Sea Oak Reflection

I really loved this short story. Saunders manages to create story that is both cleverly funny and incredibly unsettling. I really loved the punny name of the male strip club, "Joysticks". The short story was full of small instances of humor like that. I giggled out loud when Jade called Bernie an "optometrist" when she meant to say "optimist". Growing up in a less wealthy part of town, I thought Saunders' description of their derelict lifestyles was pretty realistic. Additionally, the petty squabbling between Min and Jade is pretty representative of the type of infighting I would see in the families who live in such cramped conditions. I can see that many people would think that Bernie's crudeness after her resurrection was out of the blue, but I actually see how it makes sense. I can seen time and time again stressed matriarchs finally lashing out at their families after decades of neglect and abuse. After raising generation after generation only to see your descendants remain in the same lazy and ignorant ways, you would have a lot of pent up anger. Why not express when you've been mysteriously granted resurrection and telekinesis? I'll be thinking about the ending of this piece for a while. I wonder if Troy will really die and if the narrator ever made enough money to go back to school by exposing himself. Truly an odd and somewhat emotionally scarring story.