From reading the story, one can tell that the narrator, Larry, is lonely. He takes up work at an adult residential facility for adults with moderate developmental disabilities. This way, he can be around people and feel like an important and superior person. He lives alone and has not dated anyone since his wife died. His daughter had already moved out and taken a bunch of her mom’s stuff with her. All he has left are the three grown men he supervises, an employee named Marsha who he is not romantically involved because she’s married, and a bunch of succulent plants.
What is interesting about Larry is that he says that he never really loved his wife or his daughter. Throughout the flashbacks of back when they were a family, Larry never did much to show his wife appreciation. He was more of an absent figure. This is seen on page 97 when his wife pulls out a gift under her seat cushion and tells Larry how much she appreciates the gift he got her, even though she bought it for herself. He never explicitly says it out loud but it hurt him whenever she would do that. When his wife died from a heart attack, it made him realize how much he did not love her. In a way, he wishes things could have been better with his wife and daughter, but also he regrets the life he chose. By choosing to work at the residential facility and growing succulents, he is trying to reconcile with his past and spend the rest of his life making up for what had happened. He knows it is futile but he will keep trying to make things right by being there for the three grown men he hangs out with and the succulent plants.
Going off your idea of the narrator spending time with these men because it makes him feel superior, I find, would not help him feel any less lonely. I think it is clear he has this profound detachment around people, especially people who are more needy, so to speak. I think that may be why he doesn’t mind being around these people, maybe it is a sense of superiority or it could be familiarity because maybe he feels he needs as much as they do to get by and not much more the way his wife and daughter had been.
The narrator wants what everyone wants–to be cared for and to have love. The problem with this narrator is that he doesn’t actually want to put in the work. He belittles all the residents and has no strong attachment to his daughter or his late wife. What he misses about his wife is the tender nature she had, the term of endearment she called him, but he didn’t actually miss her. He surrounds himself with succulent plants because they are self-sufficient. He refers to them as his children, but he doesn’t need to care for them. He wants to be the recipient of care and love, but he has no desire to be the giver.
Yeah, I agree. The narrator wanted to be loved but was not willing to put any effort into strengthening his relationships with others in order to get that reciprocity back. In a way, he is like the succulent plant. Self-sufficient but wanting someone to care for him.