Blog post

“The Semplica Girls” by George Saunders a futuristic and poignant comedy about a poor man dealing with his family issues. It is written in first person as a diary. In this story he has a series of events that are joyous and very tough. The main character tries to keep his family together and happy. One thing I respect about the main character is his constant want to make his family happy. Also, along with trying to make his family happy he also tries to stay optimistic, and in the climax of the story his attempt to keep him and his family happy is thwarted.

            My first example of his attempt to keep his family happy is when his family is invited to his daughter’s rich friend’s birthday party. In this chapter he tries to keep his family positive, but he doesn’t feel very positive himself. For example, the title of the chapter is “most depressing birthday party.” However, when his kids try to comment about the family’s poverty he reassures them that they are doing okay financially. This shows his optimistic instinct.

             Another example is after he flips on his daughter for costing the family their house.  “Its ok Eva, we are not gonna lose the house, I’m sorry for shouting at you.” In this scene the inner dialogue is that he had to lie to Eva because he couldn’t stand her being upset. This scene shows how the character is an optimistic person, and how he has to keep his family optimistic, even if that means lying.

             In conclusion, I like this character because he is optimistic, but I know that it could be an error as well. It is a flaw in the instance that Eva will feel even worse if the house is lost and especially when his kids realize all of the lies that he tells are lies and they are in a tough financial position.