Response essay "Gretchen the squid:"

Is there any person on earth who doesn't have goals? or is there anybody which wouldn't try everything to make his dreams come true? Of course everybody would try but not all of them will succeed and each one of them for different reasons. Dave Eggers, in his short-short story " Gretchen the squid" introduces us to an enormous squid who lives in the Caspian sea and has the dream to become an accountant and be accepted to the University of Illinois (one of the best in accounting). Her parents, were always supporting to her but they do not agree with her decision because even if Gretchen could get in the university, for sure she will face discrimination since she is very different from others.

The writer with this story, aims with an interesting way to make us understand, that in fact what he does, is writing a letter of appeal. He uses a humoristic way by mentioning the squid but in reality he does not descibe the squid but every person which is ambitious and has it's goals high but it is very difficult to achieve them. In the whole story Eggers, make use of the 3rd person and uses a serious tone in most of the story. Despite the fact that the context is ridiculous, the tone he uses is serious rather than sympathetic and he is trying to pass the message of the story through feelings and while we read the story we put ourselves in Gretchen's position and we can understand how it is to feel like that. Moreover, most of us see this in every day life.

Furthermore, Dave Eggers is raising the issue of discrimination. He wants to make us realize that he is using the squid which is enormous and different while this happens to people too. If a person is very fat for example or has a health problem, most of us wouldn't see this person in a good way and this is wrong. This happens also with people with different nationalities. If someone is from China for example and goes to another country the people there will see him very differently. Gretchen's character in the story shows us that she is ambitious, not only wants to go to university but in one of the best universities, she is afraid of letting herself down and also shows us that she is embarrassed because she is different. Many people think the same way as her and as we see in every day life most of us we are afraid of disappointing ourselves, either in college, work or even in our social life, so here we come back to the point that the writer by using a squid is actually talking about people. He also refers to the unfair situation of being very good at something ( e.g. Gretchen with numbers) but cannot succeed because someone is different.

Gretchen as it is mentioned in the story, lives in the Caspian sea and wants very much to go in America. America which is a superpower, attracts many people especially for jobs because America offers many opportunities for employment and this is one of the reasons that many people go there. Gretchen what wanted most was to wear a suit, glasses and have an office such as everybody else. In the story Dave Eggers, also refers to T.G.I Fridays which is one of the most famous restaurant in America and the kind of people which goes there is mostly young businessman.

In conclusion, Dave Egger's short story passes several messages to its readers. Talking about discrimination which is also a contemporary phenomenon and in one point of view it shows how unfair our society can be sometimes. However my opinion is that each person which wants something very much must try hard to make it through and believe in himself no matter what other people are saying.