Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Enduring Impact of Trauma
Shame and the Stigmatization of Pain
Projection and Denial
The Vicious Circle of Isolation and Social Awkwardness
Summary
Analysis
As Eleanor eats dinner at McDonald’s before the gig, she imagines the musician’s pre-gig thoughts, painting him as a humble, unassuming man who is forced to share his talents with the world. She compares his singing voice to a bird’s call as she eats her dinner. It’s Eleanor’s first time eating fast food, and she can’t understand why anybody would pay money to eat processed food at an improperly set table.
Eleanor continues to venture outside of her comfort zone, indulging in society’s customs despite the fact that she doesn’t understand or particularly like them. Eleanor’s descriptions of the musician never venture beyond typical clichés, which underscores how idealized and hypothetical her feelings for him are. Her love isn’t based in reality, but in an idealization of what love should be. Eleanor’s use of animal imagery aligns the musician outside of social norms, with Eleanor.
Themes
Eleanor arrives at The Cuttings and discovers that there are no more tickets for the musician’s gig. She begins to cry. The bouncer comforts Eleanor, insisting that the band isn’t that great and that the singer is an arrogant jerk. Eleanor doesn’t know which singer he’s talking about. She heads to the bar area of The Cuttings and orders a Magners. Eleanor looks at the detailed tattoos that cascade down the bartender’s neck and arms and considers how beautiful it is to be able to know someone’s life story by the marks on their skin.
Eleanor doesn’t realize that the arrogant jerk the bouncer is talking about is her musician because her idealization of him blinds her to the reality of his mediocrity. Eleanor views the story that the bartender’s tattoos tell in a positive light, which stands in direct opposition to the way she regards her own scars. It’s likely that Eleanor’s scar also tells a story—but it’s a story of which she is unwilling to speak, so she doesn’t appreciate her scars the way she appreciates the bartender’s tattoos.
Themes
The bartender notices Eleanor looking at his tattoos and asks if she has any. Eleanor doesn’t, but seeing the bartender’s tattoos interests her in the possibility of getting one. The bartender recommends a place and an artist she should consult if she ever decides to go through with it. Eleanor hadn’t expected this pleasant social encounter with the bartender and reflects happily on life’s surprises. She decides that her meeting with the musician wasn’t meant to happen tonight and consoles herself with the fact that when they do meet, it will be “perfect.”
Eleanor’s disappointment inhibits her from seeing that her life is already improving without the musician: her conversation with the bartender, for example, shows that she is now capable of engaging in meaningful social interactions. Especially when compared to her unpleasant encounter with the bartender earlier in the novel, it’s clear that Eleanor is gaining a better hold on navigating social situations.
Themes
In a pompous tweet from “@johnnieLrocks,” the musician insinuates that his music at The Cuttings that night was not well-received. The musician accuses the crowd of not understanding his music and compares himself to “#Dylan” and “#Springsteen.”
Johnnie’s tweet is more evidence that he is an arrogant jerk, just like the bartender said. Eleanor doesn’t comment on the tweet, reaffirming the fact that she idealizes the musician so intensely that he is beyond criticism.
Themes
Get the entire Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine LitChart as a printable PDF.
