Bright Lights, Big City Response

The book is in many ways a reflection of the time period it was produced in, this is mainly due to the way McInerney tells the story. McInerney uses elements of modernism, especially stream of consciousness that adds to the story being used as a product of the time. McInerney also uses references to the drug culture and emphasizes issues surrounding the time, and finally the setting adds to the novels importance to the future of novel writing.

The Novel is significant because McInerney uses elements of modernism to tell the story, one way being through stream of consciousness. Because the novel is told in the second person much of the novel consists of the reader being told the story through one person’s point of view and essentially in their shoes, which means that, we get their stream of consciousness. When the narrator in the novel talks about different issues he rambles on about his personal opinion on what has happened. An example is presented in the chapter the night shift. When asked a question by his brother the narrator answers simply, but then continues on thinking that “you have made such a point of not dwelling on the incidents associated with your mothers death…and in the end you have confused what she wanted with what Amanda wanted…you knew no reaction that satisfied both conditions (McInerney 161). The quote was actually a string of three separate paragraphs shortened down, all of them thoughts on the answer about a question posed to him. None of the information was said out loud, but instead was just his thoughts and consciousness. This element relates back to the novel being a product of its time because the stream of consciousness, unlike previous novels, gave us a glimpse into the point of view of a young person living in a suburban area, it also tainted people’s view of New York and life in big cities.

The setting in itself plays an important role in the way the story is told as it reflects one of the major themes of this time period and that was Wall Street. It also follows the scenes of the 1980’s, a man who lives in the biggest city, parties all night, and is in many cases stripped of his life. The setting, along with the choice of a young urban main character, reflects the new generation prevalent in the country at the time.

In the way that the author tells the story he emphasizes heavily on the drug culture that was a major theme of this period in history. The 1980’s, more than most other eras in history, saw an accumulated rise in the American drug culture. The novel focuses specifically on cocaine with the author using unusual terms such as Bolivian marching band to tell the reader when cocaine is being used. In books in previous eras the references to America’s drug culture was not used as heavily because it was not see as a problem. However, the author shows the growing drug culture as a major problem in America, something that was totally new to the American people. Bright Lights Big City played an important role in telling citizens the issues with the drug culture. The novel underlines how drugs had become an okay part of people’s life, but they are eventually one of the things that lead to the main characters downfall. The emphasis on drug culture has resulted in novels sensationalized during this time period, and at the same time in America the country was experiencing its first realization about the problems of drugs, bringing on the drug panic of the 1980’s. This was especially prevalent in the late 1980’s and 90’s, when nearly half of the population had used some type of drug over this time period with a third of people taking marijuana alone, thus breading an unhealthy environment.

            In summary, McInerney had an important effect on writing during the 1980’s causing a sensation in 1984. McInerney uses Modernism in the form of stream of consciousness, as well as the emphasis on drug culture to make his novel Bright Lights Big City a household name during its time after the books publication in 1984.

Work Cited:

McIerney, Jay. Bright Lights, Big City: A Novel. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1984. Print.