Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Infinite Jest, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Talent, Precociousness, and Fame
Addiction, Mental Illness, and Suicide
Entertainment
Reality as Corporate Dystopia
Institutional Control vs. Rebellion
Summary
Analysis
Very Late October Y.D.A.U. Hal has a recurring dream in which his teeth crumble and splinter inside his mouth. Mario is distressed by Madame Psychosis’s unexplained absence from WYYY. For a while a grad student calling herself Miss Diagnosis filled the slot, but no one mentioned if or when Madame Psychosis will come back. Now no one covers the show and the station just plays ambient music for an hour.
Both Hal and Mario are clearly suffering from intense stress (for very different reasons). Yet despite sharing a room, the brothers remain isolated in their own psychic distress, unable to help one another.
Themes
