Anger/Angry

Anger/Angry

Throughout the novel it became more and more apparent that the feeling of “anger” or someone being “angry” was used to describe people almost at their breaking point. It was the most powerful feeling and was used only if someone was truly angry. Something else that caught my eye was the underuse of the word “anger.” It seems like authors sometimes take this word for granted, not using it to describe complete and utter anger, but instead using it when people are mad over things that do not necessarily make them “angry.” Egan chooses to use this word when people are truly fed up and no other words seem to express exactly how they feel at that moment. When Uncle Ted realizes that Sasha has stolen his wallet, the word “anger” never comes up, a feeling a reader might assume Ted would feel. The time when anger was used quite a bit was in the chapter with Dolly. When she was dealing with the General he used it quite a bit, mostly when Kitty lost all control and started shouting about what a terrible person he was. He feels like he lost his power in that situation, and that made him angry. Most other times anger is used when people feel a sense of being inferior to others, because the other person holds more power than them. Jules Jones uses it on page 176 when talking to Kitty. He says, “Well, I feel slopping within me a volatile stew of anger, fear, and lust: anger because this naïf has for reasons that are patently unjustifiable, far more power in the world than I will ever have…” He feels a sense of inferiority to her, and that makes him angry. The male characters in this story seem to have the hardest time with the loss of power and with the overcoming sense of anger that accompanies that loss of power. It also was a feeling that these characters would feel a lot. It seemed to be linked to their past; they would feel it because they realized they could never get passed their past.