George Saunders In Persuasion Nation

In George Saunders’s short story In Persuasion Nation, readers are introduced into a setting in which life is dominated by an endless cycle of winners and losers playing their respective roles. This vicious cycle is only enforced by the presence of an intimidating and seemingly omnipotent “green triangle,” a powerful figure sent down to re-establish the cycle when members of a rebellion, known as the coalition, fall out of this repetition. Though some characters express their discontent with a highly commercialized society, In Persuasion Nation portrays the futility of the common people resisting the increasingly dominating role that commerce plays in their lives. Thus, In Persuasion Nation suggests that society is trapped in a cycle of fixed …show more content…
Though the polar bear seems to be the most resilient out of all the losers in In Persuasion Nation, it’s repeated pleas for help from a “generous god” shows the ignorant and narrow-minded viewpoint he has: “I really don’t want to do this, he thinks. Please, God, send me a sign, tell me I don’t have to do this, show me that you are a gentle loving God, who desires good things for me” (173). Though it eventually becomes blatantly obvious that either the “generous god” does not care about the polar bear or that it simply does not exist, the polar bear obstinately clings to this belief and traps himself in an endless stream of false hope. This perhaps is his downfall and the reason why he cannot innovate a new viable society but instead, only create an intangible antithesis to the green triangle. Even in the very end, the polar bear clings to this unrealistic sliver of hope: “’The green symbol is a false GOD!’ he shouts. ‘A false GOD, obsessed with violence and domination! Reject him! Let us begin anew! Free your minds! Free your minds and live! There is a gentler and more generous GOD within us, if only we will look!’” (179). The polar bear sheds light on the limits of the green triangle’s power, but fails to offer an innovative purpose to society since he is too preoccupied with pursuing a false “generous”

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