The Eyes and the Impossible

“I am a dog called Johannes and I have seen you. I have seen you in this park, my home. If you have come to this park, my vast green and windblown park by the sea, I have seen you. I have seen everyone who has been here, the walkers and runners and bikers and horse-riders and the Bison-seekers and the picnickers and the archers in their cloaks. When you have come here you have come to my home, where I am the Eyes.”

Most of the novel takes place in the “vast green and windblown park by the sea.” This lush description underscores the novel’s interest in The Importance of Beauty and Balance. Eggers gives his novel a distinct perspective by making his narrator a dog and by employing the technique of stream of consciousness. In addition, repetition creates a sense of rhythm and adds a poetic quality to the prose throughout the novel, as seen in this passage’s repetition of the phrase “I have seen you.” The focus on sight emphasizes the significance of Johannes’s role as the park’s Eyes, a role which figures prominently in the plot and supports the novel’s emphasis on balance.

“‘We would like you to be our eyes,’ Freya said. ‘You would be good,’ Meredith said. I wanted to be their eyes. So I became the Eyes. ‘Don’t screw it up,’ Samuel said.”

The kind and commanding Freya, the encouraging Meredith, and the cynical Samuel rule the park and bestow the position of the Eyes on the dog. The bison’s dialogue establishes their key personality traits and dynamic with one another, while Samuel’s remark provides humor to undercut the solemnity of Johannes’s appointment as the Eyes.