Post Office

Post Office is often interpreted as a critique of the American Dream. How does Bukowski use Hank’s experience as a postal worker to expose the myth of meritocracy and upward mobility? To what extent does the novel suggest that hard work is meaningless within oppressive bureaucratic systems?

Consider Jonstone as an antagonist. How does his cruelty, use of disciplinary write-ups, and reliance on bureaucratic rules embody the soul-crushing authority of the institution? Does Jonstone represent a single figure or a larger cultural system? Finally, how does Bukowski’s depiction of Jonstone differ from Hank’s other supervisors?

Charles Bukowski was widely known as the “Dirty Old Man” because of the often-explicit language and gritty imagery in his poetry. How does his fictionalized alter-ego, Hank Chinaski, help establish this persona in Post Office, Bukowski’s first novel?

Examine Bukowski’s use of humor and absurdity in Post Office. How is Hank’s dry, often caustic humor a defense mechanism against dehumanization, and what role does humor play in shaping the reader’s response to the bleakness of his world?

Alcohol functions as both a fuel and a poison throughout the novel. How does Hank’s dependence on drinking reveal his methods of coping with alienation, and what does Bukowski suggest about the relationship between substance use and labor in working-class culture?

The narrative structure of Post Office meanders through a dozen years of Hank Chinaski’s life, which is rife with episodic misadventures but reveals little to mark the passage of time. Examine the novel’s treatment of the passage of time. How does this relate to its themes of the soul-crushing nature of bureaucratic labor and alcohol/substance use?

Consider Bukowski’s portrayal of women such as Betty, Joyce, and the other lovers Hank encounters. How do these relationships reflect Hank’s struggle with intimacy and self-destruction? What do these dynamics reveal about gender, power, and escapism in the novel?

Post Office has often been described as a novel of endurance rather than transformation. Discuss how Bukowski redefines success and failure through Hank’s experiences. Does the act of survival itself constitute a form of victory, or is Hank’s persistence a symptom of resignation?