The Goal

Alex Rogo is the narrator of The Goal, a talented and hardworking man born and raised in Bearington, where the novel is set. Alex begins the novel a nervous wreck, baffled by his plant’s inability to ship orders promptly and terrified of losing his job. Though Alex is married with two children, whom he clearly loves, he spends the majority of his time at the office, “fighting fires” (2). Both his wife, Julie, and his mother accuse him of being a workaholic, to the detriment of his health and personal life. “This running all over the place, staying up all night isn’t good for you. You’ve got to stop worrying,” (66) Alex’s mother tells him. Alex wants to be a good husband and father, but frequently finds himself torn between his family and his job. He is scatterbrained, forgetting plans with Julie and his son multiple times. He prides himself on being “reasonably adept at maintaining the outward illusion of control in the midst of chaos” (122), but the facts of the novel do not bear this out. Alex is constantly scrambling to cover mistakes and accidents, both at work and at home, and it is only once he embraces Jonah’s philosophy that his life calms down.