THE CORRECTIONS

by Jonathan Franzen

Dave Sawangin
Marvilyn Pistola
Viebres Salio-an

GRADE 12- ICT

 II. Background of the Author
a. Birthdate: August 17, 1959
Birthplace: Western Spring, Illinois, United States
Occupation: Novelist and Essayist
Nationality: American
Studied in:  Swarthmore College,  Freie University (Berlin)
Partner: Kathy Chetkovich
Notable Awards:
 National Book Award for Fiction 2001
 James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2002

b. Notable Works:
 The Twenty-Seventh City (1988)
 Strong Motion (1992)
 The Corrections (2001)
 How to be Alone (2002) - essay
 Freedom (2010)
 Purity (2015)

III. Summary of The Corrections

Enid and Alfred Lambert are an old couple living in the small, mid-western town of St. Jude.
Their days are filled with boredom, loneliness, and bickering over Enid’s hoarding and attempts
to redecorate their overcrowded home. In an attempt to break up the monotony, and take Alfred’s
mind off his deteriorating body, they plan a cruise with Nordic Pleasurelines. The boat takes off
from New York City, so they fly there and visit their middle-aged son Chip. Chip, living a
scandalous life in the city from his parents’ small-town point of view, reluctantly picks them up
from the airport. From the second they are reunited, bickering and passive-aggressive arguments
start, showing the obvious divide between son and parents.
Chip takes them back to his apartment, where surprisingly, his girlfriend Julia greets them. It
quickly becomes apparent that she is just gathering her things to leave though, so Chip follows
her out. She berates him for how focused the screenplay he wrote is on a young co-ed’s breasts,
and leaves in a taxi. Worried that he lost not only his girlfriend, but any chance he had at getting
his screenplay produced by his girlfriend's boss, he starts down the street. While angrily
stomping through the rain and flooded streets, he reminisces about his days as a professor which
in part inspired his screenplay. He taught critical theory to uninterested students, only to have his
whole world-view shaken by a freshman named Melissa. He went on a journey of self-discovery
in Scotland, then came back and had a drug-induced affair with Melissa. This led to him being
fired, and having to rely on loans from his little sister.
Once Chip finds Eden, she brushes off his questions about the movie script and whisks him into
a room where Julia’s husband Gitanus Misevicius sits. Gitanus and Eden proceed to rope him
into a job working as a public-image and financial consultant of sorts for Gitanus. Gitanus is
getting Americans to invest in Lithuania, in exchange for streets being named after them or their
portraits getting hung in museums. Excited about the $3,000 cash that Gitanus gives him in
advance for the first three weeks of work, he packs up his things and gets on a plane headed for
Lithuania.
In Pennsylvania, Chip’s brother Gary lives with his wife Caroline and their three sons. He
worries that he suffers from clinical depression, based on the symptoms of depression he reads
about in Caroline’s self-help books. The tension in the household is palpable, with Gary trying to
juggle both his mother and wife’s stubborn desires. The main argument centers around the
coming Christmas; after an incident many years ago in St. Jude, Gary promised Caroline that
they would never go back there for Christmas, but now Enid is insistent that they come because
of Alfred’s failing condition. Neither woman will give any room on the issue, nor does Gary’s
stress at being caught in the middle only worsen his depression. He also deals with the financial
stress of his father wanting to sell an old patent of his for $5,000 to the Axon Corporation, when
Gary knows that it is worth at least twenty times that. Not being able to convince his father to
hold out for more money, Gary investigates Axon and tries to buy shares in it himself.
He attends an Axon presentation for future investors with his sister Denise, where Denise
successfully reserves a spot for Alfred in the Parkinson’s-rehabilitation program, but Gary is
unable to get more shares. Meanwhile, on the cruise ship Gunnar Myrdal, Alfred has vivid
nighttime hallucinations about his feces coming to life, attacking, and mocking him. Alfred and
Enid spend their days chatting with other couples on the Scandinavian cruise liner, seeing shows,
and gambling. Enid becomes friends with a woman named Sylvia Roth, whose daughter was
recently murdered. The execution of the murderer is scheduled in two days. Due to Alfred’s
nighttime hallucinations, Enid is unable to sleep. She goes to the ship’s doctor and is given a
supply of experimental drugs called Aslan to help. The next morning, when Enid is attending a
financial seminar with a friend, she looks out the window and sees Alfred falling through the air.
Leaning over the edge of the ship, he fell eight stories and landed in the water with a slew of
injuries. The cruise is delayed so a helicopter can come bring him to a hospital.
When Denise gets the call about her father, she has just been fired from her job as chef at a
critically acclaimed restaurant called the Generator. She helped start the restaurant with a man
named Brian, whom she almost had an affair with in the past before aborting it. She instead
started sleeping with his wife, but he eventually found out, ending both Denise’s best job to date
and the most recent in a string of failed relationships. She attempts to get Chip to come back for
Christmas because of Alfred’s worsened condition, but he only agrees once the situation in
Lithuania takes a turn for the worst. With a rival “crime lord” gaining power of the government
and police force, and riots breaking out in the streets once utilities start to go down, Gitanis
convinces Chip to flee. He gives Chip the money for his share of Lithuania and drops Chip at the
airport, only to find that it has been shut down. They try and drive across the border instead, but
are robbed at gunpoint by ski-mask wearing “police” force. Afterwards Chip walks 15 kilometers
alone to the border, where he gets on a plane and makes it to St. Jude on Christmas.
Gary had arrived in St. Jude nearly a week before Christmas, without the rest of his family, much
to Enid’s disappointment. It soon becomes apparent to him that Alfred’s mental ailments are
even worse than his physical ones, with his dementia and hallucinations making life almost
unbearable for everyone in the house. Denise arrives a few days later, and the two of them fight
over Enid’s right to keep taking the addictive but helpful drug Aslan and about Alfred’s future.
When Chip shows up on Christmas morning, an hour before Gary has to leave for his flight
home, everyone but Enid is shocked. Gary’s built up resentment and anger finally boil over, and
he yells at everyone about having to face the fact that Alfred can’t continue to live in the house,
before he storms out.
Later, Alfred is seen in the midst of another vivid hallucination, this time believing that he is in a
prison yard and other inmates are trying to kill him. He is snapped out of it by Chip, revealing
that the inmate he was terrified of is actually his nurse, and he is in a nursing home. Alfred is
panicked, and begs Chip to bring him home, but Chip says he can’t. Alfred is eventually
transferred to a permanent nursing home, where two years later he dies after refusing to eat. His
family appears more relieved than sad, with Chip living in Chicago with a new wife and kids,
Enid visiting Denise in NYC, and Gary no longer fighting as much with Caroline. After Alfred’s
death, Enid says that she found new hope for her life and has desire to make some changes.

IV. Activity
1. When was the novel The Corrections released? (year)
- 2001
2. Date of birth of the author.
- August 17, 1959
3 – 5. Enumerate 3 notable works of Jonathan aside for The Corrections.
- Strong Motion, Purity, Freedom, The Twenty-Seventh City
6- 8. Identify 3 important characters in the story.
- Alfred Lambert, Enid Lambert, Chip Lambert, Julia Vrais, Melissa Pacquette
9. What is the tone and mood of the story?
- Straightforward, humorous, biting
10. What is the concept of the story?
- A shattered family, an old couple trying to think about the last time they saw all of
their adult children
V. References
- Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (Aug.13, 2018). Jonathan Franzen American Author.
Retrieved from https://www.btitanniea.com/biography/Jonathan-Franzen
- Bookbrowse. (Oct. 20,2014) Jonathan Franzen Biography. Retrieved from
https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/676/jonathan-
franzen
- GradeSaver. (n.d) The Corrections Summary. Retrieved from
https://www.gradesaver.com/the-corrections/study-guide/summary