Sanderson holds a master of fine arts degree in fiction writing and is an independent writer. In this essay, Sanderson examines Joe's use of Kit Carson and Tom in Saroyan's play. 

One of the most striking facts in William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life is that Joe is nearly immobile. Joe is the play's central character—nearly every other character exchanges at least a line or two with him, and he comments on all that he sees from his chair in Nick's bar. In fact, Joe's chair seems almost like a throne, an exalted perch from which he commands Tom to bring him odd items, dispenses small bits of wisdom, and grants favors for his preferred subjects.

If Joe is a king, though, he is an impotent one, in all senses of the word. John A. Mills explains it succinctly in the Midwest Quarterly...