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 returns to the department store and buys black clothing for Sammy’s funeral, as well as a handbag and a wool coat. She defends these purchases because they are practical: she can wear them to the hypothetical events she will attend with the musician. Eleanor realizes how expensive it is to have a social life. Mummy had lived a lavish lifestyle, “but after…everything changed…” Eleanor had to learn to be frugal.
Eleanor daydreams about the musician because she wants to escape reality. Thinking about wearing her new black clothes on a date with the musician lets her avoid thinking about wearing the clothes to Sammy’s funeral. On another note, it’s unclear what “changed” in Mummy’s life to make her lifestyle no longer lavish—the fact that “everything changed” could refer to Eleanor’s traumatic incident, but it could also refer to Mummy giving birth to Eleanor. If “everything changed” refers to the latter, it might be the case that Mummy is so cruel to Eleanor because she is resentful of Eleanor for the impact that raising her had on Mummy’s social life.
Themes
Eleanor dresses for the funeral on Friday. She hasn’t worn tights or a dress in years, and between the new clothes, hair, and makeup, she feels like she’s “wearing someone else’s skin.” Raymond picks her up in a taxi and they depart for Sammy’s funeral in the suburbs.
By observing that she feels like she’s “wearing someone else’s skin,” Eleanor highlights the superficiality of her external self-improvements. Underneath the new hair and the new clothes, she’s still the same depressed Eleanor.
Themes
There are many attendants at Sammy’s funeral. It’s sunny outside, but the atmosphere is silent and serious. Eleanor and Raymond make their way across the grounds and enter the room where the funeral will be held. They sit down in a pew on the left side of the room. Sammy’s sons and some other men carry Sammy’s coffin down the aisle and place it on a platform with a roller belt. The pew is packed, so Eleanor and Raymond sit close to one another. Eleanor notes that Raymond smells particularly nice today—not like cigarettes—and she observes that even Raymond must know it would be tactless to smoke next to a crematorium.
The fact that Eleanor can’t even smell cigarette smoke on Raymond adds another measure of distance between Eleanor and her traumatic past, as she subconsciously associates anything smoke-related to the fire from her childhood.
Themes
Laura enters the room. She looks glamorous, as always. A minister follows Sammy’s family into the room, the keyboardist begins to play hymns, and everyone sings along. Eleanor finds the communal singing to be uninspired and lacking in quality, and she and Raymond sing loudly to make up for it. Eleanor is an atheist, so the hymns mean nothing to her, but she sings proudly in honor of Sammy. Eleanor and Raymond’s performance causes others to turn around, but Eleanor assumes this is out of approval of their “vocal tribute.” The minister gives a speech about Sammy’s life, and the coffin is carried out of the room. Everyone cries and sings a concluding hymn. The service concludes, and the minister invites the attendees to join Sammy’s family at the Hawthorn House Hotel for a reception.
People are probably turning around because Eleanor and Raymond are behaving inappropriately by singing so loudly, but Eleanor doesn’t realize this. Normally, Eleanor makes people uncomfortable on her own, but now she has a friend with whom she can act out—Eleanor doesn’t feel as socially alienated with Raymond by her side.
Themes
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Eleanor tells Raymond she doesn’t want to attend to the reception, but Raymond insists that they go: nobody wants to go to painful things like these, but it’s the right thing to do. The reception is walking distance from the crematorium. As Eleanor and Raymond make their way over, she thinks to herself that she’d rather be fed to animals than burned when she dies. She wonders if it’s possible to make such an arrangement.
Eleanor’s odd thought about animals signifies that she wants to detach herself from her current situation. She repeatedly evokes animal comparisons and imagery to separate herself from surrounding people or social customs.
Themes
At the reception, Eleanor tells Keith how sorry she is for his loss. Disappointed that she can’t find any refreshments, she heads to the powder room. On her way back, she spies Laura sitting on Raymond’s lap. Eleanor leaves them alone and reflects on grief, which she decides must be “the price we pay for love,” though she feels this is too great a cost. Hotel staff set up the buffet, but Eleanor decides she’s more in the mood for vodka, so she goes off in search of a bar.
Eleanor’s remark that grief is “the price we pay for love” once again highlights that she has firsthand experience with grief. Eleanor’s sudden craving for vodka shows that she doesn’t want to think about whatever unresolved feelings of grief are being resurfaced by Sammy’s funeral.
Themes
Eleanor finds a bar in a placed called the Hawthorn Lounge at the end of a long corridor. The lounge is empty. Eleanor orders a vodka and cola from the bartender. The bartender is watching a TV show that Eleanor has never seen before, and he invites her to stay and watch with him. Eleanor continues to drink to dull the pain of Sammy’s death. The bartender begs Eleanor to stay and tries to proposition her for sex.
Being around death and grieving people is difficult for Eleanor. On a subconscious level, she might fear that in letting herself feel grief for Sammy, she runs the risk of remembering more of her traumatic past. As a result, she numbs herself with alcohol to prevent these painful memories from resurfacing.
Themes
Suddenly, Eleanor feels a hand on her shoulder and sees Raymond behind her. Raymond glares at the bartender and drags Eleanor out of the Hawthorne Lounge and into the corridor. He leaves for a moment and comes back with a plate of pastries, which he urges Eleanor to eat. Eleanor scarfs down the pastries and falls asleep as mourners walk up and down the corridor. Raymond wakes her at 4:30 p.m. and takes her back to his place. Eleanor feels much better after some food and a nap, and they drink wine together. Raymond talks about the funeral and recalls grieving for his dad years ago.
Eleanor lets Raymond help her instead of trying to deal with her grief and drunkenness alone. She’s more willing to be vulnerable and outwardly not “fine” than she was before, though there are still many parts of herself that she continues to hide from Raymond. For example, Eleanor’s repression prevents her from sharing her own experiences of grief with Raymond, even after Raymond opens up to her about his father.
Themes
Eleanor and Raymond watch a movie to distract themselves from their grief. Raymond continues to drink wine, becoming noticeably drunk. Uninhibited, he asks Elanor what happened to her face. Eleanor realizes that she wants to talk about her scar with someone and tells Raymond that she was injured in a house fire that was set deliberately, though she doesn’t specify by whom. After the fire, she lived in foster homes until she got her own flat when she started college. Eleanor’s story makes Raymond immensely sad, prompting Eleanor to downplay her life’s hardships.
Raymond continues to drink because feeling grief uninhibited and with undivided attention is uncomfortable and painful for him. Meanwhile, Eleanor finally explicitly states that she got her scars in a house fire. Given how rigorously Eleanor has avoided addressing this painful memory, it speaks to the intimacy of her friendship that Raymond that he is the first person she opens up to about this critical detail of her past. However, Eleanor’s downplaying of her problems shows that she still wants to deny the severity of her past traumas. The fact that the fire was set intentionally adds a critical layer of intrigue to the plot, and it also clarifies some earlier details about police and social workers being involved in Eleanor’s case. The criminal aspect of the fire also opens up the possibility that Mummy was involved in some way—Eleanor has insinuated that Mummy is in prison or institutionalized, so one might theorize that it was Mummy who started the fire.
Themes
Raymond asks Eleanor what happened to her mom, but she tells him she doesn’t want to talk about it. He’s fine with this and assures Eleanor that they’re friends now. Eleanor is elated to have her “first pal.” As a child, she hadn’t been able to make any new friends since the fire. In college, she immersed herself in classics studies or was otherwise occupied with Declan, and she began working for Bob immediately after graduating.
Having Raymond as a “pal” is an important step for Eleanor in moving forward from her past and reintegrating herself into the world. Eleanor’s sustained refusal to talk about Mummy makes it seem increasingly likely that Mummy was involved in the fire—and perhaps even the person who intentionally started it.
Themes
Eleanor questions Raymond’s motivations for being her friend and wonders whether it’s only because he’s just as lonely as she is or because he feels sorry for her. She allows herself to entertain the notion that he wants to be her friend because he likes her. Raymond has since drifted off, and Eleanor realizes it’s almost nine p.m. She wakes Raymond, asks him to call her a cab, and leaves for home, telling him she’ll see him on Monday.
Eleanor’s doubts about what motivates Raymond to be friends with her seem to be the effect of Mummy’s unceasing cruelty: Eleanor thinks that she’s unworthy of friends because Mummy has convinced her that she is unlovable and defective.
Themes
