Analysis of Guts by Charles Bukowski

Setting
The setting of Guts is very depressing, Bukowski makes the setting sound very dull and sometimes disgusting, here I am referring to page 2 line 8: “I reached into a paper sack full of vomit and empties”. This helps to give a picture of Hanks living situation. The setting works as a mirror to the protagonist (Hank Chinaski), because Hank mentions that he is an antihero, and doesn’t like the “clean-shaven boy”, it would therefore make sense that the setting which is grey and often disgusting is a way to emphasize Hank Chinaski as a character. He often mentions that the setting isn’t very good, an example of this could be at page 2, line 12: “What was she doing running a place like that”, here Hank is talking about the tenant, who is a beautiful young girl, he clearly thinks that she could do better than the place she is running now (the place Hank lives).

Character
Hank Chinaski
Hank is the protagonist of the story, he is “not a very nice man” (page 1, line 1), doesn’t like “laws, morals, religions and rules.” (page 1, line 9) and also doesn’t like “to be shaped by society” (page 1, line 9-10). Hank also shows signs of anarchism, in the beginning he says that he doesn’t like to be shaped by society. This sounds a lot like the thoughts of an anarchist, Hank just have another way of showing his anarchism, instead of throwing rocks at the police, he’s just sitting at home, getting drunk not caring about society’s norms and thoughts.

Marty
Marty is Hanks friend. He used to be a hard-rock miner once, and on page 1, line 23-27 Marty tells a story about a fight he had with another hard-rock miner. This story shows that he is both violent and cold. Marty and Hank are very similar, except for the fact that Marty loves Jeanie. The fact that Marty loves someone shows his soft side, Marty is worried for her because she drinks, which also shows that he actually cares about other people.

Jeanie
Jeanie is young, blond and has a great body, unfortunately she is an alcoholic like Marty and Hank. One day Hank visits her with a bottle of whisky, a little later they end up having sex in her room. One of the reasons Jeanie had sex with Hank could be because she thinks she can take advantage of him, she mentions that he bought everybody drinks at a bar once (page 5, line 33-34), and when he visits her, he brings a bottle of whisky, therefore Jeanie think that she can use Hank to get more alcohol.

Plot
The story is chronological, because there are no flashbacks, and no dreams anywhere in the text. It isn’t based on a direct conflict, the plot tells the story of a man, who has chosen to live life in a very special way, the story also let us in on how it is to live life differently then we usually see it. There is one subplot. The story between Marty and Jeanie, and as usually the subplot is associated with the main plot, because Hank gets tied in the subplot, when he has sex with Jeanie.

Narrators and point of view
In this story Charles Bukowski uses a first-person narrator, this makes the story more open, to ideas and theories about the characters and setting. Compared to the third-person narrator who is all knowing, and would take out the mystery behind a lot in the story. We see the story from Hanks point of view, which of course makes a lot of things different from how we look at them, for example after the story that Marty tells about his fight with another hard-rock miner, Hank answers with: “That’s all right,” (page 1, line 28).

Theme/symbolism
Guts are about being a man, about having guts. Hank is a very masculine man, he’s free and without boundaries. At the same time he’s also very antisocial, but only because he chooses to be. There is a strong theme in the story, which is being ugly, it doesn’t have to be physically ugly, it can be ugly in your mind-set. At page 4 line 26-29, Hank talks about the theory of the stallion, the theory is: If you feel inferior to a person, you have a hard time being intimate with them, but if they are inferior to you, you are more comfortable being intimate with the person. Hank feels this way, because Jeanie doesn’t have any flaws, Hank feels inferior to her, because he is old, ugly and weird.