Analysis of Eleanor Rigby :: Douglas Coupland

Eleanor Rigby is a story about a 30-something female who lives her lifetime with a very conscious and accepting feeling towards to her complete loneliness. She never goes out beyond her daily work experience, which she begins by counting down to her predicted accompaniment of death. This seemingly perfect mirage of a life is broken when Liz receives a phone call from the hospital saying that she best come to the E.R. As she arrives she meets a picturesque young man who turns out to be her son Jeremy, who she gave up after a drunken one-night-stand in the 10th grade on a drill sponsored trip to rome. Soon after being reunited with her son the doctors tell her that he has m.s. and that he doesnt have much time to life. Liz takes him home and begins to care for him, marking an fabulous change in her life. As Jeremys condition declines, Lizs attitude towards life progresses, and soon she finds herself in a journey to find Jeremys father, and to find veridical meaning in life.Eleano r Rigby starts out slowly and in many instances you may be tempted to put down the book, so one may be able to shut outstrip themselves with Liz Dunn?s seemingly incessant whining. Yet as the novel progresses it is impossible not to feel compelled by the read. Coupland incorporates dark humor that drips off of every knave leaving the reader satisfied. At times its hard not to read with a smirk on ones face. Yet the reality of the story is so real and just that the reader will find their minds wandering towards thoughts of the Liz in their life, or the liz in themselves. The theme is that the prescient knowledge of death exists not to discourage barely to motivate one to acknowledge the shortness of life and to exist with the greatness any individual possesses. This is supported throughout the novel by many moments surface with loneliness and sorrow. and these moments seem to permeate all of what occurs. Liz seems to live off of this feeling of intense solitude and use it as an e xcuse to be mediocre in life. Only when Jeremy is introduced into her life does she begin to take on roles she should have been motivated to do so earlier, and only when his imminent death becomes a pressing agentive role does she realize why he is not a miserable person.