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An Analysis Of Tim Gautreaux's 'Waiting For The Evening News'

1312 Words6 Pages

In the short story “Waiting for the Evening News”, the author, Tim Gautreaux creates a negative tone towards Jesse and how he deals with his actions and that tone creates a theme of the importance to take accountability for your actions. He does this by characterizing Jesse through his thoughts and actions, the imagery of the crime scene, and through the people he interacts with during his hiding. Gautreaux characterizes Jesse as a selfish, drunk man who will not own up to his to decisions to give the character room to change and to progressively learn he needs to take accountability for his actions. One of the common ways that Gautreaux shows his negative attitude towards Jesse is by characterizing him as a nobody. The narrator says, “The sense of being invisible made Jesse think he could not be taken seriously, which was why he never voted, hardly ever renewed his driver’s license, and paid attention in church only once a year at revival …show more content…

One of the first people the author has him cross paths with is the barber, “I ain’t heard of a wreck,” Jesse said. The barber bobbed his head. “Awe yeah. You come in from the forest, hey? You from Mississippi, right? Hay-baling time and all that shit.” Jesse found himself nodding, glad to be given some kind of identity.” Jesse has not come to terms that what he has done is wrong at this point in the story and the author shows that by how he reacts to the barber. Instead of telling the barber he was the man that caused the accident he gets excited about how the man is giving him some sort of worth. This interaction shows Jesse’s initial attitude. Then as the story evolves he calls his wife and she says, “I know you messed up big, but please don’t come back here. If you turn yourself in, find a single policeman somewhere and do it. Baby, these people think you

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