Saturday, March 14, 2020

William Wei and tone

The story of "William Wei" truly confused me at first.  It took me the second reading in class to really think critically about the story.  I realized that the tone of the story is very sexual and depressive.  The narrator of William Wei is a man who had previously had problems with drinking and drugs.  Also, he objectifies women, like when he only remembers a girl by the shoes she wears, the pink high heel shoes.  His drinking problems most likely caused him problems in the past before the story takes place because the story takes place and he mentions how he doesn't drink anymore and that he is also somewhat celibate.  The depressive tone I felt throughout the story has many examples but my main reason for this tone was the fact that he was stuck in the same routine throughout the beginning of the story.  He would work, go to hot yoga and eat the same dinner while watching the same movie.  Also when Koko calls him she mentions that his friends are worried about him and when confronted with his routine he denies it.  The sexual tone in the story is much more prevalent in the story.  He discusses the DISGUSTING porn that he watches.  This story was truly hard to understand due to the fact that the narrator jumps around from the main story to side notes which gave me the feeling that he is on drugs while narrating it.

1 comment:

  1. This is important to point out, Stephen. Fiction is about the thing that never happened before and William's life, no matter how weird it might seem to us, is very routine. That is, until Koko calls him. She disrupts this routine and gives the story a reason to be. She is like a chemical rxn, a catalyst. IN some ways, it's kind of strange that the story isn't called "Koko" instead of "William Wei." Why do you think that is?

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