situation.

In addition to characters who are unfamiliar with their surroundings, characters who are at a low point in life feel anger. When Sasha states the obvious fact that the Stop/Go sisters were awful, Bennie feels a gust of anger at Sasha that pass[es] a few seconds later, leaving odd relief” (33). At this point in the novel, Bennie is at a low point in his life. He is divorced; he feels disconnected from his son; and his company is not doing well. He realizes that the band is awful, but does not want to admit it because he needs them to be good. When Sasha’s comment forces him to confront the fact that the band is bad, he becomes angry. Being in a dark place in life, Bennie is susceptible to feeling anger.

Similarly to being at a low point in life, characters who are vulnerable because they are not well-adjusted to their life circumstances feel anger. When Rolph thinks that Mindy is being rude to Albert, he becomes angry, so angry that he “is surprised by how angry he is” (74). In this chapter, Rolph basically idolizes Mindy because he misses his mother at home. He even “imagine[s] Mindy tucking him into bed, her arm around him again as it was in the jeep” (74). Of all of the characters, Rolph is arguably the most poorly adjusted. Years after this scene, he commits suicide. He struggles with the divorce of his parents, and becomes infuriated “when he and Charlie come back from a riotous weekend around their father’s pool…to find their mother alone in her bungalow” (78-79). In Rolph’s vulnerable state, he, like Bennie, is susceptible to feeling anger.

In “A Visit From the Good Squad,” being angry is portrayed as a very negative emotion, one that only broken, vulnerable, unadjusted people feel.