“you’re Ugly, Too” by Lorrie Moore - Thesis Paper

 “You’re Ugly, Too” by Lorrie Moore - Thesis Paper

Zoe Hendricks is indecisive, desperate and sarcastic woman. Although she is educated, professional woman, she is misunderstood and misjudged within her surroundings. She is not cut-out for life within community and therefore Zoe Hendricks is better off left alone. 

Zoe Hendricks lives in an Illinois town, ironically named Paris, where she teaches history at a small liberal arts college with the equally ironical name, Hilldale-Versailles. The only reason she was hired, was to avoid a sex-discrimination suit. Being one female teacher within circle of males professors does not help her establish respect and deserve fair treatment from her colleagues as well as from her students. Zoe’s sarcastic defense protects her to a point, but over time it becomes destructive, so that the very thing that protects her from her alienation and isolation becomes her worse enemy. One time when student asked her “What is your perfume?" Zoe replied "Room freshener," with the smile on her face, thinking she was funny. Zoe considers her students as demanding and spoiled, while she is minding herself as superior, and when asked she relies to her student: "I am the teacher", “I do get paid to act like that."

Zoe was lost and indecisive about her life even after she has purchased a house. “It was like getting her mother's pornography, that box, inheriting her drooled-upon fantasies, the endless wish and tease that had been her life” was Zoe’s reflection on receiving UPS box from her mother. Zoe would buy and later return various decorative items for her house. She even purchased and later returned the mirror because she was not quite sure that the woman she sees in the mirror each day was her. Her self-reflection in the mirror is different every time she looks into it. As her pride, sarcasm, and cynicism grow, a valuable part of her vanishes and she becomes a bizarre version of her real self.

Even with her sister Evan, Zoe is announcing “I’m flying in to visit you this weekend” instead of proposing. Her elevated sense of importance is present throughout her relationships with everyone around her. Zoe is undemanding her little sister even with her important life choice such as marriage. When Evan almost exposed her secret regarding her wedding with Charlie, Zoe once again only concentrated upon her: "I'm not married? Oh, my God," said Zoe, "I forgot to get married."

Zoe is trying to fit in, she is trying to be a good big sister; “Zoe tried to sound like an older sister; an older sister was supposed to be the parent you could never have, the hip, cool mom” but it just not her. Zoe’s thoughts are always about her, about how she looks, how she feels and how she sees the world. Zoe is not nurturing or caring person. She chooses loneliness and ignorance; she cages herself from the outside world with her egocentric attitude towards everything.