High Fidelity by Nick Hornby is a novel about the life and love struggles of Rob Fleming, a thirty-five year old male living in London, England. Rob owns a failing record store called Championship Vinyl and has a bad history and past with relationships and finding someone to settle down with. Rob has been seeing Laura recently, but early in the novel we learn that Laura has just left Rob for another man named Ian. At the beginning of the story, Rob talks about his five most memorable breakups, but Laura isn't on the list. We learn that Laura affected him emotionally and physically due to Rob stating everything that went wrong in his past relationships and how she relates to him in the present day. Rob feels very insecure about himself and his relationships with others, to the point that he is examining himself about these relationships and past mistakes. Whether it's his past girlfriends or his more recent relationship with Laura, Rob can't seem to let go of the past and move forward in his life. Rob's love life can be linked to the performance of his record shop, Rob often remembers his days as a DJ, just as he remembers his past girlfriends, and is also dissatisfied with his current performance in his shop. He has two colleagues who he doesn't like at first but he doesn't have the strength to resolve it, just as he has problems with his relationship with Laura, instead of resolving it, he takes the cowardly route and ends It. A very important theme throughout the novel is Rob's struggle with self-confidence. His struggle with self-confidence stems from a list of a multitude of elements, two of which are the most important. Rob struggles with self-confidence due to rejection from his past girlfriends, having a mediocre record store, and not being confident with his masculinity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Rob Fleming is a man of many characters, one of which, however, is a lack of self-confidence. In High Fidelity, we learn about past relationships and girlfriends Rob has had. At first, Rob reflects on these relationships which he then compares to his most recent breakup with his ex-girlfriend, Laura. Each of these five most memorable breakups left a huge impact on Rob and his life in general. At the beginning he explains why these breakups were so memorable and the impact the girl left on him. His struggle with self-confidence began from the moment he started talking to Penny Hardwick, who was number two on his list of the five most memorable breakups. For a long time while he was dating Penny, Rob was so worried about touching her chest. He constantly tried but after a while he gave up because he realized that he would get nothing from her. Recently, after that breakup, Penny had started seeing a guy called Chris Thomson, who had had more girlfriends than anyone else at the time. It was learned that just after three weeks of Rob being out of the picture, Chris came in and did what Rob couldn't. “You never had a tit in three months, and I fucked it in the first week!” (Hornby 14). From this point on Rob began to feel unsure of himself. I had been humiliated, beaten, outperformed; I felt stupid, and small, and much, much younger than this unpleasant, oversized, big-mouthed idiot (Hornby 14). Rob felt embarrassed about what had happened and about his entire relationship with Penny. All it took was for one guy, an oversized idiot, to completely ruin her self-esteem. This affected Rob his entire lifeuntil now. He felt like a failure back then, so he carries all that failure into his current relationships, whether they're romantic or not. MikkoKeskinen, author of Single, Long-Playing, and Compilation: The Formats of Audio and Amorousness in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, says that being out of sync or in a bad signal-to-noise ratio interferes with Rob's high fidelity, meaning both commitment and fidelity to the ideal of healthy relationships. He carries all these past emotions into new ones and then is never able to regain his trust because he can't let go of the past. He's stuck and afraid to move because he's afraid of rejection because he's already been rejected so many times and differently each time, hence the five most memorable breakups. For Rob to truly regain his self-confidence, he will need to find a girl to settle down with permanently, which he can't because he is stuck on the idea of ​​rejection due to his lack of self-confidence. His more current relationship with Laura has also had a huge impact on his self-confidence issue. According to Joanne Knowles, author of High Fidelity; A guide for the reader, She (Laura), is the one who pushes for progress and development in life and in their relationship, while Rob remains static. Significantly, he claims to have met her after she left him. This shows that Rob cannot be independent and that his confidence comes from being with someone else. He wants to visit Laura and connect with her constantly after their breakup. Knowles also states that Laura is the one pushing for progress and development in their life and relationship. Rob remains static because he doesn't want to change because that would mean letting go of his past and his insecurities from previous relationships. Rob lets his self-confidence issue control every aspect of his life, including his job at the record store, his relationships with friends, and especially his relationships with girlfriends. Rob is unable to grow and develop in his character and persona because he is too focused on what everyone else has to say about him. He is very sensitive and cannot work with others in the way he needs to create a healthy, lasting relationship. The allusion Hornby is trying to make based on Rob's insecurity and lack of self-confidence is that people shouldn't be so worried about what others think of them. They should focus on improving themselves and the current relationships they have and let go of past relationships. While we can learn lessons from past relationships, we shouldn't let it affect current ones to the point that we struggle with our self-esteem to the point that we end up pushing people away, which is what Rob does. He has no self-confidence and when something goes wrong in his relationships, he ends up resorting to the fact that he is a bum and will never succeed in life. He blames himself for his problems which also cause his lack of self-confidence. According to Robert Christgau, author of Boys Will Be Men, when Rob is dejected he believes he has "reached adolescence and stopped dead." Rob is unable to overcome this adolescent phase of his life which is affecting him in a traumatic way. He believes that there is nothing good ahead of him in his life because he cannot forget this phase of his life. Rob believes this is the high point of his life. Rob's career can also symbolize how his relationships turn out, for example Rob felt that the DJ career was too much for him, he didn't feel capable of being a part of it. of such a great lifestyle, this may be related to her relationship with Charlie, she felt she couldn't live up to hisstandard, I felt like I was on a dangerously narrow ledge. I could never get comfortable, if you know what I mean. I was afraid that I would never be able to tell her anything interesting or funny about anything (Hornby23). Another thing that can be linked to his career and relationships is the failure of his record store and his failed relationship with Laura, no matter what happened in the relationship, good or bad, Rob seemed to have an approach where no matter what happened was out of his control, even if it was. This concerns his colleagues Dick and Barry. Both Dick and Barry worked part-time, three days each, but shortly after I hired them they both started showing up every day, including Saturdays (Hornby 41). Rob had no intention of having two full-time workers and it is completely within his power to force Dick and Barry to work only three days each, but instead of taking control of the situation he does nothing about it, allowing him to feel sorry for himself, as usual. Rob's tone towards Laura in the relationship is that he is not willing to put in the effort to resolve any problems that arise, it's either his way or he will sulk, this may be reflected in the way he runs his shop as a manager. For example, when Barry chases away a customer by rudely criticizing his daughter's taste in music and Rob tries to set Barry straight and instead ends up with Barry telling Rob that he's gone soft in old age. BARRY: "You're going soft with your old age, Rob. There was a time when you would have kicked him out of the shop and into the street” ROB: “He's right there was that kind of anger” (Hornby 54) Instead of finishing what he started by forcing Barry to respect the customers, he ends up accepting Barry's criticism and agreeing with him shows how Rob's insecurity affects his life of a shop owner, and his insecurity can also be clearly seen in his relationship with Laura. When Laura returns to Rob's house for the first time since the breakup to pick up some things, and Rob is eager to ask outstanding questions about his. new found companion, Ian. There are a lot of things I want to ask; did you miss me even just a little, do you love me, do you love him, do you want to end up with him, do you want to have kids with him, is it better, is it better, IS IT BETTER? (Hornby 106). All of this shows how the insecurity of the dress eats away at his mind and influences his actions. While Rob's past girlfriends play a major role in compromising his self-esteem, the even bigger problem is the fact that he is unsure of his masculinity. While reading the novel, the reader understands that Rob has no confidence in himself or his masculinity. There is a complete lack of confidence in his ability to succeed. The prime example of this would be Rob's record store. In society today, men are considered, more often than not, to be the breadwinners of the family, meaning that they are the ones who bring home the money to their families. This brings men a sense of security in their relationships and also gives them a sense of masculinity. However, Rob has difficulty with this aspect because he has a failing shop and cannot earn the money he needs. Even worse, Laura is the one who wants all the money since she's a new lawyer. Rob is failing so badly that he had to borrow money from Laura and still owes her money to this day. This leads him to have a lack of self-confidence because he is not even sure of his masculinity in terms of work. According to Barry Faulk, author of Love, Lists and Class in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, these novels serve to compensate for the lack of status of these.