Friday Black

Paired with the following story, “In Retail,” this story presents one of two differing perspectives about life as a customer-facing retail worker. The title suggests that the eponymous narrator, IceKing, is an authoritative figure who can deftly navigate the world of sales. As the story unfolds, however, it becomes clear that IceKing’s grasp on sales dominance is less steady than he has led the reader to believe. His failure to close a sale on a set of premium coats makes him an unreliable narrator. He emphasizes his place among the top salesmen in the nation, but when faced with resistance from his customers, he angles upselling and downselling as equal skills in the salesman’s toolbelt. In other words, he downplays the limitations of his sales talk by packaging it as part of the process. He is selling his sales ability to the reader just as much as he is selling coats to the family. In turn, he uses his success and the admiration of his peers to define himself; without this validation, he feels lost.

IceKing’s defining narrative characteristic is that he is a static protagonist. By the end of the story, there is no discernible change in his perspective, only a revelation of his true place in the status quo. IceKing is obsessed with becoming part of the mall’s legend and resents his coworkers for failing to recognize his value. More than once, he declares that he will soon be elsewhere, “doing some other thing even better” (157). However, this aspiration is always abstract and theoretical, in contrast to other stories’ protagonists like the narrators in “The Lion and the Spider and “The Hospital Where.” There is no clear road map out of retail, which is why he remains focused on achieving the top spot in the sales rankings. In this way, the story becomes about The Plight of Retail Workers, showing how one might internalize and embrace the dead-end career path that retail provides.

IceKing’s only obstacle is Florence, a new salesgirl who not only upstages his performance but surpasses him with her promotion to assistant manager. When IceKing recalls a favor he did for Florence that allowed her to keep her job, he seems to remember it out of resentment, discussing it only as she takes over the sale and sends him off on his break. In this way, IceKing finds a surprising parallel in the family’s daughter, Leah, whose constant calls for attention mirror IceKing’s craving at the end of the story.