Character Names in The Mezzanine

There aren’t a lot of characters in The Mezzanine, but the ones that do exist are described in very different ways, right down to the way they are referred to. I thought that the way Baker chooses to write each character’s name was really interesting and it influenced my view of the character and their personality. The best example of this is the narrator’s name. For over half the book, we have no idea what it is and this made me see the narrator less as a single individual and more as a type of person. The narrator’s lack of a name made it almost as though the narrator could be any person working in a similar setting, which made me see his experiences as universal rather than as the unique experiences of one particular person. However, as the book goes on, we get more personal and unique stories from the narrator. Although the overall kinds of experiences he has are still very universal, we also get glimpses into more unique aspects of his life, such as his father’s love for ties. Finding out that the narrator’s name is Howie finally gives us a way to label the narrator, his personality, and his experiences. This finalized and clarified my perception of him, because having a way to talk about him easily made me feel like I understood him better. 

The way other characters are referred to also affected my views of their personalities and relations to Howie. At work, there are two ways he refers to people. When Howie does not know someone well, he often uses their first and last name, as in the case of Bob Leary (Baker 60). As he writes “I was first relieved to glimpse the head of someone named Bob Leary…” (Baker 60). Referring to Bob Leary as “someone” shows that he doesn’t really know much about him other than the fact that he works in the same office and he’s seen him around. He’s never really gotten to know him but still refers to him by the name that he might have seen on official work documents around the office. In contrast, when he knows someone well, he uses their first name, as he does with Dave, Sue, and Steve (Baker 13). Because Howie often focuses on chance events and does not always focus on more significant events and characters in his life, it can be hard to tell which characters are the ones that matter more to him just based on the way they appear in the plot. However, looking at their names was a helpful way for me to see that these characters are ones that he often works with and knows relatively well which helped me understand his interactions with them better.

My final example of a character whose name gives us insight about her role in the story, is
L. I thought it was really interesting that Howie chose to refer to her by just one letter. It indicates that she is so important to him that he doesn’t need to finish spelling out her name, but already knows who he is talking about after just one letter. However, at the same time, not knowing her full name also makes her seem a little bit more mysterious to me, the way Howie seemed before we learned his name. I think this goes along well with the fact that although we hear a lot about L, we never actually meet her. Throughout the book, we see the way Howie thinks of her, but we don’t really get to know her fully.

Overall, I thought it was really interesting to see what kinds of names were used for different characters, and the names helped me get a better understanding of the book and each character’s place within it.