The Narrator and His View of Technology

In the first chapters of this novel, I have discovered that the main character I the type of person who enjoys the simple things in life. It is obvious that he does not care about living an extravagant lifestyle because he realizes that with more money comes more problems. He is joined by a group of friends who share this type of lifestyle however they believe that all technology is harmful and they try as hard as they can to escape it. The narrator, on the other hand takes a different approach to this. He believes that the best way to handle technology is not to escape from it, but to learn to control it. This is clear in his desire to maintain his motorcycle himself rather than letting others do it for him. His companions however try to use the motorcycle to escape from technology. This of course creates considerable irony to the situation because they are now using technology to escape from technology. The narrator supports his belief by recounting a story from a previous trip where he was forced to end the excursion because of his lack of skills in motorcycle maintenance, and in a more general sense, his lack of preparation in dealing with technology. In addition, the narrator has provided several examples, using John, as to why it is important to take control of technology and not let it stop you and/or slow you down. Slowly, we can see the narrator trying to convince John of his belief and I think that through examples he will be able to change John’s mind.