In Andrew Greer’s Less, Arthur struggles with his search for identity as it takes up a big part of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Arthur is staring at a broken clock in a hotel lobby, “Listen: you might hear anxiety ticking, ticking, ticking away as he stares at that clock, which unfortunately is not ticking itself” (9). Time has passed by him and he is waiting for something that may never happen. He feels like a failure, but throughout the book, he learns to re-evaluate his identity and self-worth. “Who the hell is Arthur Less?,” a question asked by a woman in the theater, is an important question as Arthur travels around the world to avoid a wedding trying to find himself and answer this question. After learning that his ex-boyfriend, Freddy, is about to get married, he decides to make a trip around the world rather than coming to terms with the fact that his ex-boyfriend has moved on. He also finds an excuse to miss the wedding, “he opened a drawer and pulled out a pile of other letters…Less sat there, with the window rattling from the workers’ din, and considered them” (18). He uses these writing events to book a trip around the world to avoid seeing Freddy and miss his 50th birthday. He also uses this trip as a cover to make it seem like he has his life together and has it all planned out when in reality, he is still struggling with his career and figuring out his life. Another big part of Less’ identity involves his wardrobe, as he wears this one blue suit so often that people are shocked to see him wearing something else. This item of clothing is a coping mechanism for Arthur, “without the suit, there is no Arthur Less” (23). It distracts him and is used to cover up parts of himself that he does not want others to see. He worries that without the blue suit, others will see him for who he really is and he does not want people to look any further than his external character and appearance and uses the blue suit as a cover to hide certain parts of himself and his life.
Your post reminded me of our discussions in class this week. Less has an identity crisis that continues through most of the book due to constantly thinking about his past relationships. In everything he does, he is in a constant state of worry rather than living in the moment. This is especially seen during his travels as he is in all of these amazing places, yet he always continues to doubt every decision he has made that lead him up to this point in his life.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter Italian, he gets in the car with a man who does not speak English, but has his name on a sign. He gets in the car to get to the hotel and during the ride he believes he is in the wrong car. He panics, “Less understands at last what is happening: he is in the wrong car (Greer, 81). “But is it obvious: having cleared the problems of travel, he let his guard slip, waved at the first sign resembling his name, and was whisked away to an unknown location” (Greer, 82). Once he arrives at the hotel he realizes that he is actually in the correct place. This is another perfect example of how Less is constantly doubting himself, even when he has no reason to.
Less overthinks all of his actions and leads him to doubting his self worth and defining himself by his mistakes throughout the novel.
I think you bring up some interesting points about Less' maturity, which I don't hesitate to use despite its social connotations. Less is very much childish in his refusal to accept the reality of life's rule, in his stubbornness and denial. He goes so far out of his way to avoid confronting an ex-lover—literally leaving the country to do so (Greer 18) — and I struggle to identify this behavior as anything other than childish. Less is a man who never learned to deal with unpleasant situations with any amount of grace or couth. But I think there's a very strong difference between childishness and innocence, though, and I do agree that his innocence is what endears people to him. Less expresses himself to others in a very pure way, as we see in his encounters described on pages 113-114. It is not childish of him to be soft or loving, and I’m honestly not sure I’d consider those things to be innocent either. Despite his pessimisms about love after many trials and tribulations, I think Less is, more than anything, a hopeless romantic. Despite all of the heartbreak, including Freddy (Greer 15), he hasn’t quite had that romanticism knocked out of him. And, of course, people love him for his ability to love.
ReplyDeleteYour post was interesting to me because I never thought about how Arthur Less runs from his problems and tries to find his identity throughout the story. Now that you brought it up, the common element throughout the story was the suit that Less was wearing. I did not think about how insecure and uncomfortable with himself he was and how afraid he was of growing up but this sense of normality made Arthur Less feel at home as he traveled the world. It is obvious that ““without the suit, there is no Arthur Less” (23). On the other hand, Less is constantly overthinking his place everywhere and is very anxious. Less had never dealt with his problems in a healthy way and finding temporary relief in traveling is only a distraction. He uses it as an excuse to miss the wedding but is also lying to Freddy to make it seem like he has bounced back and continued living without a second thought to Freddy.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Madison’s comment about why so many people are drawn to Less in the way that he attracts so many people. Because Less is so charming he is able to fill the hole in his heart that Freddy left behind as he travels the world to forget about him. I really liked the point that people love Less because of his ability to love (Cox).
I agree with this interpretation of Arthur Less because it shows the extremes Less goes to in order to not face any of his supposed "realities" that scare him or that he does not want to deal with. He not only figuratively, but quite literally, runs from his problems through his travels, being some of the most dedication I have ever heard of to avoid something. While I agree the trips could have been a mechanism to make it look like he has everything together, I think they also served as a temporary way to not have to worry about his identity. I think one of the things that stresses him out the most is he does not know who he is, and by traveling and keeping himself distracted, he does not have to think about it. However, in a way, these trips had the opposite effect in that they forced him to think about it, and I believe they allowed him to come to terms with his identity and discover who he truly was. I also think the utilization of the blue suit serves as an excellent example of him "hiding" from his problems. He ties his identity, which we claim he does not really know what it is, to this suit. I also think this suit serves as a barrier for him to find his true identity, as his "shell" of an identity is so closely associated with this suit. Therefore, when he gets himself a new suit towards the end of the book, it serves as a significant point in time where he is able to let his old, insecure, identity-less self go, and finally come to terms with who he is.
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