Theme Of Job History And The Open Boat By Annie Proulx

Annie Proulx’s “Job History” and “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane contain faceless characters. The characters in both stories do not have any personality in them. Annie Proulx and Stephen Crane create these characters with two different story techniques. Their characters do not appeal to the empathy of the reader because the reader is prevented from having an emotional connection with them thus, inducing the facelessness of the characters.

In “Job History”, the facelessness of the characters is created through the plot. Annie Proulx describes to us the banal and repetitive life of Leeland Lee. His life is the main focus of the story and there is no insight to the person that he is. It is a story about what Leeland Lee did rather than who he is. Annie Proulx makes the construction of Leeland Lee’s character believable but not relatable. The plot is just a continuous repetition of the failures of Leeland Lee’s aspirations. He moves from job to job due to dissatisfaction, his business ventures flop continuously and most of his family abandons him. It leaves the reader thinking, “Why am I reading this?” Or “Is this some sort of autobiography? It looks like a Wikipedia page.” And more importantly “Am I supposed to be enjoying or learning from Leeland Lee’s life?” It is safe to conclude that there is not truly a moral lesson to be learnt from this melancholic short story. Perhaps, Annie Proulx just felt like free writing and this story was born then revised. However, it is evident that Annie Proulx does not want the reader to understand Leeland’s personality. Annie Proulx does not elaborate on how Leeland feels about the misfortunes that habitually appear in his life. When his mother dies, she offers no revelation of Leeland’s emoti...

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...one is dull and melancholic, although Proulx and Crane achieve this effect with different methods. Proulx does this by portraying Leeland Lee’s life as pages of abrupt facts. Her story reduces Leeland Lee’s life to bullet points on a Microsoft PowerPoint. She effectively dehumanizes him and makes him seem as relevant as a table. However, Crane uses the setting to achieve the same tone. His redundant description of the sea and sky as dull and gloomy makes the tone of the story depressing.

Both authors use very different methods to achieve the same effect on their readers. The amalgamation of the diverse techniques Crane and Proulx utilize creates a solemn atmosphere in both stories. “Job History” and “The Open Boat” portrays characters that are void of personality. This absence of personality prevents the reader from true empathy or understanding of the characters.