In attempt to further incorporate the short story genre into my final project, I have been reading stories that are character driven with very detailed descriptions. My Date With Satan, by Stacey Richter
The Beauty Treatment:
This story begins by describing "the Bitch," who takes a razor and slashes the side of the narrators face without a why.
The characters are definitely well-off. The narrator specifically refers to her "J Crew blouse" and shares with us: "Meanwhile, the Bitch slides into her Mercedes 450SL, lime green if you can believe that — the A-1 primo daddy-lac of all time..."
The narrator sits in the nurses office panicked as she waits for her mother to arrive. Once she does, she calls her plastic surgeon to fix up her daughter's cheek. Her mother then tells her she is transferring to an all girls school. The narrator, upset, admits, "if this mother was trying to usher me away from the prying eyes of young, male, pre-med students, i knew it was all over for me. i knew my looks were shot."
Through the text, the narrator is continually questioned the Bitch's motives and the Bitch is reveals as the narrator's best friend. The narrator tells the reader the Bitch will never admit to it because she will look crazy, so she'll probably just lie.
To make herself feel better, the narrator shops, "I had suffered and every available style of Swatch would bring relief."
The narrator claimed she was no longer afraid of anything after the incident. The incident no longer bothered her, she got used to everyone asking her about it. She would even make up lies in response to their questions.
The narrator then finally tells us why the Bitch stabbed her, which was because the Bitch started hating the narrator one day out of the blue, after a six year friendship, because the narrator wanted to buy sheet music to a Brandy song. The Bitch hated brandy and wanted to be a "homegirl."
The narrator describes their relationship: it seemed as though it was positive until the Bitch's dog died, her father was never home, and her mother was preoccupied by her schizophrenic brother. The Bitch started acting more homegirl but never made an attempt to go to the "south side" and hang out with homegirls. Instead, she kept her friends and acted as though hanging out with them was doing them a favor. The narrator claims the Bitch was annoying but she never considered dumping her, overlooking her flaws.
Later, the narrator ends up attending one of the Bitch's shrink sessions. Being very judgmental to refers to her outfit as white trash and talks as though she is better than her, strictly based on looks and materialistic qualities. After avoiding looking at the scar for some time, the Bitch eventually looks up and tried to control her facial expressions, but she fails. The narrator can tell by the look on her best friend's face how awful she, herself, looks because of the scar. They both cry. "I began to feel practically like she was my friend again, us having had a simultaneous cry. I did not want that."
She then tells her readers that she is a girl going to college who will become a lawyer, have two cars, clothes and a drawer full of jewels, maybe an average, dorky husband. "No magic, no wonder, no fairy tales."
"wonder, no fairy tales.
"My plan was to walk out of there with a light, crisp sense of forgiveness, but help me. I sat in a sea of beige and looked at the Bitch in her clogs, fat, miserable, and afraid, and I knew: if I really forgave her, something vast and infinite would open up inside me, some place wide and blue, and I couldn't enter such a place. It would be like some kind of health spa — where you go in naked, without any things. God, would I ever be lost in a place like that.
So I said, Oh Katie, that's okay, babe! No problema! I forgive you! with a hint of fake innocence in my voice — a little dose of manufactured niceness. She turned white again and the Shrink started urging me to get in touch with my feelings but you know, I had my finger right on them."
The story ends with the narrator looking herself in the mirror and continues to call the Bitch by Katie. "I looked almost pretty."
read online here:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/r/richter-satan.html
Descriptions in this story were mostly materialistic and focused on physical appearance, large emphasis on clothing and looks
personalities were described through actions, the narrator's personality was apparent through her voice and what kind of details she cared to share with her reader
she refers to her friend as the bitch throughout the entire story, won't admit she obviously has a name, dehumanizes her friend, changes how the reader thinks of her
