Plot:
The story is about a controlling and unloving husband named Earl who is embarrassed to call a woman named Doreen his wife. Doreen works night shifts as a waitress, while Earl is a salesman. When two men enter the coffee shop and begin talking about Doreen’s weight amongst themselves, Earl overhears there remarks and is extremely embarrassed.. He forces his wife to undergo a strict diet to lose the weight. After she has lost the weight she is a completely different woman, and is hardly recognised by her friends. Towards the end of the story, Earl asks another man what he thinks of Doreen and her new body. The man barely looks at Doreen, but focuses his attention on the other waitress. He does not find Doreen attractive, but Earl needs immediate approval from the man to say that she looks good. The man never comments on Doreen and her
Characters:
The main characters in the story are Doreen and Earl. Earl is a controlling and very forceful husband. He forces his wife to lose weight for his own pleasure and ego. He has no respect or love for his wife, which is evident when he forces her to diet. If he was a devoted and loving husband, he should have stood up for his wife when the men were making fun of her weight. Instead, he hid away in shame and embarrassment. Even at the end of the novel, he needed someone else’s approval of his wife’s new body. He should have approved of his wife’s body in the first place and loved her for who she was, not how she looked.
Doreen is an obedient and respectful wife who bows down to her husband. She does as she is told, regardless if she feels uncomfortable. When Earl suggests that she go on a diet, Doreen proclaims that “I’ve never felt it was a problem before.” She felt she looked ok they way she was, but kept quiet and made her husband happy and went on the diet. When she is caught eating bacon and eggs by Earl and he abuses her she says “I’ll try again.” She does not want to continue with the diet, but she does, in fear of what her husband will do to her. Doreen represents a wife that does not speak up in the marriage, but is rather a subordinate.
Style of writing:
This story is a very different one compared to the other stories we have read in class. The style of writing is very modern and get’s straight to the point. There are not many describing words to set the scene, characters or mood of the story. The writer just tells you how it is. He does not get into the characters emotions, and he does not really capture what they are feeling. We understand what the characters are like, but we do not understand why they act the way they do. Most stories we have read, we can understand the characters quite well, but this story does not go into depth about the characters. The writer uses much more dialogue compared to other stories we have read in class, which highlights that he does not focus too much on the scene or the characters emotions. Lastly, the writer does not dwell too much on why things happen, but rather focuses on getting the plot of the story across to the audience.
Opinion:
Overall I quite liked the story. It wasn’t the best story I have ever read but I think it was the best story we have read in class so far. I enjoyed it because it was modern, and it was not a complicated story to red. The story did not get too court up in describing the setting and emotions of the characters. I liked the two very different characters, and I found that they can represent a couple this day and age. Although I did not personally like the character Earl, as I thought he was very arrogant and abusive and if that were my husband I would have left him right away, but I found his character made the story interesting. Above all, it was not a story written in the twenty years ago, and it used a modern setting which was what I enjoyed most about it.
