The occurence of power in A Visit From The Goon Squad

I chose to track the word ‘power’ in A Visit from the Goon Squad, which appears 12 times throughout the novel. Power seems to occur in two capacities: the power granted by one’s status or possessions, and the power granted by one’s relationships. In regards to the former, Lou and Benny have power because of their success in the music business, and Sasha has power from the objects that she’s stolen from other people. In regards to the latter, Lulu has power because of her deft manipulation of her mother and classmates, Bennie has a second kind of power over Stephanie because of her love for him, and Rolph has power because of his ability to understand his father. Kitty has and loses power because of her relationships – initially, she is a powerful woman because so many people feel connected to her; later, she loses that power because she destroys those relationships. In the final chapter, Alex feels “a rush of power” when he realizes how far his ability to influence people has spread (330).

Both kinds of power are useful to the characters, and enable them to do things they might not be able to otherwise. For example, if Bennie weren’t a powerful music executive at the time of his habit of imbibing gold flakes, he wouldn’t have been able to fund the habit. However, when the two different kinds of power come into conflict, it is the power of relationships that trumps the power of status. Scotty’s power to wish Bennie a good life despite their mutual animosity overcomes Bennie’s power due to being a big music producer, “as if some balance had tipped in the room and all of Bennie’s power […] suddenly belonged to me [Scotty]” (103). Earlier on, Albert was able to negate Lou’s power (of a kind similar to Bennie’s) by ignoring him. The refusal to grant Lou any interpersonal power successfully overrode Lou’s power so much so that Mindy, who spends a page considering Lou’s power, even sleeps with him despite being on vacation with Lou. Both of these cases prove that the power of relationships trumps any other powers a character might be in possession of.

This emphasis of interpersonal power reinforces the theme of humanity’s need for connection that appears throughout the novel.