"Forever Overhead" by DFW

"Forever Overhead" by DFW was an intricate and compelling composition. The most striking of its features, in my opinion, would be its use of language. DFW was careful to include not only descriptive words, but also diction that depicted the events in a new way. In doing so, DFW put many techniques to work. One of these is a technique we have discussed in class - the importance of detailing events for the reader. DFW did a very good job of this, as he didn't leave out a single aspect of his son's birthday, nor the changes he had undergone. Reading the composition made the reader feel like he or she was there at the birthday party and could comprehend the boy's thought process and perspective. Further, DFW implemented Karr's process of "capturing what it is like to be a child". As one reads "Forever Overhead", it is apparent that DFW successfully conveys the thoughts and actions of a child his son's age and the fact that he doesn't have control over what is happening (just as Karr explained). Additionally, DFW used Barthleme’s technique of messiness. Although DFW did not necessarily have messy writing, he did skip around some while detailing his son’s train of thought. He did so by distracting the boy and disrupting his train of thought. In my opinion, this did indeed show Barthleme’s messiness technique detailed starting on page 10 of the PDF. In conclusion, DFW implemented many different storytelling strategies in his work “Forever Overhead”.