Gabija Miliūtė

"The Wavemaker Falters" depicts the story of an unfortunate man who works at a water park and
has a series of crises, highlighting his reaction to each. In the story, the characters keep their true
emotions to themselves, which eventually brings about their destruction. In “The Wavemaker
Falters”, the narrator and the protagonist of the story is compelled to repress his anger toward his
colleague Leon because he himself is struggling with the guilt of killing a young boy through
grave technical negligence. He is overpowered by passivity and resignation, two elements by
which he leads his day to day life. This leads to his downfall as he loses his happiness, his wife
and all that had once been significant to him, the story follows a series of events that leads the
protagonist Mr. Guilt to desperation: he accidentally kills a boy, has the boy’s ghost talk to him at
night, catches his wife, Simone, cheating on him with his co-worker Leon, is almost killed by the
dead boy’s father; and wanders in the hills near his house, vowing to change who he is. Guilt is a
widely used motif in literary works. The writer George Saunders has said that his work is strongly
influenced by Russian literature, especially Fyodor Dostoyevsky.(Enslin, 2022) It is probably for a
good reason that, when I was reading the short story, I was tempted to compare Dostoyevsky's
character in “Crime and Punishment” with Saunders' Mr. Guilt. I could sense a certain thread of
similar emotions among the characters. Although there is one main difference between the two
works - the protagonist of “Crime and Punishment” commits murder in the pursuit of justice, while
the protagonist of “The Wavemaker Falters” accidentally kills a child - both protagonists
experience a heavy emotional burden and an identity crisis after the painful events. In any case, I
am sure that the author's work was influenced by the most influential Russian novelists. In this
analysis I am aiming to focus on how characters in “The Wavemaker Falters” process the world
around them and how they cope with their own mistakes and tragedies surrounding them.

It is fair to assume that the setting that is portrayed in the story is of grave importance. The
sequence in "The Wavemaker Falters" opens with a description of a replicated Spanish trout
stream that uses a lot of phony scientific terminology. The stream can be discovered inside a theme
park that, thanks to the marvel of contemporary technology, replicates the Basque countryside. The
synthetic details of this artificial environment are mentioned multiple times in the story: “resilient
synthetic material” (p.34), “the fake Basques” (p.35), “The trees are synthetic too”(p.35), etc. It is
easy to believe the the authors way of displaying the environment in this way might have a buried
intention to emphasize the “fakeness” of the world. Nevertheless, it imposes the feeling that the
main character, who often brings up these details in his narrative, could be the one that is real and
relatable to the reader, dismissing other characters as trustwothy and reliable. The beginning of
"The Wavemaker Falters" serves as an excellent illustration of how Saunders' prose influences the
humor in his stories. Sister Viv, from “Center for Wayward Nuns” is at the theme park one day,
sitting on the ground, a few feet from a dumpster housed in a granite boulder made of a tough
synthetic material when she falls into the water. The protagonist, Mr. Guilt, dives in and drags her
out. Viv comes to and spits in the protagonist’s face and states he couldn’t possibly know the
darkness in her heart, to which the protagonist responds, “Try me”. Later, the nun proceeds to
crawl away and starts bashing her head against a tree trunk. That is where the narrator seems to
have a sarcastic moment in his mind. He thinks: “The trees are synthetic too. But still.”

It is also important to discuss the focalisation of the piece, three of which are internal focalisation,
external focalisation and zero focalisation. Internal focalisation means that the narrative focuses on
thoughts and emotions, while external focalisation focuses only on the characters' actions,
behaviour, environment etc. Zero focalisation occurs when the narrator is omniscient in the sense
that he is not limited. The story is written in the first person and is largely made up of the narrator's
thoughts and insights. "The Wavemaker Falters" the narrator is the one that most extensively
captures the behaviour of the other characters and surroundings, which omits the internal and zero
focalisations mentioned above. What is most astonishing, is the author's ability to engage the
reader by avoiding the use of adjectives describing emotions and inner feelings in the story,
instead, using a very vivid depiction of the reality of events, as well as irony. It could be the
skillful way of portraying tragedy of an ordinary man. Even though events depicted in the short
story may seem outlandish, but with an indulgent bend of the mind, it is possible to ground
Saunders’ story in real life: a very unlucky man who hallucinates his grief, suicidal nuns,
impotence as a result of emotional trauma, a woman saved from choking at a wedding by being
stabbed in the throat with a pencil, a Zamboni-selling man who gives questionable marital and
conflict resolution advice, drunken father threatening a man with a gun. The story ”The
Wavemaker Falters” is written in exquisite satire, illustrate hidden emotions and anxieties of
characters, especially the narrator Mr. Guilt, without actually saying anything about what they’re
feeling in a straightforward manner. The author, in a way, lets the readers do the “feeling” part. It
is astonishing how accurately and convincingly the author conveys the inner thoughts of his
characters using descriptions of their behaviour. The motivation behind all of the character's
problems in life is understandable thanks to this frank and in-depth description of their thoughts
and actions.

As in any story, there are major and minor characters. “The Wavemaker Falters” is a story that
seems to contain mostly the major characters. The ones that matter to the plot are, obviously, the
protagonist, the ghost of the young boy named Clive, killed by the protagonist, Mr. Guilt’s wife
Simone, and protagonist’s arch nemesis Leon. There are a few minor characters as well. Those are
nun Viv, Clive’s family and protagonist’s coworkers at the theme park. It feels unjust to say that
those characters are not important to the plot, because they add to the protagonist’s internal
thoughts and the general philosophy of the short story. The complicated part analysing the story is
distinguishing between the protagonists and antagonists. At first glance it appears obvious that the
narrator, Guilt, is the protagonist, and the antagonist is his annoying coworker Leon, that is guilt-
tripping the narrator, often reminding him about the incident at the theme park. However, digging
deeper into the narrative, one might get it all mixed up. What if the protagonist is the only “good
guy” of the story and the antagonist does not come alone? To me personally, it appeared to be fair
to call Clive the protagonist of the story, as well as Guilt. Any other character seems like a devious
antagonist. They make mistakes for which they do not show any remorse. Anyhow, this would be a
non-standard view on the story, therefore the protagonist is the narrator, as it is most common, and
the antagonist is the primary opponent of the hero, and the biggest obstacle standing between the
main character and his goal. In this case I believe it to be Leon, standing between the main
character and his aspiration to heal his psyche after the unfortunate mistake he made at work.
Protagonist’s wife, Simone, is eligible to be a secondary antagonist of the story. She is not
sympathetic to her husband because of the psychological trauma that has left him impotent.
Moreover, she has an affair with Leon, which leads Guilt to crisis. Another point important to
make is the depth of Saunder’s characters in the story. The two types to analyse are round and flat.
A round character is deep and layered character in a story. Round characters are interesting
because they feel like real people. Readers often feel imersed in these characters’ goals, successes,
failures, strengths, and weaknesses. In “The wavemaker Falters” it is obviously the narrator and
the ghost that haunts him. Throghout the story the readers get to truly familiarise with the main
characters personality, his regrets and traumas, as well as his irony filled view on the events of life.
The ghost of the killed boy also fits the standards of a round character due to the detailed
descriptions of his behaviour and how the narrator sees him as a person. In contrast to the round
characters described, flat characters are two-dimensional characters, lacking depth or a genuine
personality. Usually, flat characters have just one or two traits. Often flat characters can be
summarized in one word like “bully” or “love interest” and never digress from, or ascend their
role. Simone, narrator’s wife perfectly fits into the description of a flat character. According to her
literary portrait, she is simply the love interest of the main character and it seems like the only
thing about her is her seeking for sexual ventures. Just like protagonist’s partner, his coworker
Leon is a flat character. He is just his nemesis. Just a man his wife cheats on him with.In addition
to the list of possible character types, a dynamic character refers to a character that undergoes a
deep, significant change over the course of the story. Most main characters will fall under this
character type, the narrator of “The Wavemaker Falters” as well. Growing and shifting, the
dynamic character is a rewarding archetype that appears in most stories because readers enjoy to
see characters grow.
The static character definition is someone who remains unchanged over the course of a story.
Evidently, ghost of Clive and the antagonists Leon and Simone are the ones that stay the same
throughout their story, or at least their devious behaviour never changes.

The events that lead to the climax of the story reveal a subtle shift in the narrators train of thought.
By conducting a transitivity analysis, a change in a pattern of Mr. Guilt’s thoughts can be noticed.
While throughout the story, the dominating thoughts of the protagonist mostly focus on the
surroundings (Descriptions of the nun center, other guests of the theme park, his wife’s Simones
behavior), after the major incident of Clive’s father threatening Guilt with a gun, his focus shifts to
himself (“I peed myself and was ready to die”, “I go for a brisk walk”, “My crotch is cold”, “I sit
there”). It is evident that the major event in the climax of the story made the character shift focus.
This symbolizes a very important change in the main character’s understanding of life: for the first
time, he feels is like he got what he deserved, or at least was on a very thin ice. He felt like he is
not alone in his grief. A shift from mental processes towards material processes, revealed by the
transitivity analysis, is Guilt’s breaking point: by finally letting go of the trauma he exposed
himself to, he can be relieved from the anxieties, when he realised he could be killed.

After considering various story structures, it is surprising to find that this particular short story has
a non-typical structure. The structure is a Fichtean curve. All the way up to the story's grand
climax, the plot elements repeatedly cause a crisis and a brief fall. This structure just so happens to
match the story's plot perfectly, as the protagonist experiences a number of crises that more or less
have a psychological impact on him and cause him to reach the climax and comedown.
Finally, I would like to add a specific emphasis to the original portrayal of George Saunder’s ghost
in the story. In "The Wavemaker Falters" the narrator, Mr. Guilt, is visited several times by the
ghost of Clive, a boy he accidentally crushed to death in the pool's wavemaker unit. Saunders is
concerned with presenting the ghosts as though they could be real. Clive is unsettling to
protagonist but not in the way that ghoulish, spectral, sinister figures, white sheet-clad ghosts are.
He is a sneaker wearing, booger wiping, petty child.“Near dawn he … tucks in the parts of his
body that have been gradually leaking out over the course of the night … . Then he fades,
producing farts with a wet hand under his armpit” (p.40). This, more than the fact that he pesters
him, is what the protagonist is afraid of; namely the too-realistic incarnation of the life he robbed
him of, and what it could have led to: “Even though he’s dead, he’s still basically a kid. … He’s
scariest when he does real kid things … . He tries to be polite, but he’s pretty mad about the future
I denied him” (p.39). In addition to this rather original twist, Saunders adds another one: the main
character’s guilt drives him to secretly try rectifying things with the victim’s family - he mends
things and performs small services, to the point where the daughter begins to believe that her
brother is sending them signs. It’s almost as if he, the protagonist, is the ghost, dealing with a life
of loose ends, and struggling to connect with those around him. I believe the analysis actually
contributes to the message of the short story by presenting how George Saunders did an exquisite
job at presenting how the characters contact with the world and how they cope with psychological
traumas, as well as reminding the reader of the mistakes that are inevitable in life.

Word count:
2301
Refferences:
Enslin, Rob (May 24, 2022). "Writing a Legacy". Syracuse University. Retrieved december 5,
2022.