The essence of a memoir is to look back at ones experience, and see Es

The essence of a memoir is to look back at one's experience, and see how they have developed and matured. The essence of a memoir is to look back at one's experience, and see how they have developed and matured. This is no different in Dave Eggers fictitious memoir, A Heartbreaking Story of Staggering Genius. To explore what has changed a person it is important to look at what most of the person's time was spent doing. In Dave's situation, there is no shadow of a doubt, at the age of 22, his life revolved around the security and well being of his little brother Christopher (Toph). To completely comprehend Eggers growth and maturity, it is essential to analyze his relationship with his little brother Toph. Father, mother, brother, all wrapped in one, Dave becoming Toph's guardian constructed the adult that Eggers would become. Dave did not become Toph's guardian because he wanted to, but because he was the one left over. Bill was out getting a job and Beth was finishing graduate school. Dave immediately tried to overcome the grief of dealing with two dead parents, and taking care of Toph by making Toph's and his own lives fun. He spent all of the social security and inheritance on a nice house; they went out all the time; singing to song, making of people in the car, playing lots of frisbee at the beach. He seemed to drown out the sadness of the situation with their complimentary money. At this point, Dave's feelings still cannot escape him. "It's Friday night and I should be out, across the bay, I should be out every night with the rest of the young people, fixing my hair, spilling my beer, trying to get someone to touch my penis.. So yet, I could be out, enjoying this freedom specifically and that... ... did very little lecturing (something everyone's parents love to do) and just let Toph explore life as it came. This is shown when Dave picks up Toph from the girls house. Toph had played his first game of spin the bottle. Dave has all these expectations for Toph and was disappointed to hear that Toph thought nothing special of the girls, but instead of going into his regrets he had, he just let it be, because Toph will figure it out. This seems to be the parenting model in which Dave and Toph's relationship is about. Dave spent less time sheltering and trying to mold Toph to his expectations and more time just having fun with him. This created Toph to become an independent and responsible child. Because Toph was not a conventional parent, some may argue that Dave has little responsibility in Toph's maturing, but don't tell Dave, "parent almighty", so.