The Unnamed Co-worker

The nameless co-worker is the narrator in this story. The co-worker directly addresses the reader as a new employee at the company, and the gender of the co-worker is never revealed. Since there is no dialogue in the story, the co-worker’s narration is the reader’s only access to the plot development, so the co-worker’s role as a narrator is crucial. Moreover, the fact that the co-worker is the only one that speaks in the conversation with the new employee shows that the co-worker is the dominant force in the relationship.

Moreover, the style of the co-worker’s narration explores various themes in this story. For example, the abundance of office jargon creates an atmosphere of bureaucracy. In addition, the juxtaposition of topics like office policies and extreme violence highlights the theme of tragedy and human nature, because juxtaposing these topics causes the reader...