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
Eleanor is at the office on Friday, daydreaming about “the one.” She walks into the staff room and overhears Billy complaining about her to the other coworkers. Eleanor invited Billy to attend a concert last night with tickets she’d won at a work raffle, and Billy cruelly recalls the awkwardness of the evening, calling Eleanor “mental” and describing how she stood motionless during the first band’s performance, clearly hadn’t enjoyed their music, and left before the other groups took the stage. The other coworkers sympathize with Billy, agreeing that Eleanor is very strange.
Eleanor’s daydreaming foreshadows the extent to which pursuing “the one” will consume Eleanor’s life. The reader now knows that the soul mate she alluded to in the previous chapter is just a man she saw performing in a band, which suggests that Eleanor has a rather deluded, obsessive perspective when it comes to romance—after all, this performer is seemingly a complete stranger. Meanwhile, Eleanor hears her coworkers make fun of her but doesn’t say anything, suggesting that she’s accepted their cruelty and even thinks that she deserves to be mocked and disrespected.
Themes
But Eleanor hadn’t disliked the band’s music—she’d simply been entranced by the local musician performing onstage, whom she believes she was destined to meet. Eleanor decides to invest in a personal computer so that she can use the internet to find out more about the musician.
Eleanor’s investment in the musician—to the point that’s she’s willing to spend a great deal of money on a computer—illustrates her decision to prioritize unattainable ideals over reality and self-awareness. She represses her real problems (loneliness, shame, depression, social isolation) and uses the fantasy project of pursuing the musician as a distraction.
Themes
Eleanor starts up her work computer, but it freezes when she enters her password, so she calls the new IT guy, Raymond Gibbons, to address the problem. Raymond’s voicemail message is snarky and clever, and Eleanor scoffs and leaves a clear, professional message in response to it. Eleanor decides to take an early lunch break while she waits for Raymond’s response.
The tonal discrepancy between Raymond’s informal voicemail and Eleanor’s formal, professional message reinforces Eleanor’s social alienation: she finds it hard to connect to most people because she can’t get on board with the language they use to communicate.
Themes
Eleanor often turns to nature and animals to provide insight into life. Thinking about how some animals shed their skin in an act of “rebirth,” Eleanor decides that must improve her outside appearance if she wants to musician to fall in love with her and heads to a beauty parlor to get a bikini wax. The therapist asks her which kind she’d like, but Eleanor doesn’t know the difference, so she ignorantly requests “the Hollywood.” The procedure of getting hot wax repeatedly poured and yanked from her skin is immensely painful, but Eleanor is used to separating herself from pain, imagining herself to be in a “little white room inside [her] head that smells comforting and is filled with happy music.”
Eleanor decides to undergo a series of outward self-improvements because she thinks that doing so will win over the musician and allow her to experience her own “rebirth.” It’s unclear at this point why, exactly, Eleanor feels the need to transform herself and her future by being reborn rather than just fixing her present life. However, Eleanor’s admission that she retreats to a “little white room inside her head” speaks to her tendency to repress and deny the existence of painful thoughts and memories, which perhaps suggests that she focuses on the future because her past is too traumatic.
Themes
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When the procedure is finished, Eleanor discovers that she is completely bare down there. The therapist assures her that this is what she asked for, and Eleanor leaves in a huff. Eleanor returns to the office to find that Raymond has yet to call back. Just as she is about to head to the IT department to find him, a laidback man with a belly, scruffy beard, and wearing sneakers, a T-shirt approaches her. He introduces himself as “Raymond, IT.” He tells her that her computer had a virus, but that he was able to fix it. Raymond tries to initiate small talk with Eleanor, but she responds with cold, awkward professionalism.
Eleanor sees the undesirable outcome of “the Hollywood” wax as the therapist’s error rather than the result of her own misunderstanding, which reflects her habit of projecting her thoughts, feelings, and insecurities onto others. Additionally, because Eleanor is unaccustomed to socialization, she doesn’t know how to respond to Raymond’s friendliness.
Themes
After work, Eleanor rushes to the mall to buy a laptop. She engages awkwardly with the sales representative, explaining that she’s never owned a computer before. Her language is stilted and strange, and she is impatient with the young sales rep. Eventually, she make a purchase and heads home.
Eleanor’s awkward interaction with the sales rep is another example of how her inadequate social skills make most social interactions unpleasant for her. Honeyman includes a lot of these awkward exchanges early in the novel to emphasize how unpracticed Eleanor is at interacting with others.
Themes
Friday is usually margherita pizza night, but since Eleanor’s normal routine has already been interrupted by buying the laptop, she decides to be spontaneous and order a delivery pizza instead. When the pizza arrives, Eleanor finds that it is tasteless and greasy. She undertips the delivery man, who responds with annoyance—or, to Eleanor’s mind, rudeness. Eleanor cheers herself up by daydreaming about pizzas the musician will cook for her once they are a couple.
Even though Eleanor’s experience buying the laptop is awkward and somewhat stressful, deviating from her rigid schedule in even this small way creates a domino effect: Eleanor’s first irregular action results in a second irregular action when she chooses to order a pizza instead of picking up a frozen one from the supermarket, as she usually does. This suggests that simply branching out and switching up her habits could have a radical impact on Eleanor’s life—if only she’s willing to step outside her comfort zone.
Themes
Eleanor didn’t have time to pick up wine or vodka because she had to wait for the pizza, but she remembers she has a backup bottle of brandy in the bathroom cabinet. She drinks the brandy, sets up her new laptop, and begins to investigate the musician online. She looks at his website and social media accounts, fawning over his good looks and internet presence. She passes out and wakes up at three a.m. to find the backs of her hands covered in his name written in black pen. Eleanor finishes the brandy and goes to bed.
The musician’s internet presence really only proves that he is good-looking—it doesn’t present any evidence that he is the ideal man Eleanor imagines him to be. Still, her desperate need to escape her current life blinds her to this reality. Eleanor idealizes the musician because she wants to believe he can be the answer to her problems.
Themes
