Summary Of Georges Perec's Things

“Blot of Poverty on the Great Sea of Plenty”
C. Wright Mills and American sociologist presents the idea of the ‘Sociological Imagination’, a quality of mind that allows you to put actions and events in perspective. The idea that the individual can understand his own experience (biography) and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his period (history), that he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his circumstances. In Georges Perec’s Things: A story of the Sixties, Sylvie and Jerome are able to locate themselves within their period, however they fail to understand their own experience. They try to rewrite their biographies in an attempt to fool themselves into thinking they will increase their chances of becoming rich and successful. But with the sociological imagination in effect, …show more content…
A world with elements that were never discovered. But this world always existed, where were they? They have transformed and rewritten their identities to appear as new, thus they are new to this world. Through this new impression, they are reborn. Like a baby, the images, smells, tastes they are coming across are overwhelming. This feeling of being overwhelmed with “everything [being] new” is conveyed in the passage. There’s a concentration of their different sense. They “paid attention”, “noticed”, and “mused” similar to a child in a new place. This new identity seems so great that they were confused “by having spent so long in ignorance”. Thus making the claim that the life they “spent so long in” before was nothing but a place of ignorance that promoted sadness and suffocation. And now they are able to be happy and enthusiastic, they are able to live and breathe, they are able to see the ‘real’ colors of the world the by embracing the “right” way of living. However, this exuberant way of living landed them where they