The Corrections Literary Elements

Fiction, drama

Modern-day New York City, and the small midwestern town of St. Jude where the Lamberts grew up

Anonymous third-person narrator, who is able to tell the thoughts of only one or a few character at a time, depending on who is the focus in that section

Straightforward, humorous, biting

The protagonist switches between each section of the book, but for the most part remains one of the three siblings: Chip, Gary, or Denise. Their parents, Alfred and Enid, could also be viewed as protagonists, but are more accurately described as antagonists due to their constant verbal and emotional conflict with their three children.

The main conflicts in this novel are between the conflicting desires and ideals of each Lambert family member. They struggle to find happiness for themselves, without neglecting their familial duties.

The story’s climax is reached when Enid’s three children, Chip, Gary, and Denise, finally visit her in St. Jude for the long-awaited Christmas. This puts all of the protagonists in one place and create a boiling pot of conflict.

The title of the book, The Corrections, foreshadows one of the main ideas inside. The characters spend the majority of the book attempting to correct their lives, and get out of the slump they have been living in. However, it is insinuated that the ‘corrections’ of the title actually refer to market corrections, like in a financial market when an upward moving stock corrects itself by going back down. This meaning foreshadows the outcomes of the characters’ storylines; their self-denial is chipped away until they return to the people they used to be instead of hiding behind lies that were keeping them afloat.

When talking about Alfred and Enid’s old golf pictures, one is of Enid throwing her ball back onto the fairway. The author says this is “improving her lie from the rough (cheating was the word for this)” (151). The understatement of this situation, which the author points out himself by saying that it is cheating in the next part of the sentence, adds humor and highlights Enid’s personality and penchant for dishonesty.

Chip saying “I never had sexual relations with that woman” (78) in reference to his affair with Melissa, is an allusion to Bill Clinton’s famous statement about Monica Lewinsky.

Financial imagery throughout the story shows the capitalist and corporate web that all of the characters are connected in. Imagery surrounding money and work also helps to reveal the theme of money and how it impacts every character’s life.

Paradox is seen in a quote about Alfred's attitude towards Denise. “That the daughter whose attentions most aggravated his affliction was the person he least wanted to be seen by in the grip of this affliction was the sort of Devil’s logic that confirmed a man’s pessimism.” (87)

The parallelism between Gary and Alfred is pointed out by several characters, like Caroline and Gary himself. Despite Gary’s desire to not be anything like his father, his late onset of clinical depression, love of the workplace, and dislike for modern technology paint a clear similarity between the two characters.

In Enid’s mind, she refers to those people from the government or other agencies who come to collect her bills or curb her hoarding as the “governing force.” This is naming a whole entity when referring to a singular person.

Parts of the city of New York are personified throughout the book to bring it to life. On page 20, the author writes that “it was raining so hard in Manhattan that water was streaming down facades and frothing at the mouths of sewers.” Likening the rapid, bubbling water to an animal with a frothing mouth shows how rabid and wild the city is.