George Saunders' Pastoralia is the story of a man employed in a living display of prehistoric people in a theme park. He plays the man alongside his co-worker, Janet. Because they live here, the two have largely immersed themselves in these roles and forgone any real world commitments, including Janet's son. She, however, is not as eager to abnegate her outside responsibilities as the narrator, a point of contention between the two of them. As ticket sales decrease, the two are pitted against one another in evaluating job performance because the company will be letting people go. The narrator consistently advocates for her replacement. When Janet's replacement arrives, she is obviously more committed to the role than even the narrator could have imagined and poses a threat to his own job security now.
Saunders cleverly makes his protagonists roleplay prehistoric people because he is making a commentary upon the nature of employment in contemporary society. He argues that the total commitment to the preservation of a false reality which is the work environment reduces people to their animal natures. There is no room for compassion or human connection or love; instead people are placed in competition. And there's always someone ready to take your place, making the individual feel both expendable and undervalued.
The irony is strong in this narrative. The narrator spends his time longing for Janet's replacement only to get what he wants and realizing it is his own undoing. Unwilling to undergo cosmetic surgery like the new girl, he immediately recognizes that he will eventually be replaced as well, when ticket sales dwindle again. Having placed all of his investment in this job, rejecting outside commitments entirely, he is now in a tragic position to lose everything.
