His days seem slow and long, he is always thinking about their end, as apposed to the busy nightlife lead by extravagant Tad. In the daylight, our protagonist always prefers to be wearing sunglasses, hiding behind them from the unyieldingly bright city. The sidewalk sparkles cruelly.” He is more than unwilling to face the approaching dawn/sobriety throughout the opening chapter, seemingly only able to cope with the city when drunk or with cocaine. In chapter one, for example, his description of the morning is filled with negativity, “It is worse even than you expected. His protagonist appears to crave darkness, and night becomes an almost veil over reality which he seems terrified of facing. The difference between how the city is represented in terms of day and night is significant in McInerney’s novel. His lack of name throughout the novel makes it seem impersonal, despite his intimacy in revealing all thoughts and emotions felt to the reader, and infers a lack or loss of identity he could easily fade away into the crowded streets, just another New Yorker, making the city itself appear uncaring and swallowing. The use of second person narrative, specifically through the word “you” distances our protagonist from himself, making him seem alienated and alone despite being surrounded by the huge bustling city and it’s inhabitants. In Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City, the reader follows an unnamed protagonist through his tumultuous daily life living in New York City.
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