In Jonathan Lethem's personal narrative essay "13,1977,21, " Lethem reflects on when he was 13 years old, in the year 1977 where he watched the film Star Wars 21 times. However, the essay is not actually talking about the Star Wars film. It is about how Lethem used going to the movies to remove himself or hide from the real life such as his mother's illness and the recent divorce of his parents.
The essay is very informal. Lethem uses sarcasm, curses, witty comments and references to pop culture in his text. The witty tone and cleverness are good, but it probably wouldn't appeal to a more formal and professional reader. The tone could be described as witty but also nostalgic. With reflecting on his trips to the movie theater along, Lethem reflects on his awkward preteen years, which it was speculated by his parents whom he was a boy.
As I think, Lethem numbered each paragraph to go alone with the significant of numbers in his essay. For example, the title of essay "13,1977,21" begins to make sense once he introduces the events of 1977, where he watched a film 21 times at the age of 13. These numbers are very meaningful. Lethem's 21 trips to the movie theater to see Star Wars was not entirely his fascination with or like the movie. He used plaza as a hiding place from the gradual loss of his mother to the brain tumor and already absent father. Watching the film many times in the summer of 1977 can help him to copy with his teenage struggles.