George Saunders Look at Post-modern Love Relations in The Barber’s Unhappiness

George Saunders’ “The Barber’s Unhappiness” is a story that explores the confusion about romantic relationships in a post-modern world as its protagonist, Mickey, both recalls failed relationships and fitfully begins a new one. There are many symbols in the narrative that serve to encapsulate satirical themes and gently chide the cheap and tawdry nature of our society’s degraded sense of romance, from the bikini clad 1-900-DREMGAL on late-night television to the absurd PuppetPlayers at the wedding reception. But Saunders presents his audience with a surprisingly complex symbol in the rose that Mickey flicks with his finger at the end of the story when he is walking to his date with Gabby. It is simultaneously a symbol of Mickey’s rejection of traditional romantic gestures and of his declared independence from his overbearing mother.

The rose is, of course, a traditional symbol of love. Nothing complex there. When he approaches the flowers on the trellis, he “considered plucking a rose for Gabby, although that was pretty corny, he might seem sort of doddering, and instead, using the hand with which he’d been about to pluck the rose, he flicked the rose,” (609). At first glance this appears a straightforward rejection of traditional romance and, perhaps, foreshadowing another of Mickey’s sabotages of a potentially rewarding relationship with a woman. He recognizes the significance of the symbolic gesture of bringing a rose to their date, one that many readers believe Gabby would appreciate, and checks the impulse for fear he would appear absurd by engaging in his society’s traditional game of gift-giving in the pursuit of romance. While Mickey perceives such participation as outmoded and foolish, Saunders paints the action as a modern desire to enjoy passionless gratification instead of having the courage required to be vulnerable enough to let an honest and open relationship grow. This reading would be in line with the other symbols mentioned earlier. But this symbol reveals another level of meaning when readers consider the rose’s association with Mickey’s mother.

Though a middle-aged man, Mickey still lives with “Ma”, and Saunders makes sure to link the roses to her. As Mickey starts out for his date, he recalls that “every morning of his life he’d walked out between Ma’s twin rose trellises. When he went to grade school, when he went to junior high, when he went to high school, when he went to barber college, he’d always walked out between the twin trellises,” (609, emphasis mine). Saunders hammers home the message that Mickey’s mother is a constant presence in his life by stating twice that he always walked by Ma’s roses and listing the stages of his life. The author’s style here is overbearing to mimic this aspect of his protagonist’s life. Moreover, Saunders lists the life stages as the various schools he attends as he grows up. This list subtly reminds readers of Mickey’s sense of obligation to his mother; she finances his education through her own income if he attended private schools or her property taxes if public ones. And the narrator reveals, in one of Mickey’s stream of consciousness flirtations, that Ma had “paid his way through barber college,” (591).

Not only is Mickey’s mother a pervasive presence in his life, she is often a negative one. She is his housemate who is “nearly eighty and went around the house flossing in her bra,” arguably a passive-aggressive statement of domestic dominance, (591). When Mickey is trying to get to driving school, she manipulates him by asking for an omelet for her breakfast. “When he said he was running late she said never mind in a tone that made it clear she was going to accidentally/on purpose burn herself again while ostensibly making her own omelet,” (592). When Mickey is invited to another of Mr. Jenks’ social gatherings she tells him he may not attend so he could wait on “the girls” who were to come to their house for one of their regular visits.

Ma’s manipulations even invade Mickey’s prodigious fantasy life filled with sexually ravenous women who nevertheless must bow to the will of his mother whom he cannot keep out of his imagination.

The evening prior to Mickey’s fateful flick, Ma sees a photo of Gabby, and nastily describes her as the “big one,” passing judgment on her in a frightfully two-dimensional assessment, another satirical comment about the social tendency to do so. She is also attempting to dissuade Mickey from his purpose. Ma increases her negative pressure as he prepares for the date; as she strangely is “leaning heavily against the bathroom door,” while Mickey bathes, she urges him to change his plans:

“Do the girl a favor, Mickey,” Ma said. “Call it off. She’s too big for you. You’ll never stick with her. You never stick with anyone. You couldn’t even stick with Ellen Weist, for crying out loud, who was so wonderful, you honestly think you’re going to stick with this Tabby or Zippy or whatever?” (608).

Saunders here reminds us that romance is scary because of the mystery, the not knowing with whom we will “stick.” But in Ma’s mind, the chance at love is sure to fail. She fears becoming the second most important woman in her son’s life and being alone. She apparently cannot find the love and courage in herself to support her son and his chance at companionship and happiness. Mickey needs to find the strength to put Ma second since she will not let him go.

Therefore, when Mickey flicks the rose he is rejecting a traditional love-gift, but also his mother’s reign over him and his life. Immediately after doing it, “in his mind [he] apologized to the rose for ripping its skin,” (609). This apology means that because of his mother, he cannot meet Gabby with a traditional love or love token. He is attempting to bar Ma from this date, and possibly from the relationship should one grow, and the apology is also to her. For all of her manipulations, he still loves his mother and it pains him to leaver her, and he knows she too is hurting. The rose rejection is significant, but not absolute; few real life decisions are so simple. Ma’s influence appears again when he is tempted to flee when he sees Gabby and she looks quite overweight to him. As he approaches and she waves to him he thinks, “Here was an alley, should he swerve into the alley and call her later? Or not? Not call her later? Forget the whole thing? Although now she’d seen him. And he didn’t want to forget the whole thing,” (610). Mickey’s fight to remember the night before when Mr. Jenks called him a sport and she had called him a sexy kisser is Saunders’ message that genuine romantic love dwells in long-term memory and in sustained effort; it is neither quick nor easy and that is why it is precious.

It is easy not to like Mickey. He is a strange man trapped in a house with an overbearing mother and a misogynistic fantasy life. He is a physically flawed man who nevertheless picks apart the imperfections of others. If we are ever to pull for him it is likely because Gabby likes him and we want her to be happy. But the satire suggests that we have fallen away from the romantic ages that have preceded our own, when we imagine men wooing their beloveds with ballads, sonnets, and, yes, roses. When Mickey joins Gabby, she presents herself with a shy smile and Mickey tells her he is glad to see her and readies to lead her into his barbershop, perhaps the place where his mother is least on his mind and has the least influence. Though the shape of the rose trellises is not described, whether they grow up flat ladders on either side of the door or arch over the front walk, given the close association with Ma and Mickey’s journey through them, either form would suggest a birth canal. When we read that he has been emerging daily from this portal, and returning to it, for his entire life, we may see the house itself as his mother and her control. Our final image of Mickey is of him unlocking the door to his barbershop, his domain, his freedom. If they have a chance it is there. Without roses, yes, but also without Ma.