The Mask of Uniformity in The Goon Squad

Cliques are very prominent in today’s schools and society. Webster’s dictionary defines a clique as “small groups of people who spend time together and who are not friendly to other people.” In Jennifer Egan’s novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, she consistently addresses different cliques. However, she doesn’t reference them as cliques, but as uniforms. A few of these uniforms are Alice’s sister’s green school uniform, the punk look, the typical cholo look and the JV soccer team uniform. In Egan’s novel, all of these uniforms represent stereotypes and “masks” of the people wearing them. The uniforms define the characters and make them who they are.

In the chapter entitled Ask Me If I Care, the narrator Rhea struggles to identify as a punk. The biggest problem for her is her freckles. In her opinion, punks don’t have freckles; they aren’t a part of the stereotypes (Egan 43). Punks should have dark hair, mohawks, dog collars, ripped clothes and dyed hair. Based on this definition, neither Rhea nor her friend Alice is a true punk. Rhea says that Alice has drippy eye makeup, wears ripped jeans and has long blonde hair. By the definition of punk, Alice isn’t a punk either due to her long blonde hair. Rhea references a song entitled The Passenger sung by punk artist, Iggy Pop. She lives her life feeling unwanted and observes her group of friends around her. Throughout the chapter she debates whether punk is real or if it is simply an idea or a concept that people try to obtain. In her opinion, only Scotty is a true punk. His personality, actions and attitude are the closest to being a true punk. 

The cholos wear a mask based around the tough guy, West Side Story look. Their greased back black hair, leather coats and clicky shoes (42). It’s how they identify as a group and differentiate themselves from others. 

The JV soccer team moves and works together as a unit. Once they heard Scotty’s music, they all drifted up into the stands to listen. They represent the fans of punk music. They are the type of people who don’t commit to the punk scene, but they enjoy the music.

The green plaid uniforms are used to represent the wealthy and a shift in personalities. Alice’s sisters all attend the all girls’ school Alice used to go to. They wear green plaid uniforms. Jocelyn says that rich children are always blonde (40). Therefore, the green plaid uniforms are a representation of the wealthy. Alice used to be one of those innocent little girls wearing the green plaid uniforms. Her identity was based on those uniforms but eventually she shifted her identity to the punk scene. All of these uniforms are masks that the characters wear to identify with not only themselves, but as a group. Their social interactions and friendships are based around what mask they wear and how they identify themselves.