E.T.A Mirrors AA

Throughout Infinite Jest, the reader examines characters through the lens of Enfield Academy and Alcoholics Anonymous. The two work simultaneously to illuminate the relationship between the individual and society, as David Foster Wallace switches back and forth between Gately and Hal and other minor characters from both Enfield Academy and Ennet House. David Foster Wallace created these two characters, one whose life is spiraling towards rock bottom—Hal, and one who has already hit rock bottom—Gately, to show how these two institutions work from an insider point of view. As the novel progresses these two character’s story lines begin to reflect each other as DFW weaves a web of addiction and self-examination.

Both E.T.A and AA are filled with clichés and brainwashing. AA offers such slogans as, “One day at a time. Easy does it. First things first” (270). E.T.A’s deLint had, WINNERS NEVER HAVE TO QUIT, hung in the boy’s locker room (1003). Schacht understands “Schititt’s philosophical stance is that to win enough of the time to be considered successful you have to both care a great deal about it and also not care about it at all” (269). Basically complete all the training methods we have taught you, and when it comes time to play rely on those instincts. Care, but don’t know you are caring—become a machine. Schacht’s understanding continues with "Competitive tennis is largely mental, once you're at a certain plateau of skill and conditioning. Schtitt'd say spiritual instead of mental, but as far as Schacht can see it's the same thing” (269). Both insitutions preach the idea of obtaining a realization outside one’s self in order to overcome whatever obstacle one faces, whether that obstacle is tennis or addiction. At E.T.A, tennis is an addiction. Hal has played so much tennis his game works like a machine. “Hal’s game involves attrition. He’ll probe, pecking, until some angle opens up. Until then he’ll probe” (260). DFW chooses wording that is consistent with a machine-type player. A machine-type player doesn’t stop until it’s told to. “…he can take a defensive player and yank the kid around with his superior control, and he can take an attacking player and use the guy’s own pace against him” (680). E.T.A has created a machine addicted to tennis because all Hal, the machine, knows is tennis and the tennis community.

Gately, also a machine in his own way, is down on his knees praying to God knows what, (no pun intended), pretending to look for his shoes. AA has told him to find a higher power, to recite the Lord’s Prayer, and believe is these slogans. Like a manufactured robot he does what he’s told. Once each character has accepted their part as a cog in the machine, they become part of the community. At this point they have stopped thinking for themselves. “The residents’ House counselors suggest that they sit right up at the front of the hall where they can see the pores in the speaker’s nose and try to Identify instead of Compare. Again, Identify means empathize” (345). One is supposed to identify with one's self through other people, as opposed to what is different or similar so that one is looking at the individual. E.T.A. doesn’t allow outsiders to talk with the players because that would single out an individual. AA wants each speaker to start talking in the same manner, “hi, I’m (insert name here), I'm an alcoholic. If Gately were there, comparing himself to other AA members, he would be developing the individual, not identifying with the members in his AA community. If you want to be part of the AA community you have to fake it until you believe it. Even people that have not recognized themselves, as alcoholics, must start talking the same way as I mentioned above. Gately tries to sit in the front and concentrate on what the speaker is saying, but he can’t help thinking about himself and how he relates to society. It’s not shocking that Gately finds his own inner strength while he is in the hospital. There, he only has himself to rely on. Gately seems to enjoy the visits by the wraith because the dialogue is “give-and-take” (923). It’s no longer like the listening and empathizing in AA. He’s finally examining the true Gately and what got him there. He deals with his childhood issues even if they are resolved in his head. The narrator tells us, “…up out of nowhere he suddenly confronts deep-focus memories of Gene Fackelmann’s final demise and Gately and Pamela Hoffman-Jeep’s involvement in Fackelmann’s demise” (924). Gately is confronting responsibility. By denying his body pain medication he is allowing himself to heal.

In addition, AA and E.T.A are linked directly by Himself, the founder of E.T.A “…Hal has no idea that this piece of entertainment (Blood Sister: One Tough Nun) actually germinated out of James O. Incandenza’s one brief and unpleasant experience with Boston AA…” (689) Schtitt and Himself created a philosophy similar to AA. In AA you are expected to give in to a higher power, no matter what that higher power may be. deLint tries to paraphrase the teachings of Schtitt. “They’re here to get lost in something bigger than them” (660). Both institutions want to break you down, want you to realize you are not special, so that you join the community. You become a cog in the machine if you don’t think too much. The relationship between individual and society is challenged here. Once you give over to a cause larger than yourself self is lost—the cause becomes the self. Schtitt’s philosophy also wants the children to think only at the task at hand, like a machine. Schtitt’s training suggestions are also precise—like a machine:
" 'Hit,’ he suggests. ‘Move. Travel lightly. Occur. Be here. Not in bed or shower or over baconschteam, in the mind. Be here in total. Is nothing else. Learn. Try. Drink your green juice. Perform the Butterfly exercises on all eight of these courts, please, to warm down. Mr. deLint, please to bring them back down, make sure of stretching the groins. Gentleman: hit tennis balls. Fire at your will. Use a head. You are not arms' " (461).

Schtitt’s philosophy is to clear the mind and to think of nothing but tennis, but let’s not be mistaken, his philosophy was created to evoke tennis greatness. E.T.A. is in the tennis business. AA’s agenda also has a purpose. Its goal is to break the old individual that was addicted to substances, and build them up again using their created methodology. AA’s agenda pushes the need for a higher power and community very strongly. In the above scene is it any wonder Schtitt questions Hal? And what is Hal’s summary of what Schtitt has been saying? “The human head, sir, if I got your trust. Where I’m going to occur as a player. The game’s two heads’ one world. One world, sir” (461). As if to say, if you think about the game too much you’ll be lost. Let your training take over your mind.

Both E.T.A and AA are, in a way, cults. Every child at E.T.A puts up with grueling training sessions, prorectors, and the E.T.A philosophy. Why? Either the individual or the parents of the individual want their child to be an entertainer. One, the other, or both want to be in the Show. It’s about becoming an active participant in societies status quo. Eventually members of Ennet House will have to leave and face the real world much the same way students at E.T.A will have to face a life after tennis. (Stats. AA page.) Part of Schtitt’s training is producing players that can handle pressure, and hopefully for them they can transcend those teachings to the real world.
deLint makes an interesting point about inculcation, the machine, E.T.A., and addiction.


deLint wants to make it clear that it’s not about being seen. This is one reason the school does not allow reporters to talk with the players. If an individual player thinks he deserves special attention, he/she is no longer an active participant in the school as a whole. The focus becomes on the individual. In his/her mind the only way to deal with the pressure of the game is not to think—to give into the status quo.

After each of these characters has left their respective institutions, what’s left? deLint assumes E.T.A. students will be prepared. Gately, by the end of the novel, begins to realize he’ll have to do it on his own. “Gately every couple minutes wonders again what he’ll end up doing when his year’s Staff term is up and his soul is sucked out and he’s sober but without any money and still clueless and has to leave here and do something back Out There” (594). Hal also fears leaving E.T.A. for similar reasons. What will he do, and how will he recognize people outside his community? “I think at seventeen now I believe the only real monsters might be the type of liar where there’s simply no way to tell. The ones who give nothing away” (774). At E.T.A. Hal is able to figure out people through tennis—he finds their weaknesses. In the real world he will not have this luxury.
By the end, Gately has beaten temptation. Hal is still reeling from his addiction, his father’s death, and the rest of his family dynamic—all the issues Gately had seemingly put behind him.

Why does DFW use these two similar institutions to encompass and inform the lives of the book’s two main characters? What is DFW trying to say about the self within society? Possibly that individuals are responsible for their own freedom. E.T.A and AA are the antithesis of free will because they encourage one to surrender creativity and individuality to a larger, formless whole. Through Hal and Gately DFW is suggesting there are times in ones life the self is vulnerable to these types of institutions. When one gives one's self to AA or E.T.A are those individuals truly free thinking? Usually the person is shackled by addiction, almost a child themselves like those at E.T.A. Can a child be considered a freethinking individual? Possibly, it’s necessary to the evolution of self to give up control, however if the self is ever to thrive and be free it must take back control at some point and strike out on another course.

Works Cited:

http://machines.pomona.edu/dfwwiki/index.php/Addiction_in_Infinite_Jest

http://machines.pomona.edu/dfwwiki/index.php/Clichés_in_Infinite_Jest

http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html

http://thepointmag.com/death1.html

Wallace, David Foster.Infinite Jest.New York: Back Bay Books, 1996.

AA as Religion


In Infinite Jest, AA takes on the form of a religion. Like most faith based religions, AA requires complete submission to achieve an end. In this case: salvation of the body. Giving one’s self away is a central rule of the organization: “Giving It Away is a cardinal Boston AA principle….sobriety in Boston is regarded as less a gift than a sort of cosmic loan. You can’t pay the loan back, but you can pay it forward, by spreading the message that despite all appearances AA works” (344). Rather than merely being an organization to aid in getting clean, AA requires steadfast dedication and missionary work.

To be Continued

Works Cited:
Wallace, David Foster.Infinite Jest.New York: Back Bay Books, 1996.