critical response#4

“Sleeping Through Starvation” by Michael Czyniejewski was an interesting and very short read. I liked it. It was surprising for me that there could be such a short story that had such a well developed character arch. The protagonist goes from being examined in a doctor’s office with medical students taking turns sticking their fingers in his buttocks to feel his prostate and talking about an article about monkey evolving faster and faster. Then it switches to him going to see his wife and new son and they talk about the decision of castration. The protagonist discusses how scarring the process was for his older brother when he had it done when he was a school boy. With all these seemingly irrelevant even random events, the Czyniejewski is still able to end this story with a serious and powerful reflection.

I really admire his style of writing. It’s a pleasure to read because of the style in which he introduces the reader to his characters. I think what makes this story especially interesting is how he breaks your expectations of the main character in the last paragraph. He makes the protagonist sound like an easy going guy whose main focus at the present time is the increasing speed at which monkeys are developing. Then we find out that he is in the doctor’s office casually talking about monkeys while fingers continually are being inserted in his rear. It’s the comfort that the protagonist shows in this situation that indicates that he’s done this before or that it’s normal for him, and in this society this sort of procedure is not what the normal person goes through on a daily basis. But the realization at the end that his son will outlive him and that nature will indeed pass him by regardless, which is an issue that the male monkeys are facing as well because their offspring are growing up faster than expected. From this you see the connection between the monkeys and the protagonist in that his son will to start growing up faster than his father is ready for. Overall I really liked the how concise yet deep the story is.