The title, “Good Neighbors”, is used ironically as none of the neighbors are truly genuine. Although some of them appear to be authentic at first glance, upon further investigation, there is a flaw pushing all of them to be deceitful, rude, or mocking. Although, in the end, Franzen isn’t just writing a story about jealous neighbors who get themselves mixed up into drama. He is making a point that even in polite and close nit societies; human nature makes it almost inevitable for people to compare themselves to each other, thus leading to an intrusion of privacy as there is a need to rebuild one’s own self esteem. Through analyzing each of the main characters, it’s easy to reveal what makes them so unreliable. Seth Paulson appears to have only
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The root of that want to work and earn money though, is that he despises the idea of authority. He shows that he doesn’t respect Walter’s authority and, therefore, moving to Carol’s house is the best move that he can make. He is suddenly in a house where he is in charge of himself, is the smartest, and also has his girlfriend there with him. He proves himself to be conniving and devious in the past: “he perfected a highly annoying smile of condescension when faced with toys and games that other boys owned but Patty and Walter refused to buy him. To extinguish that smile, his friends insisted on sharing what they had,” (Franzen 7). Inevitably, Carol is sucked into Joey’s mind games and blinded by Patty’s fits of rage that then cause a distorted view of reality. In the end, she is housing Patty and Walter’s son without their permission. Connie Monaghan is found in a very similar situation to Carol. Clearly, from early on in the story, Connie is so smitten by Joey that she will do anything for him. She goes into business selling watches at her private school through a loophole in the rules with the implication that her “profit” in this deal is to get sex. She plays a supporting role for Joey in this story and just emphasizes his manipulative nature as he drags her along behind him. For this reason, Connie and her mother, Carol, aren’t genuine in their actions as they are being influenced as to what they should
The root of that want to work and earn money though, is that he despises the idea of authority. He shows that he doesn’t respect Walter’s authority and, therefore, moving to Carol’s house is the best move that he can make. He is suddenly in a house where he is in charge of himself, is the smartest, and also has his girlfriend there with him. He proves himself to be conniving and devious in the past: “he perfected a highly annoying smile of condescension when faced with toys and games that other boys owned but Patty and Walter refused to buy him. To extinguish that smile, his friends insisted on sharing what they had,” (Franzen 7). Inevitably, Carol is sucked into Joey’s mind games and blinded by Patty’s fits of rage that then cause a distorted view of reality. In the end, she is housing Patty and Walter’s son without their permission. Connie Monaghan is found in a very similar situation to Carol. Clearly, from early on in the story, Connie is so smitten by Joey that she will do anything for him. She goes into business selling watches at her private school through a loophole in the rules with the implication that her “profit” in this deal is to get sex. She plays a supporting role for Joey in this story and just emphasizes his manipulative nature as he drags her along behind him. For this reason, Connie and her mother, Carol, aren’t genuine in their actions as they are being influenced as to what they should