In "Sea Oak" and "The Barber's Unhappiness", Saunders uses absurdity to represent the view that there is no order in human life. Both of these short stories are surreal but beautiful, funny but contain unbearably hopeless situations. The characters are sad and lost as well as loving. They struggle to make sense of their small lives when "the human condition is essentially absurd," (Abrams 1). .
Aunt Bernie from "Sea Oak" was an unmarried aunt, who dies a virgin. She is frightened to death in a poor apartment, in a bad neighborhood. She always obeyed the law, which never got her anywhere, working at DrugTown. "After fifteen years as Cashier she got demoted to greeter. People would ask where the cold remedies were and she"d point to some big letters on the wall that said Cold Remedies." (Saunders 103) This is a moment where some realize how much this job is similar to their own, meaningless. When Bernie comes back to life, her first plan is to do the things she never got to do while she was alive. She wanted to break every rule and have a better life. Her plan was revert to something new with a different outlook on her life that is shared with others, everyone out for him or herself. The narrator is her nephew, a male stripper in a club called Joysticks. Showing his cock, rather than his oversized "simulator," is a way to make money and break the rules. .
Even though the lives of these characters are incongruous and unreasonable, there is also an embedded message. "You ever been in the grave? It sucks so bad! You regret all the things you never did. You little bitches are going to have a very bad time in the grave unless you get on the stick, believe me!" (Abrams 115) The absurd living conditions that Aunt Bernie, the narrator, Jade, Min and the babies have create an uncomfortable tension for the reader. It is uncomfortable because it is not so different from any other life. The new Bernie is trying to get something out of her life as well as her family's, even though hers already passed her by.
