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Pills
The narrator’s VCR—and the media she consumes throughout her hibernation in general—symbolizes her self-delusion. Whenever the narrator cannot physically force herself to sleep, she watches TV shows or movies in a semi-conscious, drug-induced haze to pass the time, frequently relying on the actors’ voices to lull her to sleep. The narrator’s TV functions as a stand-in for human interaction: the mitigated version of “reality” she sees on the screen enables her to carry out her self-imposed isolation without fully losing touch with the outside world, all while she claims to herself that she hates people or is too enlightened or disillusioned with society to be affected by the needs and insecurities that plague most other people. The narrator’s TV allows her to minimize her own insecurities and her reliance on distraction. If she can stay inside for a whole year, she seems to tell herself, it is proof that she (unlike the deluded rest of the world) has recognized banal socialization, career clout, and mindless consumerism for the distractions from reality that they are. In reality, however, the narrator would not be able to carry out her hibernation without the distraction and company her TV offers her. Indeed, once her VCR breaks, she’s unable to watch movies, and it becomes more difficult for her to avoid the reality of her situation and her feelings. As a result, she begins to doubt the efficacy of her hibernation project, revealing to readers (though it’s not entirely clear to the narrator herself) the flimsiness of the narrator’s plan to sleep her way to personal enlightenment and rebirth.
TV/VCR/DVD Quotes in My Year of Rest and Relaxation
The My Year of Rest and Relaxation quotes below all refer to the symbol of TV/VCR/DVD . 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:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
Things were happening in New York City—they always are—but none of it affected me. This was the beauty of sleep—reality detached itself and appeared in my mind as casually as a movie or a dream. It was easy to ignore things that didn’t concern me. Subway workers went on strike. A hurricane came and went. It didn’t matter. Extraterrestrials could have invaded, locusts could have swarmed, and I would have noted it, but I wouldn’t have worried.
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“I’m not a junkie or something,” I said defensively. “I’m taking some time off. This is my year of rest and relaxation.”
“Lucky you,” Reva said. “I wouldn’t mind taking time off from work to loaf around, watch movies, and snooze all day, but I’m not complaining. I just don’t have that luxury.”
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Chapter 3
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The ghoulish voice of the TV show’s male narrator and Reva’s sniffles and sighs should have lulled me to sleep. But I could not sleep. I closed my eyes.
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Chapter 5
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I had to admit that it was a comfort to have Reva there. She was just as good as a VCR, I thought. The cadence of her speech was as familiar and predictable as the audio from any movie I’d watched a hundred times.
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Chapter 6
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I wanted the old half life back, when my VCR still worked and Reva would come over with her petty gripes and I could lose myself in her shallow universe for a few hours and then disappear into slumber. I wondered if those days were over now that Reva had been promoted and Ken was out of the picture. Would she suddenly grow into maturity and discard me as a relic from a failed past, the way I’d hoped to do to her when my year of sleep was over? Was Reva actually waking up? Did she now realize I was a terrible friend? Could she really dispose of me so easily? No. No. She was a drone. She was too far gone.
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Chapter 8
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There she is, a human being, diving into the unknown, and she is wide awake.
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TV/VCR/DVD Symbol Timeline in My Year of Rest and Relaxation
The timeline below shows where the symbol TV/VCR/DVD appears in My Year of Rest and Relaxation. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...sugars) whenever her medications wear off and she can’t stay asleep. Other times, she watches movies or orders takeout. For a while, she sends away her laundry to be cleaned. When...
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...26 years old. During the scant hours she is awake each day, she mostly watches movies. In time, her muscles atrophy, and her bedsheets yellow. She catches glimpses of the news...
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Chapter 2
...point that she can drift off effortlessly. When she can’t sleep, she watches Whoopi Goldberg movies. When she must, she ventures out to the Rite Aid to replenish her pill supply...
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Chapter 3
...waiting for the pharmacist to fill her prescription, the narrator browses the shelf of used DVDS for sale and spots 9 1/2 Weeks, which is one of Trevor’s favorite movies. He...
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Back at her apartment, the narrator turns on a movie. Reva drops by midway through to find the narrator on the floor. She helps her...
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Chapter 4
...up and goes to take a shower. She tries to think of historical events and movies that might make her feel sad, but she can’t register any emotion. She thinks back...
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Back at the narrator’s apartment, the TV is still on, and a porn movie is playing. The narrator takes an Infermiterol as...
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Chapter 5
The narrator lounges around until evening and then takes a Nembutal and watches movies. She finds the porn channel again and turns the volume down low so that the...
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...sleep, the narrator takes more and more pills. She pops in Braveheart, but then the VCR breaks, so she’s stuck with TV. She watches nonsensical commercials on TV: commercials for cat...
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...answers, she threatens to kill herself if he doesn’t come over to bring her a DVD player and have sex with her. She hangs up, knowing he will come. She calls...
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...the narrator gets up, puts on some clothes, and takes some Advil. She flips through TV channels and impulsively buys a rice cooker.
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Chapter 6
...She realizes she “want[s] the old half life back,” the one she had before her VCR was broken, when Reva would come over and complain about her life. She wonders if...
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...removes from her purse. Reva exclaims when she sees Saved by the Bell come on TV. They sit down and watch while Reva argues with herself over the little sense it...
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Chapter 8
On September 11, the narrator buys a TV/VCR at Best Buy to record the news footage of the terrorist attacks. She replays the...
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