Orientation: A Short Story

The Narrator

The narrator presents him or herself as the orientation guide of the office, talking to the readers as an audience.

"Anika Bloom sits in that cubicle. Last year, while reviewing quarterly reports in a meeting with Barry Hacker, Anika Bloom's left palm began to bleed. She fell into a trance, stared into her hand, and told Barry Hacker when and how his wife would die. We laughed it off. She was, after all, a new employee. But Barry Hacker's wife is dead. So unless you want to know exactly when and how you'll die, never talk to Anika Bloom."

"Barry Hacker, who sits over there, steals food from this refrigerator. His petty theft is an outlet for his grief. Last New Year's Eve, while kissing his wife, a blood vessel burst in her brain. Barry Hacker's wife was two months pregnant at the time and lingered in a coma for half a year before she died. [...] But his dead wife haunts him. She haunts all of us. We have seen her, reflected in the monitors of our computers, moving past our cubicles. We have seen the dim shadow of her face in our photocopies. She pencils herself in the receptionist's Voicemail box, messages garbled by the electronic chirrups and buzzes in the phone line, her voice echoing from an immense distance within the ambient hum. But the voice is hers. And beneath the voice, beneath the tidal whoosh of static and hiss, the gurgling and crying of a baby can be heard.

Hi, husband

Tone of the Story

Now let's take a brief tour of the office!

The orientation guide has an informative tone.

"The men's room is over there. The women's room is over there. John LaFountaine, who sits over there, uses the women's room occasionally. He says it is accidental. We know better, but we let it pass."

Important Lines

Orientation: A Short Story

by Daniel Orozco

• Opening lines: "Those are the offices and these are the cubicles. That's my cubicle there, and this is your cubicle."
• Closing lines: "If you can't find them, feel free to ask me. That's my cubicle. I sit in there."
• Thesis: There really is no thesis. The absense of the thesis adds to the narrative style of the story.

More About the Essay

Other types of Writing

The essay is a how-it works essay over the office life and the employees. It provides work etiquette, locations, and gossip.

Figurative and Striking/Effective Language

• Narrative. Tells the stories of some of the employees.
• Descriptive. "And this, this is our view. [...] It overlooks the park, where the tops of those trees are. [...] You can see the sun set in the gap between those two buildings over there."

The essay is structured in a point by point manner to replicate a tour. The narrator will talk about things like the phone or the Voicemail System then go on to another point like the individual employees and their stories.

• Hyperbole: "Her cubicle is plastered from top to bottom with the boy's crayon artwork." "[...] if all six were to simultaneously fall victim to illness or injury - stricken with a hideous degenerative muscle disease or some rare toxic blood disorder, sprayed with semiautomatic gunfire while on a class field trip, or attacked by some prowling nocturnal lunatic [...]"
• Imagery: "You can see this building reflected in the class panels of that building across the way. There. See? That's you, waving. And look there. There's Anika Bloom in the kitchenette, waving back."

Background Info

• "This is our kitchenette. And this, this is our Mr. Coffee. We have a coffee pool into which we each pay two dollars a week for coffee, filters, sugar, and Coffe-mate."
• "This is the micro wave oven. You are allowed to heat food in the microwave oven. You are not, however, allowed to cook food in the microwave oven."
• "This is the Custodian's Closet. You have no business in the Custodian's Closets."