New Committee Members Blog

In “Dear Committee Members”, Jay Fitger is seen as a witty, sarcastic, easy going guy. He works in the English department as the Professor of Creative Writing and English. The same English department which is up for a few repairs, as he mentions more than once throughout his recommendations. The interesting characteristic that Jay has is that the same man who complains constantly throughout the novel, is the same person who will stick up for his kids and take hours out his day and actually be huddled in the corner of his office in order to write these recommendations. Jay represents incongruity theory as he is constantly stating absurd comments which are not appropriate at all for recommendations. For example on page 40, Jay is writing a recommendation for Professor Ali, but instead of primarily talking about Ali, Jay goes back and forth from paragraph to paragraph and complains all of the problems the English department has. One problem which I found quite amusing was the fact that the ceiling is leaking and Jay jokes that the water is from the jacuzzi from the Economics department, hinting that the Economic department receives better care than the English department. The fact that Jay is discussing all of his personal problems is seen as inappropriate when the attention of the letter should have been on Ali. The other example of how Jay represent incongruity theory is that he speaks badly sometimes upon the students he is writing recommendations for. The idea of talking badly about a student that you are supposed to be praising is simply the complete opposite of what is expected. This example of talking about how a student was struggling in Jay’s class and didn't do very well is going against the purpose. This absurdity and unexpectedness by the narcissistic character Jay is precisely what the incongruity encompasses.