George Saunders’ “Sea Oak,” a story depicting an
impoverished, low-class family and their financial struggles, falls short in
character development. First, the audience is never told Min and Jade’s age,
although both are old enough to have (but failed to) graduate high school. Min
says to the narrator, “You got your frigging diploma. We don’t. That’s why we
have to do this GED shit.” They both have young children, yet this still leaves
an age range between eighteen and the late-twenties. Additionally, the two
characters are nearly identical, as one’s dialogue is indistinct from the
other’s.
“Are those
them?” says Jade.
“Those are
them,” says Min.
“I am
freaking out,” says Jade.
“I am
totally freaking out,” says Min.
This dialogue is extremely repetitive, yet the repetition
fails to do much for the overall story. The dialogue is not used to emphasize
an important point in the story; it simply reiterates the characters’
stupidity. Granted, their stupidity is an important element because it illustrates
their immaturity, which Aunt Bernie returns from the dead to help them overcome.
However, their stupidity is over exaggerated at times. For instance, while they
are studying for the GED, they “debate how many sides a triangle has.” This
detail took me out of the story because I find it unbelievable that anyone can
make it to the age eighteen and not know what a triangle is. Additionally, when
they find Aunt Bernie dead on the sofa, Min says, “Touch her neck and see if
you can feel that beating thing!” The term “beating thing” also seems like a
gross exaggeration. If Min knows about the pulse in the neck, then she would
know the proper word for it. Thus, Min and Jade’s characters are both
exaggerated and underdeveloped.
Secondly, I
never get a clear understanding of the narrator’s character. He is not given a
name, and while this is not immediately a fault, I feel that other less
significant characters, such a Lloyd Betts, are developed more than the
narrator. For example, the reader is not only given Lloyd’s name but also a
physical description of him. We are told, “his hair’s gone thin” and he plays
“solitaire in a hunched-over position that gives him big gut rolls.” Yet the
narrator never offers a description of himself, which would be plausible
considering the story begins with him describing his job as a stripper. He also
talks about the rankings of Knockout, Honeypie, Adequate, and Stinker that each
stripper is subject to. Though the narrator describes two other strippers, the
only detail he offers about himself is that he is “a solid Honeypie/Adequate.”
Finally,
the narrator’s character is extremely passive, as he almost never speaks. His
first dialogue quote comes on the fifth page, and it includes three words to
his boss: “I’ll be back.” After this, he has only seven more short lines in a
twenty-page story, thus never truly engaging in conversations with his family.
More importantly, though, is his unimpassioned responses to the violence and
gruesome happenings in the story. For instance, when Troy’s toy duck gets hit
with a bullet, the narrator shows no signs of horror but simply leaves the house
to “find the beak of Troy’s duck and fix it with Elmer’s.” This passivity is
repeated throughout the story, such as when Aunt Bernie dies. While Min and
Jade panic, he simply calls 911. I find his reactions to the story’s events to
be too passive. Thus, the main characters in “Sea Oak” require more development.
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