"Forever Overhead" by DFW

"Forever Overhead" by DFW is a short story written about a young boy's thirteenth birthday party at the pool. Throughout the story DFW uses great imagery to help the reader paint a picture of not only what this day looked liked, but also of what was going on inside the boy's mind. DFW uses lots of metaphors and personification when describing objects in the story. An example of a metaphor DFW used is found when he describes the mountains as looking like an EKG. One example of personification that was used by DFW was when he talked about how the water looked immediately after someone had just jumped in.


         "Against the red their sharp connected tops form a spiked line, an EKG of the dying day."


   "Then blue clean comes up in the middle of the white and spreads like pudding, making it all new."


While reading "Forever Overhead", I was continuously wondering what was going to happen. I thought the whole time that the boy wouldn't be able to jump off at the end of the story. This sense of "not-knowing" is what kept me wanting to read more and more. Donald Barthelme even says in "Not Knowing" that without not-knowing the story is not as effective.

"The not-knowing is crucial to art, is what permits art to be made. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention." (pg. 12)

In "the Paris Review" about Mary Karr, Mary Karr is interviewed by Amanda Fortini. Karr was asked how she was able to capture what it was like to be a child in The Liars Club. She responded by saying that childhood was terrifying to her, and that children have no control. This is clearly shown in DFW's "Forever Overhead" when DFW compares the diving board to a machine. DFW constantly calls the diving board "the machine", and says that the machine does not go in reverse, which implies that the boy has no control over whether he has to jump or not once he starts up the ladder.

DFW was definitely successful in creating an image in my mind of the story. Not only was I able to picture the scene the boy was in, but I was also able to relate and understand what the young boy was thinking. The way in which DFW not only used vivid language to describe every detail in the story, but also compare almost everything in the story to something else using metaphors and personification really helped make the story enjoyable for the reader.