Script-like narrative
The narrator often uses a script-like narrative to describe events he believes are a turning-point for the plot. Since, he believes himself to be a film-maker, he likes to describe these aspects of his life as a movie scene. The narrative is also a way for him to hide his true feelings, by constructing the event as a third-person narrative. He also uses TV show like names to signify his behavior that he considers is beyond normal, like Excessive Modesty Hour with Greg Gaines.
Greg’s High School Life
High school life is a maze for the narrator that he is trying to wade. He is an awkward obese teenager with a lot of self-esteem issues. Since, he has tried and faced humiliation at the hand of other students for his normal behavior, he has come to believe high school as some impossible place where no one can live peacefully. He is so threatened by it that he starts to ignore it altogether. It’s a symbol of his reaction to his unsuccessful attempts at fitting in different cliques and surviving it.
Greg and Earl’s Movies
Greg and Earl are misfits in the Benson school. Both of them are awkward and have trouble with being friends with other people at school. They are hardly ever comfortable sharing their problems with each other, which is why Greg calls him as a co-worker. Their movies represent their desire to be understood. Both of them love classics and the film-making techniques used but are miffed by the fact that nobody else seem to like those. So, they decide to make their own parodies of the films, the films are representation of their need to be understood by the world.
Rachel The Film
Greg and Earl decide to make a film for Rachel, but realize that they don’t know enough about Rachel to do justice to it. They try multiple techniques but all fail when they realize that none of them are good enough or even help Rachel in any way. They end up making a combination of all these elements and hate the resultant film but deliver that to Rachel anyway since she was expecting it. The film represents Greg’s nonchalance about Rachel. He hardly knew her even in the end, but her death had a profound impact on him.
Destroyed films
After they are publicly humiliated at their school when the film they made for Rachel is viewed by the whole school, Greg and earl destroy their films. It’s an act of frustration but is also a coping mechanism against the people who won’t understand their talent and force them to be part of a larger group.
