In Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City the narrator acts like an immature.
The narrator does way too much partying, has .
little work ethic and his life is spiraling in a negative direction. However, towards .
the end of the novel there seems to be an apparent growth in the narrator's character.
This growth is very important and only developed for several significant reasons.
The narrator acts like an immature fool throughout most of the novel. After .
his wife Amanda left him and ran away to Paris, the narrator seems to have fallen into a .
depression. He goes out basically every night of the week with his friend Tad Allagash .
and snorts lines of cocaine in shady and run down New York City clubs. Even if he has .
work the next morning, the narrator is out until the late hours of the night getting high. .
His drug problem is apparent and portrays his need for an outlet in life. The narrator .
works in The Department of Factual Verification for a magazine company. He hates his .
job and dreams of being a fiction writer, but doesn't have the work ethic for any job. He .
comes late to work everyday and often times doesn't get the necessary work done. He .
eventually is fired by the company and left unemployed. The narrator is basically a mess .
in life. He viewed life in a negative manner and the way he was going, he wouldn't have .
lasted much longer without a change.
By the end of the novel, the narrator's character has an apparent growth. When.
he sees Amanda at a party with a "dial a hunk" and she tells him it's her fiance, the .
narrator gets a kick out of it. After realizing that Amanda is just as pathetic as him,.
the narrator seems to get over her. This is very important step in the narrator's life .
because Amanda was the one in his head who was holding him back from progressing .
on in life. Without thoughts of Amanda, the narrator can start a whole new life. At the .
end of the story, the narrator finally starts to talk about his mother's death.
