Characterization of the narrator

The narrator

The main character of the short story “Trash” by Souvankham Thammavongsa is an unnamed woman who is also the story’s narrator. 

The narrator is in her thirties and is married to a man she met while working as a cashier at a local supermarket. 

The narrator describes herself as being “not that bold” when it came to talking to clients. However, when she met her future husband, she started talking to him, impressed by his elegance and politeness. The two of them got married after only five days of knowing each other.

The story reveals that the narrator lost her parents at an early age in a drunken accident: 

My parents weren’t around anymore. They died in a car crash. (…) My dad had been drinking and really shouldn’t have got behind the wheel. He was speeding. Ran a red light. It was raining. The car, a cheap old thing, was totalled. I was in my last year of high school when all this happened. My parents didn’t have life insurance. (ll. 53-58)

This indicates that the narrator came from a humble and troubled background. The family did not have money for insurance and the father was drinking. 

The loss of her parents put the narrator in a desperate situation. She...