Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest

by

David Foster Wallace

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Infinite Jest makes teaching easy.

Hal Incandenza Character Analysis

Hal Incandenza is the closest the book comes to having a protagonist. The youngest son of the Incandenza family, he is close to both of his older brothers, Orin and Mario. A tennis prodigy, he is ranked #2 at E.T.A. throughout most of the period in which the novel is set. He is also incredibly intelligent and highly gifted academically. Hal struggles with an addiction to marijuana, and enjoys the secrecy of getting high alone. However, under the threat of a urine test by O.N.A.N.T.A., Hal quits all recreational substances at the end of the novel and seeks treatment for his addiction. As well as being intelligent and talented, Hal is empathetic and kind. However, he has spent most of his life in a completely emotionless state, possibly as the result of ingesting a piece of mold/DMZ as a child. He is particularly concerned about pleasing authority figures and sees his whole life as a test that he’s terrified of failing. After consuming DMZ (or accidentally synthesizing the DMZ that was already in his system) at the end of the Y.D.A.U., Hal is able to feel emotions again but becomes completely unable to express himself: when he tries to talk, the sounds that come out are terrifying and inhuman. He is possibly asexual, as he has no interest in sex and wants to stay a virgin forever. Before his father James’s suicide, Hal was seemingly unable to communicate with him, and it’s possible that James made the Entertainment as an attempt to reach his son.

Hal Incandenza Quotes in Infinite Jest

The Infinite Jest quotes below are all either spoken by Hal Incandenza or refer to Hal Incandenza. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Talent, Precociousness, and Fame Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

I believe I appear neutral, maybe even pleasant, though I've been coached to err on the side of neutrality and not attempt what would feel to me like a pleasant expression or smile.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza (speaker)
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

“I'm not a machine. I feel and believe. I have opinions. Some of them are interesting. I could, if you'd let me, talk and talk. Let's talk about anything. I believe the influence of Kierkegaard on Camus is underestimated. I believe Dennis Gabor may very well have been the Antichrist. I believe Hobbes is just Rousseau in a dark mirror. I believe, with Hegel, that transcendence is absorption. I could interface you guys right under the table,” I say.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza (speaker)
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

“I'm ten for Pete's sake. I think maybe your appointment calendar's squares got juggled. I'm the potentially gifted ten-year-old tennis and lexical prodigy whose mom's a continental mover and shaker in the prescriptive grammar academic world and whose dad's a towering figure in optical and avant-garde film circles and single-handedly founded the Enfield Tennis Academy but drinks Wild Turkey at like 5:00 a.m. and pitches over sideways during dawn drills, on the courts, some days, and some days presents with delusions about people's mouths moving but nothing coming out. I'm not even up to J yet, in the condensed O.E.D., much less Québec or malevolent Lurias.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza (speaker), Dr. James Incandenza / Jim, Avril Incandenza, Luria P——
Related Symbols: Substances
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Hal likes to get high in secret, but a bigger secret is that he's as attached to the secrecy as he is to getting high.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza
Related Symbols: Substances
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:

Recreational drugs are more or less traditional at any U.S. secondary school, maybe because of the unprecedented tensions: post-latency and puberty and angst and impending adulthood, etc. To help manage the intrapsychic storms, etc… But so some E.T.A.s - not just Hal Incandenza by any means - are involved with recreational substances, is the point. Like who isn't, at some life-stage, in the U.S.A. and Interdependent regions, in these troubled times, for the most part.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza
Related Symbols: Substances
Page Number: 52-53
Explanation and Analysis:
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Hal Incandenza Quotes in Infinite Jest

The Infinite Jest quotes below are all either spoken by Hal Incandenza or refer to Hal Incandenza. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Talent, Precociousness, and Fame Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

I believe I appear neutral, maybe even pleasant, though I've been coached to err on the side of neutrality and not attempt what would feel to me like a pleasant expression or smile.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza (speaker)
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

“I'm not a machine. I feel and believe. I have opinions. Some of them are interesting. I could, if you'd let me, talk and talk. Let's talk about anything. I believe the influence of Kierkegaard on Camus is underestimated. I believe Dennis Gabor may very well have been the Antichrist. I believe Hobbes is just Rousseau in a dark mirror. I believe, with Hegel, that transcendence is absorption. I could interface you guys right under the table,” I say.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza (speaker)
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

“I'm ten for Pete's sake. I think maybe your appointment calendar's squares got juggled. I'm the potentially gifted ten-year-old tennis and lexical prodigy whose mom's a continental mover and shaker in the prescriptive grammar academic world and whose dad's a towering figure in optical and avant-garde film circles and single-handedly founded the Enfield Tennis Academy but drinks Wild Turkey at like 5:00 a.m. and pitches over sideways during dawn drills, on the courts, some days, and some days presents with delusions about people's mouths moving but nothing coming out. I'm not even up to J yet, in the condensed O.E.D., much less Québec or malevolent Lurias.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza (speaker), Dr. James Incandenza / Jim, Avril Incandenza, Luria P——
Related Symbols: Substances
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Hal likes to get high in secret, but a bigger secret is that he's as attached to the secrecy as he is to getting high.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza
Related Symbols: Substances
Page Number: 49
Explanation and Analysis:

Recreational drugs are more or less traditional at any U.S. secondary school, maybe because of the unprecedented tensions: post-latency and puberty and angst and impending adulthood, etc. To help manage the intrapsychic storms, etc… But so some E.T.A.s - not just Hal Incandenza by any means - are involved with recreational substances, is the point. Like who isn't, at some life-stage, in the U.S.A. and Interdependent regions, in these troubled times, for the most part.

Related Characters: Hal Incandenza
Related Symbols: Substances
Page Number: 52-53
Explanation and Analysis: