Infinite Jest

Hal Incandenza is the main protagonist in Infinite Jest. An aspiring tennis player and remarkable intellect with a marijuana addiction, he is the youngest of the Incandenza boys and the one who struggles most with the alienation and depression that led to their father’s suicide. Hal’s intellectual credentials are demonstrated by the inclusion of a number of essays in which he explores various elements of American culture. Many of these essays, however, are unwitting reflections on his own status in the context of the novel. His diagnosis of American action movie protagonists, for instance, can be understood as an attempt to wrestle with his own catatonic feelings of powerlessness and alienation, even though he is the protagonist of a long and complicated novel. At the same time, the structure of the novel introduces the audience to Hal at his lowest point. The novel begins with Hal’s apparent breakdown, an incident that occurs (in a chronological sense) after the ensuing narrative. The breakdown—whether caused by alienation, strong drugs, or an innate personality defect—is the way the audience knows and comes to understand Hal: He is the subject of pressure from many different groups, and the burden of these expectations renders him speechless and powerless.