Orientation

The short story "Orientation", Daniel Orozco started the introduction off differently from most story introductions; without any background, Orozco went straight into the story of telling a new employee their job. It was as though Orozco implied the reader was informed of the background information to the story about the new employee entering their job who was getting an overview of what they have in store for them. Orozco also does not introduce the narrator.

There is no actual dialogue between the narrator and main character, but it is implied that dialogue does exist in the story. The main character never spoke nor asked a question, so how can the narrator state, “That was a good question. Feel free to ask questions.” As the reader, I did not see any dialogue from the main character, it is implied that the narrator heard the main character ask a question, so the narrator made it clear that the main character asked a question by repeating it. "You must pace your work. What do I mean? I'm clad you asked that."

The office being explained seemed like a stereotype kind of office, plain and nothing out of the ordinary. “Those are the offices and these are the cubicles.” The story then continued on about what the title had explained with a bit of a twist out of a generic stereotype kind of ordeal. Orozco also added in detailed information about some of the lives of the current employees. The tone is boring and nothing out of the ordinary until the narrator speaks of the current employees. For example, Amanda Pierce’s husband “subjects her to an escalating array of painful and humiliating sex games, to which Amanda Pierce reluctantly submits. She comes to work exhausted and freshly wounded each morning, wincing from the abrasions on her breasts, or the bruises on her abdomen, or the second-degree burns on the backs of her thighs.” The narrator goes into Amanda Pierce’s personal information which then brings me, the reader, to an uncomfortable mood or feeling. Professionally, this is not information that should be spoken in the office environment, or even much at any job setting. And again, the main character did not ask about personal information on Amanda Pierce, the narrator just implied that the main character wanted to know more about the personal life of Mrs. Pierce. The narrator, then continues to talk about more of the employees (Larry Bagdikian, Barry Hacker, Gwendolyn Stich, etc. ) yet he fails to mention any personal information on the narrator himself.

One claim that the story is making, is that the main character/new employee is not important to the office as the current workers. The narrator states the basic things the employee can do, but goes into more juicy detailing when it comes to the current office workers. "This is your Voicemail System Manual. There are no personal phone calls allowed."

The story works at the emotions of the reader by stating personal information on the current employees, yet the narrator failed to mention anything about himself. The narrator tells the main character about all these things the employees do to make the main character believe that everyone has a different side to them, or information on them that the main character should know about. When the narrator failed to mention anything personal about himself, he just lured the main character into believing that the narrator has no personal information that must be told, which makes it seem as though the narrator keeps things on a professional level at the office, while the other current employees do not.