Symbolism In The Spectacular Now, By Tim Tharp

In the novel, “The Spectacular Now” the author Tim Tharp uses symbolism through inanimate objects including a purple coat, a flask, and suits to develop various themes such as respect and reputation, drugs and alcohol, and youth. Set in modern day Oklahoma, High school senior Sutter Keely is charming, kind-hearted, self-possessed, and a budding alcoholic. He can be described as being the life of the party and he loves his job at a men's clothing store. After a night of hard-partying and being dumped by his girlfriend, Sutter wakes up on a lawn with Aimee Finecky, his bookish and unpopular classmate, hovering over him. While Aimee has dreams and plans of a future, Sutter lives in the impressive delusion of a spectacular now and has no plans …show more content…
When Sutter first begins to hang out with Aimee, he dislikes her purple coat and even describes it as a "huge, down-filled purple monster that makes her look like a giant billiard ball.” Sutter seems to believe that this coat of hers will make it difficult for him to introduce her to any of the guys at a party they’re attending. Later on during the night, Sutter tries to give Aimee a boost of confidence, but her nerdy coat interferes. This can be shown in the lines, "I reach up to give the back of her neck a little squeeze, but her giant puffy collar gets in the way.” It’s as if the coat is functioning as a physical barrier between the two of them. The purple coat also prevents Sutter from seeing Aimee as she really is and from realizing that he's starting to like her a lot. Therefore, this puffy purple coat of Aimee’s represents her reputation of being a quiet, unconfident nerd and that makes her prone to being made fun of. The respect you recieve in this novel seems to depend on what your reputation is. Since Aimee is known as being a nerd, this causes her to receive a small amount of respect and is instead teased often. As the novel progresses and Aimee’s relationship with Sutter deepens, she stops wearing the purple coat and tells Sutter, it’s “in the back of the closet now.” Aimee also is more confident and has broken out of her shell at this point in the story. Without …show more content…
Sutter can Throughout the novel, Sutter mentions his flask a lot because he always has it with him. Several examples of Sutter mentioning his flask include, “"I offer him a hit off the flask," "I […] carouse around up and down the sidewalks with what's left in my flask," and, "Good thing I have the trusty flask." Sutter referring to his flask as being "trusty" the way you'd normally refer to a friend is a big warning sign. Because he doesn't have a support system of humans, he uses his flask as a support system instead. For Sutter, the flask is a comforting presence while in reality it shows that he lacks sustainable human relationships. Due to Aimee witnessing Sutter’s dependence on his flask from him drinking out of it all of the time, she realizes it’s great importance to him. This causes Aimee to try to get closer to him through drinking his flask by "surprisingly, she asks if she can try a little." Aimee feels that by sharing something of such great importance to Sutter, even if it’s whiskey, it will connect her to him in a new way. At one point in the story, Sutter even gifts Aimee with her very own flask. He tells her, “It's just like mine… And you'll notice it's already full too." This displays that Sutter wants Aimee to have the same constant companionship