Carver Briggs Character Analysis in Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

Significant events in a person’s life can severely impact their mental health. In the book, Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner, the main character, Carver Briggs, accidentally murders his three best friends (Mars, Eli, and Blake) by sending a seven-word text to Mars, the driver of the car. As a result he must endure many consequences. Carver attempts to cope with his weakening mental state as a result of circumstances of his friends’ deaths. The factors and consequences that begin to occur in Carver’s life following the accident, lead him to experience panic attacks and attempt to defeat him. 

Throughout the book, Carver develops feelings for Eli’s girlfriend, Jesmyn, and feels an overwhelming amount of guilt because of it. While hanging out with Jesmyn, he feels, “A stab of guilt steals my breath, Eli isn’t here because of me, while I joke around with his girlfriend and talk about who we are and where we came from; while we partake of a tradition that should have been Eli’s. I beat down a wave of queasiness and dread” (Zentner 79). Carver feels very guilty being with Jesmyn because he feels like he is replacing Eli. He believes that everything that he does with Jesmyn is something that Eli was supposed to do with Jesmyn if Eli was still alive. Carver blames himself for killing Eli and taking his place and this leads to negative emotions which in turn lead to the panic attacks he experiences.

Carver also has to endure the recurring torment of his friends’ family members blaming him for the deaths of their relatives. Eli’s twin sister, Adair, has the most vocal opinion about who was to blame for the accident. Carver says, “I go to my locker to grab my books for my next class. …I see a small, cream-colored card lying on the floor of the locker. I pick it up and ash falls from it. It’s not some crappy notecard. It has an expensive heft to it. In a clean, elegant typeface, it says: MURDERER. I can sense Adair’s eyes, and the eyes of others, scorching my back” (Zentner 334). Adair was trying to embarrass Carver and convince everyone that he was responsible for the deaths of Eli, Mars, and Blake. This constant torment from Adair and others caused Carver to feel guiltier and lonelier and as a result causes Carver to experience the negative emotions which lead to the panic attacks.

The overwhelming emotions that Carver acquired because of the ramifications of the accident caused him to have multiple panic attacks. His first panic attack occurred after Blake’s funeral. During the panic attack Carver explained, “Gray, desolate dread descends on me—a cloud of ash blocking the sun. A complete absence of light or warmth. A tangible, mold-scented obscurity. A revelation: I will never again experience happiness” (Zentner 36). Carver becomes so distraught from what he has gone through that it has caused him to break down and have panic attacks. He believes that he will never be able to recover from the pain he has gained from these circumstances.

Shown in the book, Goodbye Days, by Jeff Zentner, Carver had to learn how to cope with the accident and how it caused his mental health to decline dramatically. Carver started to develop feelings for Jesmyn and that caused him to feel very guilty because he felt like he was stealing something that was rightfully Eli’s. Carver also had to deal with the feelings of guilt and embarrassment that Adair kept resurrecting in him, if they had not already resurfaced without her help. On top of all of this, Carver started having panic attacks when his emotions would become too much to handle. Throughout the book, Carver struggled with his declining mental state because of this serious event in his life.