A Visit from the Goon Squad is unlike many novels in that it does not have one specific narrator who tells the story of a specific character in chronological order. The novel is instead structured with a web of characters who connect in various ways through other people. This structure is symbolic of life itself as every person interacts with a variety of people during his lifetime and these people get to know him and his story. Over time, a person may think that he knows another person fully, but he in fact only knows pieces of that person’s life. It is very difficult and almost impossible to find a person who can understand another’s entire life story. A Visit from the Goon Squad’s structure is symbolic of the multitude of connections which exist in a person like Scotty’s complicated life, showing that even each person who makes a connection to him understands a portion of his life but can never understand him fully.
When Egan first introduces Scotty, his character is in high school and his band mate, Rhea, narrates. With a narrator close to Scotty but not Scotty himself, many of the qualities of Scotty’s character can only be inferred and his feelings only hypothesized about. Descriptions of Scotty can only give broad details of how he leads his life, and many of his reasons for his actions cannot be certain. Rhea knows simply, for example, that “his mother died three years ago from sleeping pills. Scotty’s been quieter since then, and in cold weather he shivers like someone is shaking him” (Egan 32). Scotty’s friends can deduce that his mother’s death took a toll on him since they can observe his actions, but if he never speaks directly about how he feels, they can never understand exactly why he has started to act quieter. Scotty could be acting more reserved out of anxiety, fear, or sadness, but the reasons for his change in attitude can never be fully understood by his friends because they do not have a lens directly into his mind. Rhea and Scotty’s band mates also infer that he has become quieter because he misses his mother since “the first time his mom went away, he sat all day on the patch of grass outside his house and stared at the sun…Now there are permanent gray smudges in Scotty’s vision. He says he likes them – actually, what he says is: ‘I consider them a visual enhancement.’ We think they remind him of his mom” (35). However, Scotty has not told them why he thinks of the smudges as “visual enhancements”. His friends think they know the reasoning behind his actions, but are only guessing since he has not told his reasoning or explained to them every detail of his life.
One gets a clearer idea of the motives Scotty has for his actions later in his life and in a later section of the novel told from his own point of view. When Scotty realizes that he has gotten nowhere and Bennie, his old band mate, has success, he decides to visit Bennie. Scotty explains, “As I looked up at him, I experienced several realizations, all in a sort of cascade: (1) Bennie and I weren’t friends anymore, and we never would be. (2) He was looking to get rid of me as quickly as possible with the least amount of hassle. (3) I already knew that would happen. I’d known it before I arrived. (4) It was the reason I had come to see him” (76). From this explanation, one may infer that Scotty may have needed confirmation of his ideas and may characterize Scotty as one who lives with the need to have confirmation of himself. However, these ideas about Scotty are only possibilities since, unlike a conventional novel, one still does not have a direct and omniscient view of his thoughts and actions. Scotty could simply need answers before moving on or may have trouble forgetting the past. With so many possibilities for his motivations and no direct explanation of his every thought and action, there is no way to be completely sure of Scotty’s identity and motivation for his actions.
When Scotty is much older, much of his identity is that perceived through Bennie’s interactions with him. Bennie says that “‘Scotty’s not wild about enclosed spaces…He’s a solitary person…He has a hard time with conversation…He hasn’t spent much time with children…He’s wary of technology’” (264). These descriptions only account for what Bennie knows of Scotty. Since Bennie has lost touch with him and only calls Scotty to possibly boost Bennie’s label and music, these ideas are limited in their truth of who Scotty really is. Scotty’s motives can be understood only very simplistically based on his actions at that time and Bennie’s recollections. Bennie describes when he asked Scotty to perform again now that he is older saying, “‘I said, ‘It’s time you became a star.’ And what did you say to me?’ Bennie leaned close to Scotty... ‘You said, ‘I dare you.’’” (269). From this conversation, one can perceive that Scotty has aged yet still has an aspect of risk in his life, but he may also have only simply needed the money and saw the show as a way to get it. His actual motives for performing remain unknown. Since Scotty’s ideas and motives for his actions during this part of his life are described only through Bennie, one cannot easily understand any of his reasons for his actions. Any ideas one may have about who Scotty is at this point in his life are only guesses.
Even though one views Scotty’s life through three different perspectives at three different points in his life, much of that life and the motives behind his actions are unknown. Only portions of his life are ever revealed and there are many years between each portion which is explained. The way in which his life is explained also leaves room for possibility since the lack of an omniscient narrator means Scotty’s actions have little known background and many of his thoughts are not given. Scotty’s perspective is only given once, and even then there are motivations unexplained and ideas which others know nothing about. For this reason, Scotty’s character is not completely developed and never can be because it is not possible to ever understand a person completely without being that person himself.