Character Analysis Of Walter In Sue Mann's The Long Journey

The short story by Sue Mann; "The Long Journey", has a main character named Walter. Walter is a bit of a complex character, but reveals characteristics about himself as the story goes on. Walter is a procrastinator, gets distracted easily, and is desperate.
One of the first characteristics that Walter reveals to us is that he is a procrastinator. He revels this as he recounts the events of his previous night.
"Three days ago I began to get worried about the story. I know I shouldn't procrastinate the way I do, but you know how it goes. When the assignment doesn’t have to be handed in for two or three weeks, or even a week, it seems like a long way off. I always excuse myself by saying that I work better under pressure, but for some reason
Walter can never focus on what he is doing.
"For three hours I browsed through my old magazines and read all the short stories in them, along with jokes, cartoons, and the eye-catching articles. From the beginning I could tell that it was going to be more or less a waste of time because the only magazines I had were Time and Sports Illustrated, which aren't exactly literary magazines. But I just kept reading and losing time" (293).
Although Walter started his task of looking for short stories in his magazines, he quickly got distracted because of all the other articles that did not pertain to what he was doing. Walter is too easily sidetracked by the littlest things. But, when he realizes that he is being sidetracked, he doesn't care, he just continues to allow himself to be distracted. Walter can't focus on one thing for extended periods of time either. He started off focused when he was reading his magazines, but as time went on, he found himself straying away from what he was supposed to be doing until he was completely off topic. Therefore, this was making him lose precious time and leaving him with even less time to complete his