A perfect life are for some people a small house with a loving spouse and wonderful kids, but for others a perfect life is owning a big house with fancy furniture and fine wine, and that is also the case with the main character in the short story “Finishing Touch” written by Claire-Louise Bennett from 2014. The short story is about a person who is planning a party, and while doing so, they imagine who is going to sit where and they become obsessed with the perfect soiree. This essay focuses on the narrator as well as their obsession with having a perfect life. This leads to an analysis of the style of writing and an interpretation of the main theme.
The main character is a person who is very fixated with being perfect and having a flawless life. They did a thing in their past and now they want to start fresh with people that do not know their secret: “Yes, I get a chance to choose all over again…. because it is perfectly clear to me now who I will invite and who will not know a thing about it.” (pp. 1-2, ll. 22-24). They can choose a new life with new people and try to get a perfect life. Therefore, they look very forward to the party. The narrator is a person who has a lot of fancy belongings and they are trying to be very perfect. They have a nice house and many nice things: “A perfectly arranged but low-key soiree. I have so many glasses after all. And it is so nice in here, after all. And there’ll be plenty of places for people to sit now that I’ve brought down the ottoman.” (p. 1, ll. 1-3). They use words such as soiree and they have plenty of space at their place. Although they try being an elegant person, they still let people come and go and her house is not perfect. Everyone is welcome in her house but they do not want people to get the wrong idea of them: “it doesn’t have any curtains and half the time half the door is open, that’s true….—but nobody ought to get the wrong idea— nobody ought to just turn up and stick a nose in!”(p. 2, ll. 32-35). They let everybody in if they are allowed, but no one can just come in unexpected. They may have some secrets about their life and their apartment that they do not want to show people and therefore the door is only half open half the time. They also want to show off their new house, and therefore they make an excuse to do so: “I wonder actually if anyone will ask what the party is for. Because of the summer I’ll say. It’s because of the summer…Yes! It’s for the summer, I’ll say, and that’ll take care of it.” (p. 2, ll. 36-39). They say that the soiree is for the summer, but in reality, it is about showing a lot of people their new fancy house. They want to show people that they have a picture-perfect apartment and therefore also a perfect life.
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