Brightness Falls
Jay McInerney's novel Brightness Falls portrays the life of a young middle class couple in pursuit of attaining the American dream in urban America in the 1980's. The novel follows the couple, Russell and Corrine Calloway, as well as their friends in their middle and upper class social circles, as they struggle with such social issues as adultery, drug addiction, ambition, corruption, and failure. McInerney uses literary elements such as setting to develop the novel's plot and to portray an accurate social satire on middle and upper class America. The most prominent settings used to depict character conflict and development, moods, and themes are New York, St. Maarten, and the Hamptons. Each of these settings helps define thematic topics and examines the development of each character in relation to their environment. The main setting in Brightness Falls is New York City, where the Calloways live in their small, but fashionable one bedroom apartment. In New York, Corrine works as a stock broker on Wall Street, while Russell works as a publisher for Corbin and Dern. Russell and Corrine are viewed by their friends as the impenetrable golden couple, who's love would never die. However, as the novel progresses th
Bernie Melman in this novel is equivalent to Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby, he is someone the reader knows is up to no good and who one can deduce is affiliated with corruption, but the reader doesn't know exactly what illegal activities he is connected with. Russell's ambition to takeover the company also led to the neglect of his wife, who was battling with anorexia and a miscarriage, which eventually led to their separation. He had lost hope and felt that he was living for nothing but his death, which caused him to no longer hold his life as valuable. The city also breeds ambition through any means necessary as we see when Russell begins to work with Trina Cox and Bernard Melman in the takeover. Considering that the upper class society is supposed to be a dignified group, it seems ironic that many of the men of that social standing want to pursue a relationship with Corrine even though they know she is married to Russell. The novels also both provide commentary on the corruption of ambition and society. " Corrine and Russell had been married for five years. Russell gets so caught up in living the life of someone rich and famous that he overlooks the fact that he is neither rich nor famous. The setting of the Hamptons also serves as a microcosm to upper class and aristocratic society. Maarten also symbolize the relationship between Russell and Corrine. Russell also put himself in a position of false hope pertaining to his financial situation as well, because he really didn't have the money to live this lifestyle. This passage also foreshadows future conflicts in the novel such as the downfall of the Calloway's marriage and other aspects of corruption that come as a result of city life. Maarten, and the Hamptons all aid in the depiction of the character development of Russell, Corrine, Jeff, and others.
Common topics in this essay:
Corbin Dern,
York City,
Hamptons Russell,
Russell Corrine,
Corrine Jeff's,
St Maarten,
Maarten Calloway's,
Sometimes I'm,
Corrine Russell,
Corrine Calloway,
st maarten,
upper class,
life york,
russell corrine,
york city,
brightness falls,
russell begins,
corbin dern,
life york city,
moral degeneration,
york st,
york st maarten,
middle upper class,
relationship russell corrine,
corbin dern ultimately,
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