Varieties of The Fantastic in Fiction

“The Semplica Girl Diaries” by George Saunders is an epistolary story which takes the form of diary entries written by a middle class father. The narrator is highly preoccupied with attaining the appearance of affluence for his family, so when he wins $10,000 in the lottery, he chooses to spoil his daughter Lilly for her birthday rather than pay off his debt. He has their yard redone, including the purchase of the coveted lawn ornament that all of his wealthier peers have: a set of “SGs,” or “Semplica Girls” — migrant women suspended in the air by a wire through their brains. Lilly is thrilled, but the younger girl, Eva, is disturbed by the “decoration.” He tries to convince her that the women are happy to be lawn ornaments, but in the cover of night Eva frees them, throwing the family into debt and launching a police investigation. This story explores themes of avarice, entitlement and exploitation, as well as of the moral ambiguity that privileged people often struggle with.

Throughout the story, the narrator often writes about his desire to be rich, but especially his desire to appear rich. He is extremely jealous of the family of Lilly’s friend, who possess exorbitant wealth and have the “largest SG arrangement [he’s] ever seen.” He expresses this desire to appear rich unambiguously, his justification being that he doesn’t want his children to feel that their family doesn’t measure up to the other kids’. This is why, when he wins the lottery, he doesn’t pay off his debt, invest the money, or do anything that might actually lead to a higher level of wealth, but chooses to increase the family’s social standing by redoing the yard. SGs are a common symbol of wealth, and the narrator never once questions them — apart from Eva, nobody in their social circle does. When it is made clear that Eva doesn’t like what is being done to the SGs, her father tells her that they chose to be there and that they are paid well for it. They have few opportunities in their home countries, so while the job may seem unpleasant to “us” (first-world, middle class people), it is actually not so bad in comparison. They need the money to help out their families back home. Eva asks why, if they want to help the SGs, don’t they just give them the money? Her father simply responds “Oh sweetie,” and does not give an explanation. Later, he takes her on a drive, where they count 39/50 houses that have SGs hanging outside, to which she says “So just because everyone is doing it, that makes it right.” Again, he does not respond to this, but changes the topic by pointing out that the SGs don’t look sad.

The arguments that this narrator makes are familiar, bringing to mind the ways that people often talk about certain jobs in America that are commonly occupied by immigrants on work visas (as well as about corporations outsourcing production in order to circumvent U.S. standards). Also familiar is the way he seems incapable of addressing his daughter’s most basic objections to the SGs: that exploitation is not charity, that the commonality of a practice has no bearing on its morality, and that just because someone looks happy doesn’t mean that what is being done to them is right. The narrator blocks these questions from his mind for his own (and his children’s) benefit. He wants the SGs. The symbol of wealth—the ability to fit in, to “keep up”—is incredibly important to him, and he is unwilling to lose it.

Despite this, the narrator is a sympathetic (if pitiful) character. He truly loves his wife and children, he has trauma related to his own parents that he is determined not to pass on. His one and only priority is to give his children the best life that he can, and he believes that the way to do that is to make the family look good to others. He is entrenched in a society where SGs are normal, so it is not unexpected that he would have this blind spot. It is his unwillingness to address his daughter’s concerns that is his fatal flaw—he is more concerned with himself and his family than he is with the Semplica Girls. He is not a caricature or an evil person, and in some ways he is right—it is probably worse for the SGs to be fugitives hiding in the woods of a foreign country, unable to remove the cord and with nowhere to get food, than it was to be in the yard where they had their needs met. This does not negate the stance against the SGs, but it complicates it in the same way that things in the real world are complicated.