Essay Questions

What is the unexpected act which drives the nail in the coffin of Eleanor’s fantasy about Johnnie?

Eleanor works up an elaborate fantasy of meeting local rock star Johnnie Lomond which becomes a grand romantic affair which results in his becoming the gift from God who will save her from her miserable condition and lonely life. After having this fantasy crumble in front of the stage on which Johnnie performs without even noticing her, she seems to take this devastation remarkably well, even to the point of still finding him physically appealing. This reaction stems from the twin effects of placing Johnnie on such a pedestal that she remains blinded by it and her own low self-esteem which automatically finds fault in herself for any failure in someone else to find her interesting. It may therefore be difficult for readers to understand the extremity of her reaction to Johnnie doing something as typically “rock star” as when he turns his back to the audience and moons them. In the grand tradition of offensive on-stage behavior, after all, mooning ranks pretty low. Low enough, in fact, to be completely in keeping what we’ve gleaned about Johnnie all along despite Eleanor’s protestation of his unique qualities.

What personality disorder—which Eleanor is never diagnosed with or, in fact, even mentioned by name in the story—might offer an explanation for her extreme reaction to Johnnie’s mooning the audience?

Eleanor displays a textbook example of an essential diagnostic symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in her reaction to Johnnie when she attends the concert. Her behavior is like watching the elemental component of the disorder’s idealization/devaluation cycle known as “splitting” play out in real time. A sufferer first idealizes someone beyond anyone’s ability to deserve much less maintain and then suddenly knocks that person off their pedestal and completely devalues everything about them as the result of single act of disappointment. It is also keeping with this symptom of BPD that the act which causes the immediate switch from idealization to devaluation is one that most people would not consider serious enough to warrant it. Eleanor’s extreme reaction is not so much a result of Johnnie’s mooning itself as it is such an unexpected display of vulgarity that it serves to undermine everything she had idealized about him.

What are some ways in which pop culture references are introduced into the story to subtly expand the resonance of the story?

Many small touches are introduced into the story in ways that draw various levels of attention to themselves to work their subliminal magic on the whatever level of pop culture sense and sensibility each reader brings to the novel. This tactic has the effect of situating the reader into the role of Eleanor as both victims of their own subconscious attempting to claw past repression to bring memories to the surface of consciousness. The strategic implementation of familiarity beings with the title and Eleanor’s name. Certain people over a certain age will eventually connect the name of the narrator and her loneliness to that of the title character in the Beatles iconic song about lonely people, “Eleanor Rigby.” Others will pick up on the fact that names of Eleanor and her sister coincide with the names of the sisters in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensiblity.

Less subtle, of course, is the referential treatment given to another novel of roughly the same period, Jane Eyre when Eleanor explicitly describes its heroine in ways that can be applied to herself. The name of the club where Johnnie Lomond performs, The Cuttings, will likely insinuate a level of meaning into some readers as a reference to acts of self-harm which often impact primarily women suffering from emotional problems like Eleanor (including being another element of the diagnostic criterion for BPD. One unique example of this referential resonate is the name by which Eleanor addresses her mother. One of the unique qualities here is that the full dimension of this woman being called Mummy will not be come clear until almost the very end, but upon a re-reading it will serve to become even more resonant.

What significant—one might even say dominant—psychological trait about herself does Eleanor unwittingly reveal about her on the first page of the story?

The novel opens with Eleanor describing her job as working in an office. The very first story of interaction with another person that she divulges about herself is the interview with the boss which landed her this utterly meaningless job. She shows up for the interview with a broken arm, missing teeth and a black eye, but rather than making the interview anecdote also be an explanation of the backstory there, the focus is on Bob’s decision to—in her mind—to hire her as an act of pity. She then builds upon this concept—which is not actually attributed to Bob, remember—to create a fantasy in which Bob also hired her because he knew he’d be getting an employee who never asked for time off for honeymoons or maternity leave. The burden of all this negativity toward is placed upon Bob when in fact they all emanate from her own problems low opinion of herself stemming from her own serious problems self-esteem.

What is going on here in what is actually for the most part a fantasy recollection is a display of the psychological defense mechanism known as “projection.” In order to feel better about herself, a person projects their own self-criticism onto others so that they can become the ones who think badly about us in a desperate attempt to wrest some control over that self-image problem. From this point forward, Eleanor will persistently be seen projecting her bad thoughts and behavior upon others. The full tragic dimension of the extreme lengths she will take this this defense mechanism will not be revealed for some time and when the revelation comes it is every bit as incendiary as it should be.