Varieties of the Fantastic in Fiction

In “The Great Awake,” it is the narrator that is the most interesting. The reader never gets a clear picture of who Janey is except in small moments. The majority of the story is her narration of what is happening to the other people in the city, to her brother, or to Leonie. Janey takes a refreshing view on the Sleep situation when she comments to her brother that “….it looks like Aunt Lucy, but that’s because the only time I saw her was at the open casket.” (24) It’s such a humorously odd thing to say when describing something fantastic. Janey also points out the obvious when Leonie wonders if it’s unethical to give advice to her readers about the Sleep when she herself doesn’t have one and Janey replies, “No more than it is to offer a solution to any problem that isn’t yours.” (30) This is such a blunt insight that gives Janey another layer. Her intelligence is also apparent when her mother phones to say that a man had returned home with another person’s Sleep. However, instead of wondering about the man’s predicament, Janey asks “what had happened to the person whose Sleep had been stolen.” (37) She also apologizes to her Sleep if she had ignored its physical talk by being preoccupied with its silence. Furthermore, she reveals her sensitive side about the Sleep when she comments to her brother that “I didn’t know you could kill them…It doesn’t seem right, though, does it?” (41) She knows them to be a fantastic source of distress, and yet she is against harming them.

Janey’s personal Sleep also adds layers to her character. From what Janey reveals to the reader, the other Sleep throughout the city are constant sources of annoyance, disturbance, mayhem, and distress. However, Janey’s Sleep fixes the clock, organizes her belongings around the foot of her bed, rifles through her personal things, and one time hangs the phone up when Janey is in the middle of speaking to her mother. While the latter can be construed as an annoyance, the actions of her Sleep hardly mount to the chaos of the other Sleep. The question is, why does Janey’s act different? Is it because of Janey? Furthermore, it is also interesting that Janey asks her mother the question of her own fate when she wonders what happens to those whose Sleep had been stolen. Leonie takes Janey’s Sleep, but nothing terrible appears to happen to Janey. On the contrary, she seems better and refreshed. Her fate mirrors that of the woman who, though she kills her Sleep, also appears well rested.

Janey is an enigma, and the fantastic that happens around her, even her relationships with her mother, brother, and Leonie, only add to the mystery of her character.