Hello Brian
I really enjoyed your presentation of the story as it was detailed, and your explanation makes it easy to understand. I liked that you included textual evidence throughout the story to support your arguments. I was also impressed by how you explained the meaning of the title “Wrong Object,” particularly when C confronts the therapist instead of her husband. However, I would have loved to see more details on the conflicts, like why they were important to the story theme. You also left the external conflict between K and his boss concerning Isabel.
Looking at the characterization, I do not think K was manipulative, as you have said. Rather, I think he was not straightforward because initially, he was afraid of being reported and his wife finding the truth as it happened in the end. Thus he took his time to determine whether to trust the therapist or not, which I would term as cautious. In the theme, what I see coming out strong is a moral dilemma that applies both to the therapist and K. The therapist was torn between either telling the truth to her boss or sticking to the client confidentiality. It disturbed her that she had to report him after months of working with him, and she never gets a chance to see progress in him. K was torn on whether to leave his wife for lack of attraction or stay; he says, “My wife is a thoroughly good person…I don’t feel what I should for her (389). Though he seeks help, he never gets a straight forward answer. I will also add a symbol I noticed is the fire in Mr. Bair’s office where it was burning when the therapist was left in charge of K as her supervisor was going on a trip to Scotland. She says, “And then it was just K and me” (398), meaning she could freely engage him. But when her boss returns, there was no fire burning representing the end of her enthusiasm as she knew she had to report her conversation with K, which she felt was wrong.