As I have been reading the novel, What is the What by Dave Eggers, some interesting things have surfaced about the way the book is written and published. These ideas of racism the style of which the book is written really draw in the reader, being myself.

Something I noticed right away was the racism that was still present and the clear separation of racial groups in america such as the “black” or “caucasian” and the way that it is stressed even in the first couple chapters of the book. When Achak, the main character, voluntarily lets some robbers into his house because at first he doesn’t understand what is taking place and he just trying to be nice, he gets attacked by an african american man and finds himself on the ground in pain. Throughout his cries and pleas for help, he calls the man and woman in his house “african american” and in respect, the man calls him “Africa” in return. There seems to be no interest in further learning and they respectively give each other these names.

When he wakes up again later on that night or the next day, he finds himself on the floor of his living room still but this time, the two robbers are gone and now there is a young boy who seems to have some sort of connection to the robbers sitting in his kitchen watching tv. Achak proceeds to call this young man, “TV boy,” and even after finding out his name was Michael, he still proceeds to call him TV boy for a while. At this point, it is not just Achak who is acting in disrespect towards the boy, but also the young boy who seems to have no interest in Achak whatsoever. He decides to drop a phonebook on him to try and get him to be quiet and also puts chairs around him and covers him in blankets so he does not have to hear from Achak or look at him. This is all very interesting because throughout all of this, TV boy does not say a word to Achak. I see it as a sort of racism that both characters feel towards each other and have no interest in trying to fix.

Another the way in which the book was written by always targeting a certain audience. Throughout the novel, Achak tells a lot of silent stories to people that he is upset at or people that has wronged him. He did this by silently murmuring stories of his past life in Africa and the struggles that he faced, too quiet that the people they where intended for could not hear him. This gave him a sense of relief somewhat because by telling these stories, he helps himself to see that he has really had it worst before. The whole time that he is being robbed and is stuck in the house with TV boy, he is telling these stories of the encounters he faced in Africa. These silent stories acted as a sort of relief for him and I think, helped him get through all this hard times that he did have to face in America.

All of these silent stories that he told also played as a sort of flashback to his life in Africa. Everything that he talks about in these stories seems to be somehow related to what he is facing at the time of the stories and is always comparing them. Through the tone of racism set at the start at the book, and Achak’s constant flashbacks to his life in Africa, it really sets an interesting read to the audience. For me personally, the way in which the book was written really tied me in and kept me interested to keep reading because I always wanted to know more.