95 pages • 3 hours read
David Foster WallaceInfinite Jest
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Entertainment
The Entertainment is the last film made by James Incandenza before his suicide. The film unites the disparate narrative threads of the novel: The Wheelchair Assassins hope to use it to achieve Quebecois independence; Joelle starred in the film; and Hal and the Incandenza family are related to the director but seemingly unaware of the film’s destructive power. Though the film may be titled either Infinite Jest (V) or Infinite Jest (VI), most characters simply refer to it as the Entertainment. In this respect, the given title embodies the film’s symbolic power. The film is suggested to be the logical, horrifying point of conclusion for media as portrayed in the novel. The Entertainment is not just a film; it represents all entertainment. As such, it possesses an intoxicating power. Anyone who watches the film becomes so engrossed in it that they become hollow shells of their former selves whose only interest is being able to watch the film again. People watch the film on repeat until they die, or they are willing to harm themselves to be allowed to watch it again. The Entertainment begins to spread across the country, becoming a national emergency that warrants government attention. The intoxicating power of the Entertainment is a potent symbol of the destructive, addictive qualities of contemporary entertainment.
The Wheelchair Assassins recognize the immense power of the film, and they are willing to kidnap and kill anyone in their relentless pursuit of the master copy. At the same time, Hugh Steeply represents the government’s attempts to slow the distribution of the film. Caught in the middle is Marathe, who may be on the cusp of betraying the Wheelchair Assassins or may finally decide to commit to their plan for Quebecois independence. That so many people are invested in finding the film, combined with their willingness to commit violence or betray their most deeply-held beliefs, shows the importance of the Entertainment.
The irony of the Entertainment as an important symbol is that the people who made it are very dismissive of its quality. James Incandenza killed himself without knowing the true power of what he created. He was struggling with personal problems, and, until his suicide, he was considered to be an unimportant and relatively untalented film director. Joelle starred in the film, but her descriptions of her role in the film are negative; she is genuinely surprised that one of James’s films could actually be so important to so many people. Even the film student Molly Notkin suggests that the film is “little more than the thinly veiled cries of a man at the very terminus of his existential tether” (789). To those involved, the film symbolizes the faltering attempts of a man trying to navigate the dangers of addiction and to find meaning in his life by experimenting with a media he has never quite mastered. Whereas other people see the innate power of the Entertainment in terms of its use as a weapon, those involved in its creation can only evaluate the film in terms of its limitations as art.
The Veil
Joelle Van Dyne wears a veil that keeps her face covered at all times. She explains to Don Gately that she is a part of the Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed (U.H.I.D.), a group of people who consider themselves to be so ugly that they hide their faces from the rest of the world. However, Joelle’s veil is invested with an innate ambiguity. Not only does the veil hide her face from the world, but it also obfuscates her past. Joelle jokes that she wears a veil because she is so beautiful that she cannot exist in the society; her beauty is too distracting. Though Joelle is typically modest to the point of self-deprecation, this description matches Orin’s description of her as the most beautiful woman in the world.
At other times, however, people discuss Joelle’s past and mention an incident with a jar of acid that may have left Joelle terribly disfigured. Neither story is explicitly false, and Joelle’s veil hides the truth about her face from the world. In this sense, the veil is a metaphor for the impossibility of knowing anything with certainty. Whether Joelle is beautiful or scarred is hidden by the veil, to the point that the veil prompts the audience to wonder about the nature of beauty and whether Joelle should be considered any less beautiful if she is, or is not, scarred, as she remains the same person. The blurred reality of the veil masks the truth about Joelle’s face in a way that forces the other characters and the audience to interrogate their preconceptions about beauty, scars, and truth.
To Joelle, the veil is also an important symbol of the way society expresses shame. She tells Don that she does not wear the veil because she is ashamed of her face. Instead, she is ashamed of the shame that she feels. She feels society watching her and she is ashamed of this, so she wears the veil to “erase [her] difference” (534) from the people who stare at her incessantly. For Joelle, the veil is a physical symbol of her desire to be unseen by a society that observes and judges everything she does.
The Great Concavity
The Great Concavity is a geographical area located near New England. In Infinite Jest, this area has been selected as the dumping ground for the vast amounts of toxic waste that the United States of America produces each year. The area can no longer sustain human life, so all previous residents were forced to move when the decision was taken to dump the toxic waste in this place, rather than follow through on the initial plan to shoot the waste into space. However, despite being the dumping ground for American waste, the area is now technically Canadian territory. The Great Concavity was forced on the Canadians when the Organization of North American Nations was formed. The Great Concavity has a number of symbolic purposes in the novel. The decision to dump toxic waste in a populated region due to the failure of other plans is a metaphor for the characters’ unwillingness to confront their problems. Rather than deal with the toxic waste in a sustainable, healthy way—or find some way not to produce toxic waste—the government simply dumps the waste in an area and then cedes responsibility to Canada. The government seeks instant gratification instead of dealing with a long-term plan, so it finds a quick-fix solution that leads to more problems in the future—just like the characters’ failure to deal with their addictions or issues will inevitably cause them to suffer at some later date.
The existence of the Great Concavity also reminds the audience of the importance of subjectivity. To the Canadians, the Great Concavity is known as the Great Convexity. Not only does this change in name illustrate that the matter looks very different from the Canadian perspective, but it provides a justification for the actions of the Wheelchair Assassins. The Wheelchair Assassins want independence for Quebec partly because of the problems caused by the Great Convexity. Marathe’s wife was born without a skull due to her close proximity to the toxicity of the Great Concavity. The Wheelchair Assassins are not just mindless terrorists; they are trying to deal with a genuine problem in a fight against an uncaring, hostile society. The Great Concavity symbolizes the way in which a terrorist group can be presented as a sympathetic organization. Their methods may be violent and they may seek to cause harm, but the Wheelchair Assassins can point to the Great Concavity as a giant, toxic symbol of everything they are fighting against.
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