The entire story of “Adams” puzzled me. At first we’re thrown into this story, being told that this man is in the narrator’s house (where he isn’t supposed to be) in his underwear facing his kid’s room. I immediately thought that Adams was a total threat to the narrator-- a deranged man that was unpredictable. It fascinated that me as I read further into the story, I started to not feel as aligned with the narrator and by the end, didn’t even trust him. I started to think that the narrator was the deranged man-- breaking into a house because of paranoia of household items-- instead of Adams.
We didn’t get the backstory of why Adams was in the narrator's house without pants on. The narrator believed that it was to harm his family but I think he’s unreliable based on the ending of the story. Adams could be in the narrator’s house because the narrator instigated it. To me, Adams doesn’t seem like much of a threat.
“I never could stomach Adams and then one day he’s standing, in his underwear. Facing in the direction of my kids’ room! So, I wonk him in the back of the head and down he goes.” (Saunders 101).
At the beginning of the story Adams is just standing there. The narrator is the ones that goes and “wonks” him. Later in the story, unprovoked the narrator forces himself into Adam’s house and starts beating him again.
“Up I went and he was standing at the mirror, still in his goddam underwear, only now he had on shirt, and I wonked him again as he was turning. Down he went and tried to crab out of the room, but I put a foot on his back.” (Saunders 102)
This is totally unprovoked. Adams tries to get away but the narrator insists on continuing to beat him unnecessarily. At first I though Adams’ replies to the conversation were weird and fit with the deranged person that the narrator made him out to be.
“If you ever, I said. If you ever again
Now we’re even, he said. I came in your house and you came in mine.” (Saunders 102)
However, now that I look at it, all the things Adams says are things that I’d expect someone to say when they don’t want further harm or trouble. It seems like Adams is doing everything in his power to keep the narrator from getting even more mad.
The one thing that seemed odd to me was that the neighbors didn’t like Adams either. One theory I had was that maybe it’s just because he is a weirder dude. Or, maybe the neighbors are just saying that because they know the narrator isn’t in his right mind and don’t want him as an enemy.
By then end of the story, the anxious and paranoid tone of the narrator started to really stand out to me. He was breaking into Adams’ house to steal common household objects-- knives and cleaning supplies just because he feared what they could do. Only then do we see Adams fight back against the narrator's actions, and in self defense. Is Adams really all that bad? Who is the bad guy here? The narrator, Adams, or both?
