Half His Age

Teddy Korgy is one of the novel’s primary characters. Waldo sometimes refers to him as “Mr. Korgy,” but most often as “Korgy,” with her habit of not using his first name reflecting the imbalance in their power dynamic. He is her high school creative writing teacher.

Although he is decades older than her, Waldo’s “attraction to Mr. Korgy is instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing. It’s not that he’s patently unattractive. […] But his looks have faded. Atrophied. Withered with the gross decay of glaring middle-aged-ness” (12); and yet this fact intrigues rather than repels Waldo. Korgy’s overt signs of aging align with his ability “to be honest about his regrets, his status, his shortcomings” (12). Waldo is moved by his seeming authenticity and immediately perceives him as an outlier in her string of unsatisfying romantic relationships with her male peers. She decides that she is going to pursue a relationship with him, no matter the odds against her, because she wants something different than what she has; she identifies Waldo as the thus-far unnameable “thing” she has been craving.

Korgy is the novel’s antagonist. However, he does not play the part of a classically maniacal villain. Instead, he presents as charming, handsome, well-meaning, and thoughtful. Even when Waldo shows interest in Korgy, he is careful to let her know that being together isn’t right because he’s her teacher, she’s a teenager, and he’s married with a child. His words make him appear upstanding and honorable, as he is setting a necessary boundary with an innocent, naive Waldo. At the same time, Korgy’s responses to, and interactions with, Waldo are all a part of his grooming process: He is presenting himself as a trustworthy man of integrity so that Waldo perceives him as nonthreatening and so she won’t report him. Over time, however, his behaviors become increasingly inappropriate, abusive, and exploitative of Waldo’s youth and economic vulnerabilities.

Korgy never faces any consequences for his behavior toward Waldo. He is never found out for their relationship, and Waldo never reports him for his abuse. Korgy will often tell Waldo that he feels guilty for hurting her, that she deserves better than him, or that their relationship is wrong, but these half-baked apologies do not lead to any behavioral changes. Instead, they make Waldo feel guilty for supposedly confusing, upsetting, or manipulating Korgy. Even after these apologies, Korgy continues to take advantage of Waldo as it suits him. He does not attend to what she wants or needs and never takes true accountability for harming her emotionally or psychologically. He plays the part of a typical male sexual predator, who evades responsibility by hiding behind his sex, status, and social positioning.

Waldo’s mother is a secondary character. She remains unnamed throughout the novel; Waldo most often refers to her as “Mom.” Her character is primarily defined through her absences. Although she and Waldo share an apartment, she is rarely at home. Instead, she spends her time working at the local grocery store—or whatever minimum-wage job she can hold down at the time—and spending time with her boyfriends. Whenever Waldo returns home from school or work, she finds a sticky note from her mother on the fridge. These notes are meant as evidence that her mother is thinking about her—or at least hasn’t forgotten her—but rather augment Waldo’s feelings of abandonment and loneliness.

Throughout the majority of the novel, Waldo’s mother is dating a man named Tony; he is the most recent boyfriend whom she has identified as her soulmate. Waldo does comment upon their relationship (although she only sees Tony in person two times), but she never tells her mother to end the relationship despite its overt deficiencies. Waldo’s decision not to intervene results from her mother’s extensive history of bad romantic relationships. At 34 years old, she still “hasn’t aged out of her habit of falling in love with unavailable men. She creates and nurses a fantasy in her mind of what the guy could be, what the two of them could be together, instead of living in the reality of what he is, what they are” (36). All of these relationships inevitably end in heartbreak, but her mother is always “blindsided and sent into such a spiral that she can’t get out of bed for weeks” (36). Her depression ultimately leads to job loss, which in turn leads to more emotional and financial responsibility for Waldo.

Waldo’s mother’s inability to take responsibility for herself leads to Waldo’s parentification—a psychological phenomenon where the child assumes a more parental role for their parent. Waldo not only takes charge of housework and utility bills but assumes the role of her mother’s emotional caretaker. She is left with no one to attend to her physical, emotional, or mental needs. Waldo asks nothing of her mother, but is perpetually disappointed by her. She tries to stave off this disappointment and hurt with online shopping sprees or meaningless sex, but is left dissatisfied every time. Her mother’s relationship patterns and parental failures directly correlate to Waldo’s intense longing and loneliness.

Near the end of the novel, Waldo wants to believe that her mother is changing: She starts spending more time at home after joining a sex-and-love-anonymous group and swearing off men. Nevertheless, she soon ends up back with Tony. Instead of getting angry with her mother, Waldo remains silent; she realizes she cannot make her mother change, but she can change things for herself.

Frannie is a secondary character. She is Waldo’s only friend. Although the two were once inseparable, in the narrative present, Waldo has distanced herself from Frannie. She used to think that she and Frannie were alike, and that they needed each other because both of them were outcasts. However, after she attends Frannie’s Mormon church with her one week, she believes that Frannie has only befriended her to store up proverbial treasures in heaven. Uninterested in being anyone’s charity case, Waldo becomes wary of sharing her true thoughts, feelings, and experiences with Frannie.

This distance in their friendship only intensifies Waldo’s alienation. At times, she will reach out to Frannie when she is feeling especially isolated, but she almost always regrets showing her friend vulnerability. Frannie’s pitying regard for Waldo makes Waldo feel weak. Frannie does, however, tell Waldo her relationship with Korgy is wrong and urges Waldo to report him, only backing down when Waldo begs her not to tell anyone. Frannie’s disapproval is thus the first time Waldo hears an outsider perspective on her affair with Korgy, helping to draw Waldo’s attention to how inappropriate it is.