Daniel Orozco’s “Orientation”
The new employee is unimportant in Daniel Orozco’s “Orientation”
The short story “Orientation” by Daniel Orozco is a unique story. Orozco never introduces the narrator or the audience. The story appears to be, just as the title specifies, an orientation for a person entering a new job. The story, however, delves deep into the lives of several employees throughout the story. The lives of these employees and their interactions become the most important part of Orozco’s work and the main character that is being spoken to becomes an unimportant observer in an intricate atmosphere.
The story is told in the first person voice. The narrator is talking to one particular person; He refers to this character in the second person voice. “This is your phone.” The narrator is talking directly to the new employee, the main character.
The main character never speaks. It is implied that dialogue exists. “That was a good question. Feel free to ask questions.” The narrator has acknowledged that the listener has asked a question. The reader never actually sees the question that the listener asks, though. Instead, the narrator rephrases the listener’s question and repeats it back to him. By having the narrator do this, Orozco makes the listener less important. His/her dialogue is not even important enough to include in the text and must be repeated by the narrator in order to be included in the story. However, contradictory to the listener’s seemed unimportance, the narrator urges the listener to ask more questions. The specific job that the listener is being oriented to is not important to the story, either. The setting is a generic office atmosphere. “These are the offices and these are the cubicles.” By using this stereotypical and conventional setting, Orozco makes the things that happen to individual employees even more outrageous. The outrageous events create a contrasting tone. The typical office orientation situation is invaded by shocking situations such as Amanda
The short story “Orientation” by Daniel Orozco is a unique story. Orozco never introduces the narrator or the audience. The story appears to be, just as the title specifies, an orientation for a person entering a new job. The story, however, delves deep into the lives of several employees throughout the story. The lives of these employees and their interactions become the most important part of Orozco’s work and the main character that is being spoken to becomes an unimportant observer in an intricate atmosphere.
The story is told in the first person voice. The narrator is talking to one particular person; He refers to this character in the second person voice. “This is your phone.” The narrator is talking directly to the new employee, the main character.
The main character never speaks. It is implied that dialogue exists. “That was a good question. Feel free to ask questions.” The narrator has acknowledged that the listener has asked a question. The reader never actually sees the question that the listener asks, though. Instead, the narrator rephrases the listener’s question and repeats it back to him. By having the narrator do this, Orozco makes the listener less important. His/her dialogue is not even important enough to include in the text and must be repeated by the narrator in order to be included in the story. However, contradictory to the listener’s seemed unimportance, the narrator urges the listener to ask more questions. The specific job that the listener is being oriented to is not important to the story, either. The setting is a generic office atmosphere. “These are the offices and these are the cubicles.” By using this stereotypical and conventional setting, Orozco makes the things that happen to individual employees even more outrageous. The outrageous events create a contrasting tone. The typical office orientation situation is invaded by shocking situations such as Amanda