The short stories within Self-Help vary in perspective, tone, and
narrative style, yet I noticed some common themes that permeate the stories in
the book. To me, the most prominent of these was the theme of infidelity and
failed relationships. The first story in the collection, “How to Be an Other
Woman” puts an interesting spin on this theme. Throughout much of the story we assume
the protagonist, referred to in the second person, to be engaged in an affair
with a married man (she has no partner herself). However, at the end of the
story it is revealed that the man does not have a wife at all but is simply
juggling girlfriends, and their relationship comes to an end. The main
character’s moral and emotional struggles shown in this story are effective and
show a side of marital infidelity very different to the affair in the story “How.”
“How”
appears much later in the collection and features a woman who is frightened by
commitment and not sure her boyfriend is right for her. This story is also narrated in the second
person. The protagonist decides not to leave
the boyfriend, but then he begins to suffer from an unidentified kidney
complication. Feeling as if she cannot leave him now, the woman begins an
affair with an actor. She does not suffer from the same self-worth issues that
plagued the protagonist of “Other Woman,” yet she does feel profoundly guilty.
This guilt is shown very well in this passage from page 62: “The houseplants
will appear to have taken sides. Some will thrust stems at you like angry
limbs. They will seem to caw like crows. Others will simply sag.”
A
discussion of failed relationships in Self-Help
would not be complete without a mention of “The Kid’s Guide to Divorce.” This
story provides a completely different perspective on an already destroyed
marriage. If it were not for the title, the divorce of the parents would not be
obvious until the last two paragraphs of the story. However, with this
knowledge, many nuances of the child’s relationship with the mother reveal the
effects of the failed relationship of the parents on the child. I perceived the continual battle waged by the
child for various sodas as an attempt to exploit the divorced mother’s desire
for her child’s affections.
In
the collection Self-Help, Lorrie
Moore shows us multiple perspectives on failed relationships, giving us
characters ranging from a trapped woman to a philandering man to the collaterally
damaged children. Moore’s nuances are made all the more powerful by her use of
the second person, which brings the perspective home to the reader.
Since I first wrote this post, we have read "Amahl and the Night Visitors," another story that covers a failed relationship (as a result of infidelity that may or may not actually be real.) In "Amahl," I interpreted Trudy's paranoia about Moss potentially having an affair as the driving factor in tearing their relationship apart.
ReplyDeleteFailed relationships are certainly a major theme in the novel, and I agree that Moore does a good job of changing each story up so that they each exist in their own, unique environments. It would be simply to write the same basic plot of a failed relationship for several stories, but it would eventually get heavily redundant. By placing characters in different times of a fractured or about-to-fracture relationship, Moore is able to avoid this.
ReplyDeleteNice title. I agree that Moore's use of the second person changes the way we read her stories. I think it's even more impactful in these type of stories where it's easy to judge as an outsider. But the second person perspective allows us to be more immersed in the character's experiences.
ReplyDeleteI agree; failed relationships are definitely a major theme in "Self Help." Previous stories we've read haven't really been about contemporary issues like cheating and breaking up, so to me, these stories are new and exciting.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I think is important is how these stories are mostly told in the second person. Often characters are committing objectively immoral acts (such as cheating), but the second person perspective makes us understand their choices in a way that makes it harder to judge. It's really cool how Moore addresses such controversial issues in a unique way.
I like your emphasis on the variation among perspectives in these stories: it can seem, at a glance, that _Self-Help_ is a somewhat repetitive book, with similar experimental narrative styles and characters in similarly bad romantic situations, but you're right that there's a lot of variation and nuance within this common field. Just like we looked at all the subtle variations of second-person style in this book, where she doesn't repeat the same version twice, we look at similarly pessimistic views of the possibility of romantic love from a range of different angles. Or, like Charlene in "Other Woman" might say, idiosyncratic and unique versions of the same cliched storyline.
ReplyDelete