Analyzing Passenger Stories: Goon Squad

A Visit From the Goon Squad is quite a step away from traditional school readings. Amidst a curriculum of age old texts with little relevance to adolescents, Goon Squad provides a pleasant contrast, a story meant to be read for its content, not to be able to say that you read it (a la Shakespeare). As a postmodern novel, the book presents its content in an unconventional manner. One of the most prominent instances of this, so far, has been the way in which Rhea told of her evening with Lou and Jocelyn, from a viewpoint known as a "passenger."

A passenger story is a concept that is new to me; I've been exposed to 3rd person (limited and omniscient) and 1st person, but a passenger story is an odd subcategory. It relies not so  much on the way the story is told as it does the position of the teller. For Rhea's story, she is certainly a passenger. The whole night out, from the moment they join Lou for dinner until she reestablishes herself as a sole individual at Lou's apartment, Rhea is not in control. She flows through the night, following Jocelyn's lead, whether in simply joining her and Lou for dinner or snorting cocaine in the bathroom. She seems spineless, except on two occasions where a sense of self appears, a resurfacing of suppressed identity.

The first instance of Rhea breaking her role as a passenger is when she is repulsed by Lou at the concert. Actually, Jocelyn and Lou are equally repulsive, as Jocelyn blows Lou in public with no regard for self respect of decency. Rhea is still no doubt a passenger, but she takes a step out of the car to catch a breath, in extension of the metaphor. Until that point, she had not objected to the turn of events. Use of serious drugs didn't bother her, being objectified by Lou as she hung under his arm didn't bother her, yet this incident is. As disgusting as it may seem, perhaps Rhea finally has her own thoughts because this is an activity that Lou and Jocelyn exclude her from; she temporarily leaves the passenger seat not by choice but because Lou and Jocelyn leave no room for Rhea in this situation.

Rhea's exit from the passenger seat is brought by similar circumstances. Once again, Lou and Jocelyn retreat to have sex, abandoning Rhea in Lou's apartment with her friends. Rhea fully steps back this time; she does not find herself under Lou and Jocelyn's spell again. After hearing Bennie playing "The Passenger," Rhea seems to realize that she had, in fact, played the role that Iggy Pop described. 

The passenger story as literally told through "The Passenger" is much more straight forward than those of real life, such as Rhea's. Instead of total submission, Rhea finds herself drawn back to reality. The passenger story provides a story telling vessel which can also act as a measure of ones morality, as used in this story.